The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-06-27
SERVANT GIRLS UNION
At H0LY0KE, MASS

Following the natural drift and ten
denotes of the hour, the servant girls
Of Holyoke, Mass, have formed la
Dor union under the protecting arm
of the American Federation Of Labor
The charter name of this newest or
ganiza ton is the Household Employees:
Union, and the objects in view are
higher pay and shorter hours.
In many respects the unionizing of
the servant girls is quite unique and
tics demand all the privileges Of the
other union members and, in fact, get
more than organization men have ever
asked for.
The first meeting of the household
domestics of Holyoke was held last
Thursday, when officers were elected
and the formal application made to the
American Federation of Labor for a
charter. Representatives from New
Haven, Conn.,, were present, and have
since formed union on the same line
in their city.
The news Of the organization Of the
households of the fashionable women of
seems to be a disposition to resist the
demands Of the girls. When the dornes-
tics are sufficiently organized to put in
force their demands copy Of the
schedule of wages and hours (printed
elsewhere on this page) will be posted
IN every Kitchen The mistress of the
house u n be ia formed that the house.
hold must be run on union lines iii ac-
~~l~ ~ t~l
stairs. If objection is made to the
rules of the union the domestics will
then go outonstrike.
If non-union cooks, second girls or
| nurse girls are brought infrom other
cities, a boycott by grocers', butchers
| put in operation. The clerks in the
stores are united under the name of
the Retail Clerks Protective union,
the men who work on the lawns and
gardens are members Of the Protect
i've Laborers' union, the butcher boys
and grocery boys and bakery boys
and the wagon drivers are unionized,
and so are the drivers Of the milk
wagons. Next month the ice-Wagon
drivers will be formed into union.
| GrOcerymen or merchants who at
tempt to sell and deliver goods to a
household where the union servants
are on strike will find themselves in
trouble, for their clerks, boys and wa
| gon drivers will be expected to go on
strike. While it is not supposed that
the servant girls standing by them
selves could enforce their demands, 1t
is believed that the allied unions by
sympathetic action can force the new
union scale of the household workers
into most of the families who employ
more than one servant.
aroused by this new move of the domes-
tics: especially on account Of the
hours and the demands for overtime.
The wives Of many leading citizens
| are contemplating a Mistress IN
ion'' to stand by each other and resist
! the new movement and to hereafter
charge UP to servants all broken dish
es, wasted coal, gas. vegetables, OF
groceries, and delicate clothes whish
! are rusted, burned, torn or injured by
| the washing or ironing.
Holyoke is probably the most thor
oughly "unionized city in the whole
country. With population of A.
membership of $4,000.
! So if a mistress discharges a union
| girl she is likely to be in bad fix.
Following is the card which is to
be posted in every kitchen where a
union girl is at work:
WAGES AND HOURS SCHEDULE
OF THE HOUSEHOLD EN-
PLOYES' UNION.
Sixty hours shall constitute a