The National tribune., 1909-09-09
THE STRIKE AT McKEE,s ROCKS.

tial study was made of the greet strike
at MeIHee's Rocks. Pa, by Allan D. AL
bert. Jr., and published in the Wash
ington Times. 1t gives facts which are
very welcome information at this time,
when labor troubles are so much to the
front. We get deeper glance into the
workings of great business corporations
and the reasons their employees have for
dissatisfaction. According to Mr.. AL
| bert, the Pressed Steel Car Company Is
monopoly created in 1900 by the unit
States and Canada. which concentrated
the work in village and works that
the company built at McKees Rocks, a
few miles from Pittsburg, in Pennsyl-
vania. The business of the company
suffered from the financial depression,
and many of the old employees left for
other places and vocations. Jan. l the
works were again set to running at full
speed, and q great additional force Civ
en- employment. These were mostly
Siavs from Russia, Bulgaria, Poland.
Bohemia and Hungary. Among them
were a number Of Russian Jews and
Italians.
The company adopted new form of
organization for the workingmen, divid-
ing them into groups and paying the
groups according to the work per-
formed. This was supposed to be divid-
ed up among the members of the group
according TO their varying skill, with
the riveters getting pay at the rate of
22 cents an hour and the helpers and
heaters getting 16 and II cents an hour
The groups were under foremen who
drove them hard. and they were made
to pay for all the tools lost and work
damaged or improperly done and other
losses. This system was not so bad i'm
itself. but it was badly administered
The workmen found themselves getting
less money than formerly, and frequent
ly very much less. They began an ac-
tive inquiry into why this was so, and
among other things they found that
they were suffering from maiadminis-
tratlon of the system. In one day after
the walk-out 4S2 claims were presented
to the company for failure to receive
what was due the workingmen. and
upon exanination $50 of these were
found to be just. One-half of them
were due to credits not turned in by the
foremen and the other half to errors in
bookkeeping, etc. The workmen also
complained that they were too much at
the mercy of the foremen. to whom
they had to pay bribes to get and keep
their jobs. The ignorant foreigners
were subject to these foremen in a de-
gree not possible with Americans The
next complaint was as to the houses
For the accommodation of their force
the company had built 121 double
houses, all of good construction. with
running water at each back door. with
the streets we'll drained and some at
tention paid to making them pleasant
TO the eye. These houses cost $3.50
each, OF S625 a dwelling. At 10 per
cent a year these ought to rent for
about s5.2S month, but the company
charges $12 a month, or s144 year
When tie employees wilT not work they
are turned out of the houses and their
rent is taken from their pay envelopes.
In addition to the stories of the graft
by the foremen are stories of how the
village authorities, who are presumed
to be under the control Of-the company.
mulct the workmen under various pre-
texts, exacting fees of from $5 to SIG
for getting married, for keeping board
ers and for almost anything that the
want to do outside of mere
living. 1t is said that the village police
arrest men on flimsy pretexts. and the
village Justices fine them without refer
ence to whether they have been guilty
or not Before the adoption of the
present pooling system men sometimes
made as high as sS day, but this has
been cut to 81 and frequently TO less
than 81. Fast workmen We're employed
to set the pace. and the others must
the men in the pool must repair it or
lose wages all the time the work waits.
The next complaint is that the COM
pany charges s9.10 a year for $500 of
insurance against accidents, sickness
and death. where such insurance should
not cost but a fraction of that sum.
The strike began last July with 800
men walking out, who were followed
the next day by the remainder of the
5000. The company brought in force
of strike breakers, and in the collisions
with these and with the extra force of
guards there have been so far eight
lives lost. Three of these were the
strikers. The company has 936 work
men and strike breakers employed, who
are costing them $1,000 day for SER
vice that it could buy in time of peace
for S1,7S2. 1t is paying $1,000 a day to
feed this 936. 1t is also losing heavily
on the work that it cannot deliver, and
the contracts 1t cannot secure, and it
has settled down into a question of en-
durance between the strikers and the
The strikers have spent their
$4,000 of relief fund, but they hope for
contributions from the people of Pitts
burg and McKee's Rocks. who are deep
ly interested in the matter. and side |
with them against the company. The |
demands of the strikers seem reason |
able. and they are for courts of justice, |
honest officers of the law, freedom from |
grating and blackmailing in the works !
and outside.
NEW YORK VETERAN AID LAW.