Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-02-03
Cut Wages Of +
Girl Shippers

Two hundred and fifty girl en-
ployes of the Pollack stogfe manu-
featuring firm are locked out by the
management, and as a result 523i
stogie makers and rs 'laborers are
out. of work, a total of 500 persons
unemployed in Wheeling.
The cause of it is an attempt on
the part of the new management of
the old established firm to inaugu-i
rate a. reduction in wages for the
girls, employed as shippers. The
management has refused to considers
the girls counter proposition, and
has locked them out, shutting down
the Red Letter and Water street
plants and throwing the entire force
out of employment.
The trouble began Thursday, jan
uary 20, when the management mott /
fed the girls that, beginning on. the !
following day. they would be re- j
quired to deliver their stripped to-
bacco in pads" weighing exactly
four pounds each. The girls are paid y
by the pound, and their average earn
ings are about Sc weekly, and they
have not been required to have their
pads of any exact weight, being
paid by the bulk. The new rule
would thus have caused them to losG
considerable time in having every
pad" exactly the same, compelling
them to leave their seats many times
a day, and so they Immediately took
the matter up in their union, being
organized as a Protectorate Local of
the National Stogie Makers Leagues
The meeting was held on Friday, and
as result they offered to work I'M
der the new weighing rule if their
compensation was increased one-half
cent. per pound. This the manage
ment refused and the girls then re-
duced the request to one-Quarter of a
cent per pound increase. AS the new
rule would reduce their wages about
Is cents per week, the quarter-cent
would only pay them for the time lost
under the new rule. Even this small
concession the management refused
to grant, standing firmly for a re-
duetion in the already pitifully small
wages received by the girls. The
management made no further effort
In the matter, permitting the girls to
work the balance of last week under
the old arrangement, and furnished
no new stock, so that on Friday,
when the last of the stock was
worked up( all work ceased. The
stogie makers, with no tobacco
stripped f1r them, had to cease work.
and so The big plants became idle.
with no notice of shutdown given to-
the employees.
Anticipated.
The trouble had not been unantici-
lpated. When the plants resumed
work on January II, after the holt
\ day shut down. the weighing of the
Estogie makers stock was begun
which was new departure, and
known as the "Pittsburg system
Repeated efforts on the part of the
men to learn the cause of the new
style, or to learn what was expected
of them, were unaVailing.
Girls Solidly Arrayed.
Never in any Labor trouble in this
vicinity were the employees more SOL
idly arrayed than the girls in this
matter. Locked out so unceremon-
| iously, and, as they firmly believe, un-
justly, they are as one, and the meet
ings of the local have been practically
unanimous in attendance and COM
pletely unanimous in action. They
have been assisted in their delibera-
tions by Harry CorcOran and Charles
Higgins acting as an advisory COM
Emittee from Garfield local No, /, and
have manifested an intelligence and
progressivencss that has startled
these .old-timers in the labor move
ment.
Garfield Local Sustains.
The action of the girls in resisting
the Proposed cut in wages has been
sustained by Garfield local. Wednes-
day night,\in the biggest meeting the
| local everl had-so big that the
Trades Assemly's regular quarters
proved too small and the meetin was
adjourned to the Turner hall-the
local unanimously endorsed the
stand taken by the pretectorate local.
This attitude is also that of the ma
Etional officers of the Stogie Makers
} League.
Neither Side Talks.
Nothing officially could be cleaned
Efrom either the union or the Pollack
management, but The Majority has
secured the facts as above given.
Many stogie makers profess to see in
the forcing of the l'Pittsburg system
so uncharacteristic of the Pollack
plant during the life of it's founder,
7 Augustus Pollock, ''penhy-wise and
pound foolish plan that cannot but
be damaging to Wheeling's prestige
as the home of good stogies.
Have you subscribed? Give your
name to your secretary OF come to
fha office