United labor bulletin., 1911-03-02

only three weeks rush work. whereas an
other establishment reported a busy sea-
son which lasted 81 weeks. The prevail
ing period was about Is weeks. In the
establishment which bad a busy season
of 81 weeks, the week consisted of one
9-hour day. three 13lk-hour days. and two
1O-hour days. making a total of 691a
hours worked during the week. There
was nc Sunday work IN the industry, but
reference to the individual tabulation of
the hours of labor OF SIS women from
whom reports were secured shows that
2S0, or nearly per cent. worked g.
day week of over 50 hours; and as all
the firms ran less than a full day on Sat
urday. therefore. nearly 80 per cent. of
the women worked an average of more
than 10 hours a day for . days a week.
The five elevated railway companies
of Chicago employ 2S4 women as regular
ticket agents and. in addition, have
within call 100 other women who are
classed as extras" and whose duty it is
to relieve the regular agents whenever
desired The hours Of labor for ticket
agents who are regularly employed num-
ber u each day of the days in the
week. and no allowance is made for va
cation period. There is no lunch hour.
each girl. if she wishes luncheon. being
required either to bring 1t or to send for
it and to eat it at her station as oppor-
tunity occurs. Notwithstanding the long
hours. these positions are eagerly sought
after. because of the Independent nature
of the work and because the daily rate
of pay-ranging from s1.70 on one road
to 81 on the others--is somewhat higher
than that paid women in other work of
the same character.
Usually the work In a steam laundry
is not seasonal. but rush" period may
be suddenly caused at any time by the
receipt of large orders from various
sources. and such periods are quite fire.
ouent in establishments as large as those
which were investigated. In their effort
to defeat the 10-hour bill the laundry
men. through their chief spokesmen. de-
clared that about 50 per cent of the
laundries worked more or less in excess
of 10 hours a day, at least once a week.
throughout a period frsnging up to 20
weeks or the % laundries investigated
in sGhieaee.-s~ a Aasy season which
lasted from to % weeks. though in 3 Of
the laundries the weeks were not consec-
utive Three of the establishments did
not have a busy season. Only about II
rer cent of the 119 laundry women who
made individual reports worked longer
than so hours a week, but il should be
horne in mind that the working hours OF
these women deDend upon the nature OF
the occuuation which Is attended with the
hours OF labor for some of the women
during a part OF the week were 12lS a
dav II should be remembered also that
many of the laundry women stand while
at work and that the work is done usu
ally in rooms with a high temperature:
consequently these women lose much OF
their vitality long before the DAYS work
is done Machine ironing is probably
the occupation which is attended with the
greatest strain. because the action of the
machine is regulated by foot. lever
The managers of some of the laundries
investigated endesvor to relieve the
strain by having improvised platforms
for the girls to stand upon. so that in
using the foot lever the girls step dowr
instead of up.
In the clothing Industry only Is estab
lishments were included in this investi
sation. because the bureau o, labor has
lust made a report on mems ready-madt
clothing in (which the large establish
ments in Chicago engaged in the manu-