The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1913-05-30
Toll LIKE SLAVES
Hard Lot of Standard Oil Work
erS In New York.
LAW VIOLATIONS ALLEGED.

Fremen and Still Tenders Compelled
to Labor Seven Days a Week and
For Twenty four Hours at a Stretch
Every Two Weeks.
Men are worked in the vicinity Of
New York seven days each week and
twenty-four hours at a stretch every
two weeks without time off even for
meals, says the New York Tribune.
They have done this through the win
ter at stills out in the open, although
there is a state law which requires
such stills to be inclosed in buildings
An average wage Of S15 week has
been paid, and the average working
day has been twelve hours.
These disclosures We're made in an
investigation of the labor conditions of
1000 stationary fremen and stillmen
employed in the Standard Oil com
pany's plants near New York city made
by representatives of the Internation-
al Brotherhood of Stationary Firemen
and the American Federation of La
Dor. The reports Of the investigators
were presented to the National Civic
federation and viii form a vital part
OF a plea for relief to be made to the
New York state factory investigating
commission
The majority Of the men whose con
dition is the most deplorable are fire
men and still tenders. -Four investiga-
tors detailed by Timothy Healy, inter-
national president of the Stationary
Firemen. and two by Hugh Frayne
general organizer of the American
Federation Of Labor. conducted the in
quiry.
The reports of these men show that
nearly 1000 firemen and stillmen en-
ployed by the company work near
New York city They are IN two
shifts, a day shift and night shift.
The day Shift begins work at Z o'clock
I'm the morning and works ten hours
or until o'clock in the afternoon.
There Is no time allowed off for meals
or rest The night shift comes on at
O'clock IN the afternoon and works
fourteen hours or until o'clock the
next morning.
This continues for seven days each
week Once week, usually on Sun.
day, the day shift takes the place OF
the night shift for the coming week
When this change Is made the mer
work without rest for twenty-fouI
hours. TIE day shift begins at Z
O'Clock IN the morning, as usual Il
completes ifs day work Mt O'Clock
that afternoon but instead of being
relieved 1t continues on duty until
o'clock the ncAt morning. From Z un
I'll o'clock in the afternoon it is idle
At 5 O'Clock the men begin their work
as the night shift, and after their ten
hours off they work for fourteen hours.
That is a total Of thirty-eight hours OF
work out Of forty-eight hours.
For this he majority of the men are
paid SIS week Some make $3.50
and a few-eXperienced stllmen-ea
$24 The work is the hardest kind OF
manual labor, consisting OF firing boil
| ers, hauling fires, wheeling out ashes
and stripping stills. These stills in
several instances are in the open air
where the men do their work in win
ter in the snow and cold and in the
summer under the blazing sun. A large
| percentage OF the men are Poles and
other foreigners and support large fam
flies
THE awful condition Of the men
! can't be exaggerated" Mr.. Healy de
clared to a representative of the Trib,
une. THE men are worked like dogs
and in some cases treated still more
like dogs by their superintendents.
Il have seen them come off their
twenty-four hour shifts so dead tired
that they drop down on the grass If ii
is summer and lay there asleep for ten
hours until they have to go to work
again for another fourteen hours. And
when they eat during their working
. hours they nave to do it by snatching
bite between shovels of coal.
'As for some of the treatment given
them by their bosses, my men have re-
ported to me cases where the men
were treated like dogs. In one case a
few of them working at a still in the
open air put up a rough shed to cover
it in place of the building required by
the state, bat the foreman called for
| an ak and chopped 1t down. That Is
brutality of the worst sort.
Another complaint made has to do
with time of. Most Of the men, prob
ably from rs to so per cent, are Catho-
lies. We had reported to us cases
where men asked their foremen for oc-
casional time to attend mass Sunday
means work like any other day for
them, so they have to ask to get off
The answer was that they were there
10 work, not to go to church"