Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1913-03-13
Want Minimum Wage For
Women Clerks In Wheeling

After one year and a half of strug-
gle for the right to organize and main
tain an organization Of the craft, the
Retail Clerks of Wheeling have sue
ceeded in the establishment of an or
ganization and are now branching out
on the work which it was hoped would
have been accomplished long ere this.
At the last regular meeting of the To-
cal a. committee was appointed to draft
an agreement, and this committee has
completed its work and have one OF
the best and most progressive agree
ments in the country prepared to pres
ent to the local for adoption. This
agreement will be presented to the
Ohio Valley Trades and Labor Assem-
bly, at the next meeting of that body.
The most interesting feature of the
new agreement will be the minimum
wage scale for lady salespeople. The
agreement will be SO constructed that
it will apply to every retail store in
the city and no merchant can Justly
refuse to sign the agreement. Failure
on the part of any merchant to sign
could only be based upon his refusal
, to pay thes Gale of wages. which is
based upon a sliding basis. The pres
ent agitation over the entire country
for minimum wage for women Work
ers is being taken up by the clerks,
and an investigation of wages paid
lady salespeople in this city would
bring some startling information. The
minimum wage for salesgirls in
Wheeling today is So per week, at
least possibly less. The governor Of
West Virginia as we'll as the chief
executives of many other states has
declared for a minimum wage for Wo-
men workers and should opposition be
met by the clerks in this city it is the
hope of the organization to secure. the
cooperation of the great labor move
ment in the work to the extent that
either the state or the city be forced
to make an investigation into the con-
ditions and wages paid in Wheeling.
The Locke Fight.
After week of careful observation
of the fight now being waged against
the Locke Shoe stores, the organizer
of the Retail Clerks makes the state
ment that organized labor has been
successful in this fight.
Ask Unions to Help.
The clerks are confident that the
firms business has been reduced to
such an extent that there will be
no profit, in fact that expenses are not
being made and that the trade union
lists of this locality are with the clerks.
No store will lbe left unturned, how.
ever, to reach every citizen, and a
more active campaign will be taken
up at once. An appeal is being pre-
pared which will be sent to every Ia
Dor organization in the Ohio Valley,
which will not only request moral sup
port but financial support as WELL and
the clerks hope to spend several hun
dred dollars in this fight, realizing
that it is not only fight against the
Locke Shoe company but a fight
against combination of merchants
whose only hope is to defeat the clerks
that living wage could not be Sc
cured for the muchly underpaid sales
girls. Just why girl should be ask
ed to work six days in a retail store
and at the end of those six days of
t constant strain be handed half or
feven less than half what it costs her
to live upon, cannot Hbe explained sat
isfactorily to the great labor move
ment. Just why merchant should
expect salesgirl to work and be con.
tented to continue for half living
wage just because she happens to live
at home must either be satisfactorily
explained, which even the merchants
of Chicago have failed to do before
the Senate committee now Investigate
| ing the conditions and wages being
paid salesgirls. ~
Bad as Chicago.
The conditions Of salesgirls as far
as wages go are just as bad in Wheel
ing as they are in Chicago, or any
other city. Organized efforts are nee
essary to overcome these conditions.
The labor omveemnt realizes this and
is now involved in a fight against the
greedy employers in the mercantile
business to eliminate the deplorable
wages paid in cur city. The Locke
Shoe company is still unfair to or
ganized labor, remember, when pur-
chasing your shoes.