New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-10-27
Strike Breakers at Essex
Rubber Plant Make Hit
with Managers.
CARRY DINNER PALS;
GO HOME IN AUTOS
Work Eight Hours a Day and
Don't Keep Eyes on Clock,
FOremen Assert.
IA, telegram n The Tribune ]

Trenton. y. j.. Oct. 26. The wives OF
the owners. officials and Office force OF
the Essex Rubber Company are fight
ing the forced closing of the plant and
the cancellation OF orders for thou
sands Of dollars worth of rubber heels
and soles for all sections OF the coun-
try.
All the women who are active in so
cial circles here are at work AZ benches
In the cutting room Of the big plant in
an effort TO save their husbands from
possible financial ruin as the result OF
what they believe is the unfair action
Of the girl trimmers who walked out
yesterday.
The men assert that there are about
$50 on strike, but the firm denies this.
and saws that the Few places made
vacant have been filled.
The plant went ahead with lttlo
trouble until yesterday when the girls
walked out. They had no grievances
against the firm, but struck IN sym
pathy with the men.
The company is said 70 turn out
more rubber heels and soles than any
firm in the country. As these pieces
or rubber leave the machines the edge:
are ragged and have to be trimmed
with shears. This is the work the
girls do.
II seemed as though the action of the
girls would compel the plant 20 close
until the wife of one Of the owners an
nounced that she and her friends would
20 into the shop and do the work OF the
striking girls.
The women were organized by Mrs.
Clifford Oakley, wife Of the president
Of the company, and Mrs. Walter r.
Sanders, wife % the advertising man
ager The hrst 70 take their places In
Sanders, Mrs. Richard Rogers, Mrs.
Frank +. Hartman. Mrs. Henry Bruner,
Mrs. Lawrence Oakley, Mrs. John
Rogers. Mrs. David Medkiff, Mrs. Ray
mond II. Phillips and Mrs. J. Vincent
Hall. About twenty were at work to-
day.
The women volunteers take the posi-
ton that it is their duty to stand by
their husbands even though they we're
not granted the vote at last Tuesdays
election. They also want to disprove
the assertion made by the girl strikers
that the plant IS not a proper place for
girls to work.
President Oakley said tonight that
the recruits were far more efficient
than the girl workers and they did not
have their eyes on the clock all the
time. lie said the= could do more and
better work. and that they were pre-
pared to stick just as long az the strike
lasted.
The conditions under which the So
ciery women are working are abso-
lutely identical with those under which
the girls worked. They are putting in
the full eight hours day, and, like
the girls, bring their MONDAY lunch.
No freedom Ia granted by the shop
foreman than the striking girls were
allowed, and Mr.. Oakley says that Will.
only q days experience the volunteers
have shown a remarkable aptness for
the work. They take the job seriously,
and the affairs of society have no place
In the confines Of the shop.
The lunch which the women bring
may be a little more elaborate, and
there is one more detail in which the
women differ from the girls-they all
go TO and from work in automobiles.