The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-05-27
GARMENT \ WORKERS
MAKE.Gl||lI|E| [ i I|E||F|::|GAl1 ID
Sixty Thousand New York Work.
ingmen and Women Strike for !
Better Conditions. =: !
PREFERENTIAL UNION
SHOP FORCES ISSUE
Struggle Said to Be Most Momen-
tous in Labor. Movement ii
of Today.

NEW 1Ofth, May Z1.-SlXty thou. 1
sand union workers in the garment
trades Of New York City are maxim ngt
one of the gamest fights to protect
and raise the standard of living
among American Wage-earners,f that
has ever taken place in this country. j
Perhaps before this is read that:
struggle for the decent rights of
Wage-earners will have spread to
other cities, notably to Cleveland,
Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston.
and will have involved near to one
half million workers and their fami-
lies. 49,.
The manufacturers in the cloak
and skirt division of New York City's
garment trades have declared a re-
1entless war against all the workers
whose united action has sought to
lift the garment -making industries
out OF the degradation and misery: of
sweat shop conditions. :
Three seasons Of abnormally large
profits have embo1dened the Manu-s
facturers' Association in: the skirt and
cloak trades to strike at the heart of
the unions Of their workers. They are
doing openly now what they have
done under cover, but with growingl
purpose, ever since the peace proto-
col was established in 1910. .:
The workers in the garment trades
have made every sacrifice to do away
with the sweat shop abomination.
After long and bitter struggle and
privation they forced the acceptance
of the Peace Protocol-"an expert
ment in industrial self control" as it
has been called.
But that Peace Protocol provided
for decent working hours, sanitary
and safe shops, and preferential rec
ognition of the unions. So the Manu-
facturers' Association started in to-
knock it out. Here is the way the 4
employers worked it.
They cut down the force Of work.,
ers III regular or ':i inside 81 us:
which were under the control 81:
the ,Agreement-ands set up a lot OF
so-called Independent Shops" which
were in reality sweat shops. Some OF,
the Independent shops are really ain
dependent" and "on the level,'' and
that makes the imposture alf the
more shameful.
When the Protocol was adopted
there were between LOO and 1900
shops in the cloak and skirt division
or the ladies garment workers trade.
But now there are 1890 Of these
shops, the great increase being Of
shops where the workers have been
exploited under the most terrible
conditions. Also, shops that used to
employ 500 to 600 workers each now
employ only from 20 to Is each, all
though the shops do three times the
former business. The answer is that
the workers have been turned out OF
the factories where tho conditions
must be fairly good and the work !
has been esept out to = contractors
and ''sub-eontEaetors'. to drive the
workers in a. real slavery.
The inside. shops with a, few
workers will be- "show places" along
Fifth avenue. They are kept up at
considerable expense as a sham to
make the public; and their customers
believe that everything is lovely now
in the garment trades. But the vast
bulk of the work is done for the same
manufacturers who own the ':ahow !
places" in the. sweat shops hidden
away in back-street lofts and tene-
ments. ]
The skirt and cloak manufacturers,
of New York City also threatened to
send their work to the shops Of other
Continued IN Pero