The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-04-16
Why Union Is a Necessity For Telephone Operatives
 By Teresa NJ. suliv
By Miss Teresa NJ. Sullivan

know telephone rules from begin ming to end and though it may look to an outsider like a distinct case of breaking the rules on the part of these girls. anyone understanding the situation would admit it is an out rage.
 I could take each of these eases separately and explain them so clearly to anyone that without knowing anything about the Tele- phone system. they would say the girls had been treated unfairly, so positive is the proof of discrimina ton.
 We have been organised seven years in Boston and though we have fifty-two exchanges to care for ! have never known of an official of the company who was opposed to the union because 1t meant poor service; we take pride in our rating and feel that we rank first in being the hap piest crowd of operators in the country, we have an adjustment board to care for us in time of trouble, and we are so absolutely sure of 8 fair deal from the company that it is pleasure to work seven or eight hours each day.
 Almost the only time we get into difficulty with the company is when we want an increase in wages. A girl in a union exchange three weeks knows tie wage scale from mini mum to maximum; here a girl never knows whether or not a raise is conl~ ing to her; they tell me they ask for a raise and a~e told It will be look ed up and they are not given the courtesy of a report, neve- mind raise in pay.
 Union supervisors are trained to realize that four hours day over time is injurious to any girls health, and here it is a case Of work all the overtime they want; and it has gone so far that girls even ask to work in order to earn more money.
 Union exchanges demand that when promotions are due they must be given to the oldest operator with ability and if a girl has not got the desired ability she is told why she did not get the promotion and urged to work for the next one, here it is a case of promote whoever the com pany wants and the result Is discon- tent.
 The girls in this state are going to get a, two weeks vacation with pay this year for the first time, all the other New England states have been getting 1t for at least seven years.
 We are all allowed two fifteen minute relief periods and we always get them in 8 union exchange, here in Bridge port the toll line operators did not get a relief for days and weeks during the dreadful heat of last summer.
 The wages paid all over the coun-
 
 rendered and the sooner the girls or ganize the less talk we will hear of a strike. It will not be necessary to strika in order to secure satisfactory wage scales when all are organized.
 l organized Hartford in January. At that time the company question ed the girls for hours at a time and tried very hard to discredit me. In March they dismissed three officers of the union, but the girls were so well trained that I saved Hartford from 8 strike or walkout.
 Bridgeport was scarcely organized when the officers were dismissed so that I could not save the situation for the girls who walked out as it came too soon to have them trained in union methods.
 The telephone company has delfb- erately brought the situation on They have done everything possible to influence the girls to keep away from the union and their ungentIe- manly plan of having me followed has simply turned the girls in my favor, and only my honest reluctance to have two cities out on strike in this state has kept me talking pa tience to the girls.
 In my conference with Mir Moore, the division superintendent of traffic he said he had the interest of all the girls at heart and yet everytine I told him anything about the excit- ing conditions he said, That is your story"
 If he had their interest at heart he would know beyond question of doubt that I was either telling truth or untruth.
 Another point I wish to bring out it is an accepted fact by telephone officials that the average length of service for an operator is four years so why should they care if girls who have given ten or twelve years of their life to the company suddenly become unnerved or join a union and get discharged?
 It means cheaper help will take their places. A girl getting from $16 to $20 9, week will be replaced by a girl getting $9 week, and then the public will wonder why the ser vice is poor.
 When I go into q strange place to organize I do not know whom to .ap- proach, you have so many girls wearing hair ribbons coming out of your exchanges.
 We are starting labor colleges to educate the labor leaders. Why not 1 educate the capitalists? We are in- terested in seeing the country free from Bolshevisn2. Let us work along constructive. not destructive lines and give the people interested in the labor movement a helping hand ! When they organize . good union i aon't try to make it d bad union. Knock 1t after you know it, if you i can, but never fool yourself into l thinking that organization is not go- ! ing to be universal. It is. So why i not make the union something the | country can be proud of. 1 When we threaten to strike some l thoughtless people will say, They l may as we'll come out for all the ser 1 vice we get" If they remembered, 1 or cared to know, the discipline we work under, they would realize that