The daily worker., 1925-09-26


they stay up all night and watch. to
keep Sigman from capturing them
by force, as they have captured Locals
and 8. A crowded street-policeman
looking for trouble--a policeman with
nothing to do. Enthusiasm-su
ed excitement everywhere.
Inside, more crowds enthus-
iasfn
A girl is talking. Let her tell her
story in her own words:
TIN 1910 we used to have the sweat
L shop system At that time people
used to sleep in shops and work long
hours and terrible conditions-worked
twelve or fourteen hours day, and
even have their dinner at the machine
while they worked. Since this was
the case sanitary conditions were also
terrible-no time even to sweep. We
were there all week including Satur-
day and Sunday.
fIn 1909 the waist makers, Local 25,
called out general strike and that
strike lasted quite few weeks. Peo-
pie went thru a great deal of suffer
ing; there was really no union when
the strike was called-just handful
of people, not organized So the strike
kept on long time and was lost. But
this was an inspiration to organize,
because the girls put up such good
fight and were treated so rough that
even the society ladies were inter
ested.
"A FTER that the cloak makers
"A union struck in 1910 and made a
success. The union put out the de-
mands for shorter hours and more
pay. But then the boss would take a
few workers and make one head over
them, so that one man had six or
eight people under him. He would get
all the wages from the. boss and pay
to the workers, and he would try
to get a certain amount and get fifty
or sixty dollars a week while others
= Hpula get very little. SO the boss
had q number of workers who were
Interested to Keep things going that
way. The union fought against that
this must be stopped and they
won.
"In 1913 the waist makers had a
strike which again improved condi-
tions of the industry, but one trouble
right along was that the Jewish and
Americans would not join together
We were foreigners, so to speak. There
was only five per cent American ele-
ment who always said; Why go in?
Why have a union? We can straight
en- out with the boss ourselves But
/ thought we should get American
girls to approach the boss-I have a
foreign accent-too difficult. We had
one American girl who would go and
try to talk, but if they refused to talk
she was insulted and went home. Our
girls didn't feel that way We know
the boss won't talk because he don't
understand.
TN 1916 they got out protocol-an
ssn4 greement that impartial people
bnshould- decide. BY that time there
were already differences of opinion in
the union. 1t really started when we
began to differ on the methods. Some
of us thought the officials were fax
ing; they called what they said was
a regular strike, but some were sent
back to work while others were still
striking. There were no Let's and
Rights then-youngsters they called
us, instead of Lefts.
''In the 1919 strike already we fear
ed it might be fake again, and prob
ably it would have been but the en-
ployers tried to give the union beat
ing They made an agreement for a
few hours. less, few dollars more.
but they began TO send work out to
small shops in secret. We would go
and sit at the machine, but would
not make the waists. The only thing
we could do was to make a stoppage
to refuse to work at all
But the 1919 agreement made it a