The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-07-23
TOUTED O-HOUR
SHIFT OF OIL
TRUST IS HOAX
Wages Cut, Most Men
on IL Hour Trick
Rv ARr sHIELps.


NEW YORK, July 2t-FP)-|
Thouoh the Standard oil Co. Of New
Jersey is being advertised as the
latest patron OF the 9-hour day and
euloaistic editorials in metropolitan
papers are duly halIlng OIL for follow
ina the example Of steel the facts
of this gracious reform have simmer
ed down to smaller size than was at
first supposed.
only 1,4OO workers are affected Dy
the reduction IN hours from IL 10
ner day and these are the driliers'
tool dressers and other workers en-
gaped in digging wells for the Garter
OH Co.. a subsidiary of the New 1el-
sew Standard in the mid-continent
fields.
Twelve Hour Day Continued
Not all the Carter men are includ-
al IN the change from two to three
shifts a day. In the more remote
oamns 70 hours will continue, A. F.
Corwin of the industrial relations ue-
nartment of the company explaining
that the workers would be bored by
fonr hours more leisure in those out
lying spots.
The three-shift system will mean
the hiring of about 500 more workers
Int the daily wage Of the individual
worker will fall, wages per hour VIII
rise rs per cent, 1t is said, but at :
hours per day this will total to 10
ner cent less than before At the same
time there is nothing to indicate that
boarding house prices, and the cost
Of Rxtng, in general will be reduced
Only a Few Affected
DrfIfers in the oil fields have been
doing a 12-hour day since the nrst
wells were bored in the middle OF the
last nentury. Even during the war
when the S-hour day was fairly COM
mon the drillers watched the clock go
round on the job. The existence Oh
this 12-hour day furnished a glaring
contradiction to the statement OF
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., two years
ago, That he was opposed to the two
shift system.
And 4 is pointed out, today, that
this contradiction still obtains, for
only part of the Carter men are az
fected and none Of the 12-hour men
ia the field for the subsidiaries OF the
Standard OH companies OF Indiana,
California, etc., and for Sinclair, Do
henyaAsal.
Highly Profitable
Ofhsr-companies will watch the ex-
pertinent, and If it does not increase
costs, and If the workers In the re-
manning 12-hour fields show a rest
less demand for some OF that extra
leisure Mr.. Corwin is so fearsome OF,
it is expected that the S-hour day will
be extended gradually thru the pro
s9lucing fields. AS for the cost end, the
Ford Motor Co. found that its S-hour
day, even with increased wages, was
highly profitable, and the United
States Steel corporation at later
date lost no money when the 12-hour
day was discontinued.
Il should be stated in this connec-
ton that the 12-hour day in the oil
fields is found on the continuous oper-
alton jobs such as drilling, where
there are day and night shifts. Pipe
line workers and most other workers,
are generally day men, working more
than eight hours but less than twelve.
Men Fought For s-HOurs
Old time unionists from the oil
fields, discussing the new Carter
policy attribute the change to the
sAgitation that has been carried on for
many years in the grease belt"
where at different times and places
the American Federation of Labor
and the Oil Workers Industrial Union
have kept the S-hour Issue alive. The
peak Of the A. F. of L. effort, perhaps
was the long strike of 1921 that stop
ped production over an immense area
in California with the aid of a milit
,arized picket line and threatened to
sweep into the mid continent fields.
In the latter territory the industrial
union conducted such a spirited drive
in the early war days tina THE federal
administration, which was in close
contact with the oil interests, rounded
up about 40 organizers, kept them in
filthy Kansas dails for 25 months
waiting for trial, and finally dispatch
ed them to Leavenworth penitentiary
for the actual offense OF labor union
ism, though nominally on espionage
bill indictments.
At about the same time officials Of
the Carter oil Co. attempted 10 frame
up Charles Krieger, Job delegate, OF
a dynamite charge. He was defended
by Fred II. Moore, acting in behalf
Of his organization, and eventually ac
quilted by Tulsa jury that became
convinced vice president Pew had
procured the dynamiting Of his own
porch for the purpose of discreditine
the union.
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