The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-12-30
DENTAL WORKERS
Toll LONG AND
Get SMALL PAY
Workers Need Union in
Worst Way
BY JACK RUSSELL.
Worker Correspondent

A young man starting in as an APP
prentice in mechanical dentistry must
bear a heavy burden of which long
hours, abuse from the boss and low
wages are but part. In order to
become a good mechanic he must
slave at low pay for five or six years.
When he has reached the stage where
he is fair mechanic, the boss gives
him little more consideration, but
he is still treated as slave and suf-
fers abuse from the boss. This is what
large number of men must put up
with every day in the large cities of
this country.
Overtime Without Pay.
Professional mechanics and those in
the amateur field are compelled to
work overtime without receiving any
overtime pay. There are few places
where the workers in this field do
get overtime-because they are milit-
ant and force the boss to recognize
that he must pay for their services
but those places are few and far be-
tween.
The mechanical dentists are put to
work at such hours that there is no
time for social recreation and pleas
ures in common with other workers.
The mechanical dentistry workers
start at different hours from the work
ers in the same establishment.
Bosses Organized
Most of the mechanical dentistry
laboratories belong to, the Dental La
boratory Manufacturers Association
and if one of the companies belong
ing to this association discharges one
of its workers, that worker is black
listed. If he wants to get a job in
an Office, regardless of how large or
how small it may be, he is refused
work until the association decides to
allow him to be put on. If he applies
for work under an assumed name, he
is told to wait week or two and all
his references are checked up and at
tempts are made to have him fully
identified.
If worker is offered a higher wage
in another laboratory and he leaves
the employ of one boss to enter the
employ of the other boss, if the boss
that he works for and the boss
he is going to work for are in the
association, he finds himself walking
the streets minus his master and on
the blacklist of the association. Then
the worker is offered an opportunity
by his former employer to go back to
work at cut in pay. If he refuses,
that ends his role as a worker in the
mechanical dental laboratories. Often
times a worker is framed-up in this
manner in order that his wage may be
cut.
Correct" With Blows.
Many workers are abused by the
bosses. In the Central Dental Labor
'atory, the bosses correct" workers
with a blow on the face or any other
part of the body. Many times workers
are beaten and then discharged. After
week or SO, the boss rehires him at
sometimes the same pay but mostly at
much lower pay.
Mechanical dentistry workers! Or
ganize and force the bosses to pay
higher wages, to give us shorter hours
and to stop treating us as tho they
owned us body and soul!
In Minneapolis, workers are COM
PEELED to work from IL to IA hours per
day on both day and night shifts for
small hourly wage. The firm in
Minneapolis is owned by the Central
Dental Laboratories of Chicago.
Workers, Unonize!
Workers, you are the producers of
big profits for your bosses. Your
health is always in danger. Your eyes
are under a constant strain The con-
ditions you are working under are
not conducive to good health-they
are a drain on your physical strength.
You cannot accomplish anything with
out organization. Workers, write from
all parts of the country Forget your
fear of the bosses. Send in shop
stories and your position in full. Write
in your grievances today to Jack
Russell of the Dental Mechanic, 10
S. Lincoln St., Chicago