The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-05-26
STEEL MEN SLAVE
IS HOURS A DAY.
Negroes Speeded Until
They Sweat in Cold
(continued from page onel


and steady the whole day loading box
cars, doing two mems work and get
ting two cents extra an hour.
81 Cents An Hour.
The standard pay of laborers is
thirty-seven cents an hour, work ten
hours and 80 days out of 100, the
foreman will come around and say,
want to make some money for your
self. Work two hours overtime which
is straight hourly rate. Extra pay for
extra time is bygone history in Beth
lehem. Such irony. The poor Negro
workers who have the worst danger
Gus, unhealthy jobs in the mill and
live under the most terrible condi-
tions get ready to go to work at 5
a. m. and probably return home about
or $50 p. m. Their pay is $22.50,
if they work full six day week.
Most of them work seven days bring
ing their pay up to about $25.
Shylock had nothing on Bethlehem
when he wanted a man to forfeit a
pound of flesh for payment of six
from every worker, every day in the
year not only his flesh and blood but
also demands every drop of energy
in payment for three dollars and
seventy cents to possibly five and a
half dollars. Quitting two minutes
before the time subjects worker to
dismissal and probable blacklisting in
every department. The superintend-
ent has a circular letter posted on
bulletin boards to the effect that men
are warned about knocking off before
whistle, laying special emphasis on
the fact that men are paid from
whistle to whistle.
The steel worker has not only in
human working conditions to contend
with, such as speed-up, extremely low
pay, wet and cold working places
smoky, unhealthy and etc., but must
also contend with the greed of the
bosses. The bosses would much rather
make cheap grade of iron in the
open hearth and have the men in the
tin mill, sheet mill and other depart
ments work on the iron and having
half of it come out scrap for which
the worker never gets paid for. The
boss works out lot of scrap this way
at the expense of the workers time
and trouble. Such things as under
paid mechanics to fix broken down
machines cause loss of pay to work
ers who are working piece-work and
have no comeback when they only
make one or two dollars a day as a
result of broken-down machine. At
the beginning Of the week, on warm
ing up turn on the furnaces, the work
ers can only produce about half pro-
duction, but nevertheless, putting in
full time does not entitle them to the
average pay as they work piece-work
Stool-pigeons.
Injustices abound right and left
above and below for the workers, and
especially those that dare to rebel
against the scheme of things. There
are plenty of police assigned to each
department, as if in preparedness for
an outbreak of workers. There many
low duties such as keeping a watch
on early cutters, loafing, and snoop-
ing around toilets. Steel mills have
plenty of stool-pigeons and here in
Sparrows Point, as result of small
strike in 1919, has left a group of
privileged scab jobholders and special
concession holders on the Point. The
company controlled magistrate plays
special cain with the workers and
the pay of many worker has been
handed over by the company to the
company court.
The workers of Bethlehem are in
despair as a result of the different
wage cuts ranging from 5 to 400
have been imposed on them in the
past three months. The cuts in wages
on the already underpaid workers was
like putting salt on a flesh wound.
Bread has been taken off their table
and placed on the tables of those who
have too many diamonds and throw
away plenty of cake.
We workers of the Retb1ahapo Stool