The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-08-02
JAIL CONDITIONS
FOR POSTAL. men;
MUST ORGANIZE!
Bosses Govt Niggardly
Towards Employees
Chicago, Ill.

l am employed as a clerk in the
main post office in the gang7ruled
city of Chicago. Some people seem
to have the foolish notion that work
ing for the government is a pleasure.
Though the capitalist government
of the U. S. is supposed to be the
richest in the world, yet the working
conditions in the post office are
worse than in any private concerns.
The u. S. Government runs true
to all traditions of the rich class,
the more money it accumulates the
tighter it holds on to it and the
more 1niserably it becomes towards
its employees,
Real Bosses Conditions.
In many respects the post office
is like a prison. Every person in
the post office is known to the boss
es only by his number. When a
person comes to work, he not only
has to punch the time clock but he
has to check in at another desk so
that the government will be doubly
sure that the workers come on time.
The same procedure is followed
when quitting work.
MOnOtonous Work.
The work is very monotonous
whether it is sorting mail in cases
or working by the machine. Sorting
mail in the cases is especially hard
on the eyes, Nearly three out of
every five persons wear glasses be-
cause theiy eyes have to be glued
on one place all the time. If a
worker turns his eyes for a second
to rest them and if foreman hap
pens to see him, the foreman i'm
mediately piles on more letter to
sort so that the worker wouldn't
have time to turn around again.
Bad Sanitary Conditions.
Dust permeates the whole place
and quite lot of it gets into the
lungs of the workers. If a workers
remains in the post office long
enough he can easily get tubercu-
losis. Most of the men who have
worked there over five years look
like consump ives, with their pale
faces, hollow cheeks and black spots
under their eyes.
If worker wants to go to the
toilet he must go up to desk where
foreman puts down his number
" book and the time he left. The
maximum amount of time allowed
is fifteen minutes. Some men have
stomach trouble but they never dare
take a physic for if the book shows
they have gone more times in a week
than the foreman thinks they should
have gone, the workers are given
their walking papers.
Slave Driving Foremen.
The foremen and section bosses
watch the workers like hawks. If
one is seen talking to the worker
next him, a foreman comes up to
him, takes his number which usually
means a bad mark against him and
sa, "You better stop talking, the
boss won't stand for it." Just like
in a prison and yet some ignorant
and deluded American justify this
kind of a life.
Espionage Too.
The post office has rigid and
comprehensive spy system. Spies
arc placed among the clerks, work
ing by their side so that they worker
is suspisious and hostile to the other
worker. The workers are afraid
to talk freely of their ideas and
troubles because they might becon-
fiding to stool pigeon who would
Immediately snitch to the big boss.
Sc it can be seen that working for
the U. S. Government in the post
office is even worse than working
TO. the U. S. Government in a |
prison.
We get sixty-five cents an hour.
We earn every cent we get and de,
serve many pennies we don't get.
Business is very slow and most of
the time we work only about three
or four hours a day. How cam
man support family on SIG or
SIT a week? But the bosses are
not worried about that, they leave
these small" problems for the work
ers to puzzle out, Soon the day will
come when the workers are going to
surprise the bosses by a worldwide
revolution as solution to their
problems.
A Post Office Clerk.