The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-11-06
Workers Watched Through
Peepholes, Speeded Up
BY Many Cruel Devices
By a Postal worker Correspondent

BY Postal Worker Correspondent
NEW YORK.-As a worker in the
Post Office for many years and a
victim of 5peed-up in all its branches
I am writing this letter because it
is interesting to see how in time
like this, when the government is
making all this noise with the N.R.A.
and talking about giving labor g.
fair break, it treats its own help.
When you get the job you have
your f1ngerprints taken and your pic
ture filed away. Then you start
working under q system that has
speed-up down to perfection, with
plenty Of foremen who function like
prison guards. Besides this, there are
plenty Of stool pigeons, inspectors of
all kinds, superintendent, and assis-
tant superintendents. In the walls
all over the place there are specially
constructed peep-holes.
A foreman is often put in charge
with instructions to show results. He
begins condensing routes, switching
men, putting fast men at certain
tasks to lead the speed-up, and set
a pace TO make the ether men think
they are not doing much, cutting out
certain assignments, standing in back
CT the men and bounding them, and
also setting q few examples by fav-
| ing somebody fired or transferred
| miles from where they live. When
| this foreman slows down and can't
show any more results, a new fore
man is put into his place, who i'm
| nlediately starts out to hang up q
record from where the other one
left OF.
Nervous Breakdowns
| Lots OF men who can't stand the
strain are continuously taking days
off to, recuperate. Nervous break
| downs are not rare thing in the
Post Office On top OF this we have
received cut and don't know what
| is in store for us when Congress will
convene shortly.
! III time like this when the gov
eminent is talking about shortening
the hours, we have men hanging
! around as much as IA and Is hours
a day, getting paid for only few
! of these long hours This goes on
all year round, including Sundays
and holidays. There are Thousands
of vacancies that have not been
filled in with subs.
When you write to the newspapers
about it, they condense and distort
the facts, making the letter appear
harmless, or they ignore the letter
entirely.
Misleading the Public
We hear SO much about the N.R.A
They even put a large flag on the
main Post Office with the blue eagle
on it and what does that mean to the
postal workers? It's just up there
to mislead the public.
OF all the postal workers the sub
stitutes are the most exploited. They
take the jobs with the understanding
that they will receive automatic in
creases but instead are kept subs for
years and years, doing the work of
regulars.
Kind Advice
In the garage sign was hung up,
reading, Don't pick UP anything too
heavy get help. Avoid strains"
Get help locks good, but try and
get it! They have laid off, condensed,
and what not in the garage as in
all other departments, and still they
tell you to get help.
They test all work on known slow
days and then add on more work
There was a time when Federal
employees thought they we're a privi-
legged class but now we are begin
ming to see different.
Some of us had our wives go to
work to help out; still we couldn't
make a, go of it. Must we send our
grandmothers to help out also? In
order to make q go Of things we sold
razor blades, rubber goods, socks, and
what not as a side line, and still we
can't catch up.
If we have steady jobs why do
we have to come to loan harks?
Why do we have to break Up our
homes? Why do we have to get into
debt? Why do we have to give up
our insurance at big loss? If we
can't make a living now, what about
old age?
Only by reading the Daily Worker
can you get true picture of what
is happening today. We in the Post
Office who were SO optimistic all the
while have already come to the con-
clusion that something is rotten.
PRESIDENT Roosevelt in his last radio