Evening star., 1935-07-20
WOMAN STRIKERS
! TO GET NEW Jobs
IN ALEXANDRIA
Mayor ArrangeS to Employ
95 Making Shirts for
State Relief.
HOUSEWIVES URGED
TO LOAN MACHINES
Shirt Factory Picketing Con-
tinued Pending Efforts Mon
day for Peace.
Ry a STAR correspondent Of rhe STAR

BY q StaI Correspondent of The Star.
ALEXANDRIA, Va, July 20
Mayor E. C. Dawson today announced
plans to provide other jobs for 95
women striking against alleged sweat
shop" conditions in the shirt manu-
featuring plant of Morris Weinman,
at Wilkes and South Columbus streets.
Dawson said the woman strikers,
who continued their picketing of the
closed plant today pending an arbitra-
ton meeting Monday, will be hired at
$14 week to manufacture shirts for
a Virginia State relief organization.
He said the city aims house will be
converted into a temporary workshop
for the strikers and city trucks will
transport their materials.
Sewing Machines Asked.
The mayor this morning issued an
appeal to sympathetic housewives OF
Alexandria, urging them to loan sew
ing machines for the destitute strikers.
Dawson said he already had orders
for 500 shirts and expected more in
the near future. He expected the
work to last for the duration Of the
strike.
Strikers maintained pickets all last
night and planned to guard the plant
until midnight tonight in an effort
to prevent the management from re-
moving the large quantities of cloth
used in the manufacture OF work
shirts.
Meanwhile, the first hope Of arbi-
tration came late yesterday when
Howard T Colvin, Labor Department
conciliation commissioner persuaded
the owner Of the plant to meet with
a committee of six women workers at
2 pm. Monday.
Willing to Hear Plea.
The owner, Morris Weinman of Bal
timore, is quoted as having said he was
willing to hear the pleas of the strikers
and discuss their differences with the
Labor Department envoy.
According to the chairman Of the
Workers Committee, Miss Reba DON
aid, sweat shop" conditions prevail
in the ramshackle building, wher los
women work under a tin roof which
intensifies the heat in Summer. Miss
Donald also charged that the building
was inadequately heated in the Winter.
The strikers declared they were
paid as little as So for 36 hours of
piece work under the N r. A. code.
and the top wages then were $14
a week. This scale, it was charged,
has received three 10 per cent cuts
since June / and the work hours have
been heightened.
Twenty-fv women strikers yester-
day afternoon stood resolutely before
the doors Of the plant as a truck
drove up to remove materials to an
other of Weinman's plants. The truck
driver asked for police assistance and
officers were sent to the scene.
Some one among the 100 women
who collected about the truck re-
moved the ignition keys from the
switchboard, and the disabled vehicle
was towed away two hours later with
out removing any of the goods.
For Passive Resistance.
The picketing employees declared
they would offer passive resistance
and stand in the road should further
attempts be made to take goods frou
the factory.
The strikers who have been ou;
since Monday morning were Or
ganized several days ago by Mis-
Virginia Lowry of Baltimore rep.
reSenting the Amalgamated Clothing
Workers Union. The Central Labu
Union Of Alexandria also agreed Is
sponsor the pleas of the workers.
The strikers said they would dis
continue their picketing at midnight
tonight since there is city ordinance
preventing the trucking of merchandise
or commercial materials on the Sab
bath without special permit.
OF the los women workers Who
operate the sewing and cutting ma
chimes in the Century Manufacturing
Co. plant 95 have signed union cards,
the strikers claim. The four men en-
ployes Of the plant did not join the
strike