In the last years, however, she had not
carried any work home. She had sewed on piece-work from eight in the
morning to six at night with an hour for lunch and no night work or
overtime. She had earned from $20 to $25 a week in the busy weeks when
the better pieces of work were more plentiful; and in the slack weeks $6
and $7. Ermengard had no complaint whatever to make about her own trade
fortunes. All her concern and conversation were for the numbers of women
cloak makers who lacked her own wonderful strength. Successful without
education, she was astonishingly destitute of the wearisome fallacy of
complacent self-reference characteristic of many people of uncommon
ability. During the past year she had twice been discharged for
organizing the workers in cloak factories where she was employed. In the
first establishment subcontracting had made conditions too hard for most
of the women; and in the second, wages were too low for a decent
livelihood for most of the workers.
These instances serve to express in the industry and lives of women cloak
workers the subcontracting system, long seasonal hours, home work, and an
unstandardized wage--the features under discussion in the cloak making
trade in the spring of 1910.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173