CIGAR MAKERS
There is a great contrast between union factories and some non-union establishments. The union has successfully insisted upon good ventilation, clean floors, walls and toilets, clean paste in little individual jars (to fasten the ends of the cigars), an eight-hour day and no child labor. Among all cigar makers the death rate from tuberculosis is 61% of all deaths, according to government statistics. Among union cigar makers according to the last obtainable report (1905) the tuberculosis death rate was only 24%.
ELECTRICAL WORKERS
The electrical workers’ trade is one into which women are coming in increasing numbers because, as one foreman said, they receive 40% less wages than men and do 25% more work. This trade is a long way yet from the ideal of equal pay for equal work, but the union established for the girls a minimum wage scale of $5 a week at the very first, and last year this was increased to $6. Hours have been cut from ten a day to eight and a half on five days of the week and four and a half on Saturday.
BINDERY WOMEN
It would be vain for an individual girl to go to the foreman or the manager in a bindery and refuse to use bronze powder for lettering because it is deadly to the lungs, or to explain that for a girl to work on a numbering machine with her foot at the rate of 25,000 impressions a day is dangerous to her health. But this is just what the locals of bindery women through their delegates are explaining to employers the country over, and employers are heeding them. These organized girls have an eight-hour day and wages have increased by 35 and even 50%. Sick members get a $3 benefit for thirteen weeks, and at death a benefit of $50 is paid.
TEACHERS
The teachers of Chicago in the year 1902 could look forward to a maximum salary in the primary grades of $800, in the grammar grades of $825. The efforts of their organization, the Teachers’ Federation, have raised the maximum salary in the primary grades to $1,075 and in the grammar grades to $1,100, an increase of $275. The money to meet this additional expense has been found for the board of education through the successful tax suit promoted by the Teachers’ Federation itself. Teachers’ pensions are now on a solid basis. The pension fund is supported by contributions, with a small addition from the public funds. The fact of having this small addition, whose validity has been passed upon by the courts, establishes the right of the public school teacher to a pension from public funds.
MUSICIANS
The American Federation of Musicians has greatly improved conditions for its membership, which includes women. A non-union player at a dance gets from $2 to $4 a night and may have to play until daylight. Not so union players. They can ask $6 until 2 a. m. and $1 for every hour thereafter. The Chicago and St. Louis locals have established regulation uniforms for their members, which is a great economy.