Women in the Printing Trades Part 28

25. _Paper Bag Making in London. Employee's Evidence._

WORK.--(1) Cake bags, (2) tea bags, (3) sugar bags. These are different cla.s.ses of work and some hands can do only one cla.s.s.

The girls do their own cutting except for the very heavy work, which men do. As a rule, the piece-rate girls make the bag right through from the sheet, _i.e._, cut the paper, lay it out and paste. Tea bags are made on a tin. There were 150 girls working in the room.

REGULARITY.--The work is irregular, but if a girl can do all kinds it is better for her. "There is always some work, but sometimes you may sit idle doing needlework most of the day."

HEALTH.--"It is very bad for you standing all day long," said my informant. "Girls come in looking lively and healthy, but they soon get run down." The standing and the used-up air are bad, the latter especially in the winter-time when the gas is alight. She herself has lost her health.

MACHINERY.--Machinery had not displaced women.

HOURS.--The hours are from 8 a.m. to 6.30 p.m., with one hour for dinner, ten minutes for lunch, and twenty minutes for tea; on Sat.u.r.days, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The girls have to be in by 8.15 or they are locked out for the morning.

When at overtime they work from 8 a.m. to 9.30 p.m.

PROSPECTS.--The forewoman was at the bench once.

GENERAL.--"On the floor below," said my informant, "are litho girls--not the sort whom you _could_ speak to. That is a very bad trade."

26. _Printer's and Bookbinder's Firm in Leeds. Employer's Information._

I was shown over the factory. The rooms are all very large and lofty.

Electric instead of steam power is used, and so the factory is far less noisy and cooler than most printing works.

_One hundred and twenty girls_ of a very superior cla.s.s are employed.

The conditions under which work is carried on here are evidently very good.

They print large advertis.e.m.e.nt posters, time-tables, magazines, novels, and make account books, cheque books, etc.

TRAINING.--Girls begin by feeding ruling machines, packing, etc., and the length of their "apprentices.h.i.+p" depends entirely upon the girls themselves. They are put on piece work as soon as they are fit for it; they are taken on about fourteen without premium, and their wages begin at 4_s._ 6_d._ or, sometimes, 5_s._, and rise by degrees till they are paid piece work rates.

WAGES.--_Folding and Sewing_ (piece work).--The pay ranges about 10_s._, 12_s._, 16_s._, up to 25_s._ per week.

_Laying-on of Gold-leaf and Blockers_ (piece work) yields 18_s._ to 20_s._ per week.

Girls who put _paper covers_ on to cheap novels, etc., earn about 20_s._

_Layers-on_ (_Letter-press and Litho_) are paid time wages and receive 8_s._, 10_s._, and 12_s._ per week.

The employer says he has known three sisters take home 4 a week for several months in succession. He thinks it pays well to give high wages.

HOURS.--The hours are 52 per week: from 7.30 a.m. to 6 p.m., with dinner from 12.30 p.m. to 1.30 p.m.; on Sat.u.r.days, 7.30 a.m. till 12.30 p.m.; but overtime is worked thirty days in the year. Piece workers receive no extra pay; time workers get time and a quarter.

WORK.--_Folding_ is done chiefly by hand. There is one machine, but that is self-feeding and a man minds it.

_Sewing_ is done by hand and by machinery.

_Perforating_ is done by a machine worked by power, which has simply to be fed.

Several girls were employed putting the wrappers on to 6_d._ novels, while others were pasting cloth on to cardboard for school exercise books. Little girls were feeding the ruling machine, punching labels, eyeletting and packing.

Girls were also engaged in gold laying-on and blocking, but none were employed at this when I was there.

In the litho and letter-press printing rooms a large number of very respectable girls, about eighteen years of age, were employed as layers-on. They were feeding large as well as small machines.

REGULARITY.--The girls are employed all the year round, but they are busier in the autumn and winter (from September to May). They are also very busy the last week in each month. _Occasionally_, in June and July, they only work half-time, but this does not happen often.

HEALTH.--The work is very healthy. Before they had electric power the employer had seen girls fall down and faint when "laying-on" at night when the gas was lit and the room hot. Now that they have electric power and electric light such a thing never happens.

DANGER.--The use of electric power does away with the need of belting shafts, etc. There is simply a small motor on the ground.

ORGANISATION.--There is no organisation amongst the women, though the men are all Unionists.

MARRIED AND UNMARRIED.--Girls all leave when they get married.

Occasionally, when they are busy, an old hand who has got married comes back, but 99 per cent. are unmarried. The employer did not know whether they had any married women there then.

FACTORY LEGISLATION.--Factory legislation has in no way limited the usefulness of women. Girls do not mind working overtime when they can make a little extra by it, but the employer said "overtime does not pay anybody." _E.g._, when layers-on worked overtime they were paid time and a quarter, and it did not pay to give that extra money. The restriction of overtime to thirty days a year worked out very inconveniently for the masters, but this employer thought the factory legislation was a very good thing on the whole.

One direct result of factory legislation here has been the introduction of a self-feeding folding machine worked by electric power, which they use when they are busy instead of getting in extra hands or working overtime. When not busy this machine stands idle, and the folding is done by hand. Another result of factory legislation is that they have to employ more hands than they otherwise would, and so girls sometimes have to work short time.

MEN AND WOMEN.--The employer said there was a clearly drawn line between men's work and women's work. The Union made a great point of keeping women out of what they consider to be men's work, and there would be a "row" amongst them if women were put on, but I found out later on that girls do the laying-on and _gold blocking_ for the backs of books, etc.

The employer said he put them on to that about three years ago. At first the men made a fuss about it, but it pa.s.sed over. His reason for putting girls on was that it was light work quite suitable for a girl. Only skilled girls did it. They would get perhaps 12_s._ 6_d._, time wage, while they were learning, and then go on to piece work and earn 18_s._ or 20_s._ a week. A man's wage for the same work would be a minimum of 32_s._ a week (time), as that is the Trade Union minimum, and the Trade Unionists generally get something above the minimum.

This firm was the first in Leeds to introduce girls as layers-on for letter-press and litho machines. That was about twenty years ago. The reason was that it was impossible to apprentice the number of boys required. The Trade Union regulation about the proportion of apprentices to journeymen is very strictly enforced, and it was not fair to employ boys and simply turn them off when they got older; so girls were employed, and now the majority of layers-on are girls. They do the work, on the whole, better than boys, and they are steadier.

MACHINERY.--Machinery is continually being introduced and more women are being employed in spite of the fact that the machines do work so much more quickly. Production is made cheaper and so the demand is greater.

HOME WORK.--No home work is given out.

_Relief Stamping Firms. General Summary._

We have information about twenty-one houses where women are employed at stamping (covering over 300 women).

TRAINING.--Out of these nine have a regular system of training, four do not take apprentices, having found them more trouble than they were worth; three have no settled system, while three refused to furnish information on the subject. In four cases indentures were signed, and there were two cases of premiums, in one of which 2 was paid, to be returned with 5 per cent. interest after three years; in the other, 10--with variations. "It varies with the girl," we were told.

"Sometimes girls with very respectable parents like to pay a premium, in other cases it is waived." In eight out of the nine houses where there is a regular system of training, the girls serve an apprentices.h.i.+p varying from two to three years. They begin by a few s.h.i.+llings pocket-money and go on to receive a part of what they make at piece work rates. In one house they gave from two weeks to two months for nothing, during which time their earnings went to the forewoman who taught them.

The following are some of the systems of payment during training:--

(1) 1st year (employed in warehouse), 3_s._; 2nd year, half earnings, piece, with 4_s._ per month pocket-money; 3rd year, three-quarter earnings, with 4_s._ per month pocket-money.

(2) 1st year, 5_s._; 2nd year, 6_s._ 6_d._; 3rd year, 8_s._

(3) 2_s._ 6_d._ for first 6 months; rising 1_s._ every 3 months, till 8_s._ 6_d._ is reached.

(4) Start at 2_s._ 6_d._; rise to 10_s._ during training.