Women in the Printing Trades Part 5

[Footnote 24: In 1891 the women's Society refused to support the men's in agitating for an eight-hours' day. In 1875 Mrs. Paterson said at the Trade Union Congress that "the more they pressed for additional legislation the greater obstacles they threw in the way of working women. She should rather say let them suffer a little longer the evils of overwork and long hours." The Union's representatives, however, have always pressed for women factory inspectors, and on this matter Mrs.

Paterson was for a good many years a voice crying in the wilderness.]

Perhaps the Union has been too willing to make requests to good employers for better conditions, and too timorous in helping to level up the general conditions of the trade. Employers have not been hostile.

Mr. B. Collins, the publisher, for instance, presided over the annual meeting for 1891, and Mr. Longmans and other publishers have done the same in other years. "I know an employer," says a writer in the _British Bookmaker_ of September, 1891, "who will give 100 to see a good women's Union established. Why? Because if it could be done, its effect upon other employers would remove the gross inequalities of prices that at present exist to his detriment." But this Union has never reached that point of strength when it could bring pressure to bear on the trade for the mutual advantage of the good employer and the woman worker.

As a consequence, the good relations between the men and the women in the trade have not always been maintained, and there was considerable ill-feeling between the two sections during the eight hours' agitation from 1891 to 1894.[25]

[Footnote 25: It should be noted, however, that the sentiment amongst the women as a whole was friendly during the eight hours' agitation, although the Society was taking no part in it officially. A writer in the _British Bookmaker_ for December, 1891, tells how all the women in the lacing department of Messrs. Waterlow's (Hill Street) struck on a certain job, and how "at another place as I stood with the pickets outside, about five o'clock one cold afternoon, I saw something descending from an upper storey and found it was a quart of hot tea for the benumbed men on duty below, lowered out by a string from the women's shop."]

At the present moment this Society is regarded by both men and women mainly as a benefit club. In this respect it has been most successful and has paid with excellent regularity.

[Sidenote: The Book-folders' Union.]

An attempt was made in 1892 to start another Union for women engaged in folding in printing houses. The sponsor of the new Society was the Printers' and Stationers' Warehous.e.m.e.n's and Cutters' Union. It is a significant fact, and one which throws a great deal of light upon the very little which one section of workers knows even of those working at their elbow, that the organisers of the new Union were quite unaware of the existence of the Women Bookbinders' Society. The new Society, which called itself the Book-folders' Union, was started during the flood of Trade Union sentiment which followed the London Dock Strike in 1889, and its members.h.i.+p grew rapidly. Within five months of its formation it is said to have numbered 500,[26] and later on the figure of 700 was quoted. A popular employer, Mrs. Bond, had been elected secretary, and an a.s.sistant was appointed at a wage of 18_s._ per week. This new Union was determined to be as active as the older one had been inactive. It demanded a minimum wage of 15_s._, time-and-a-quarter pay for overtime, and "no apprentices." It also demanded exemption from the nightwork prohibition clauses of the Factory and Workshop Acts. But the Union was doomed to an early and ignominious end. During the absence of the secretary the finances became hopelessly involved, and a deficit in cash decided the members to close the whole matter.[27]

[Footnote 26: _Women's Trade Union Journal_, January 15th, 1893.]

[Footnote 27: The fact that all definite recollection of this Union is pa.s.sing away, and that for the above information we have had to rely upon the memory of two ladies who were indirectly interested in it, throws some light upon the carelessness in industrial matters of the woman worker. No minutes nor other doc.u.ments can be found. "The person who had them, married," and that was taken to have settled the matter.]

The Society would not even formally amalgamate with the older Society, partly owing to differences in method, and partly to its disgust with its failure and disgrace.

[Sidenote: National Book-folders and Kindred Trades Union.]

One more attempt to found a fighting women's Union was made in 1894 by the Printing and Kindred Trades Federation. All women employed in the Printing and Kindred Trades were to be eligible for members.h.i.+p. The attempt arose out of two disputes. In one, the women employed by a certain firm had successfully struck for an increase of wages and against certain conditions of labour; in the second, women had come out to show their sympathy with some locked-out men.[28] In recognition of the women's "courage and loyalty" the men promoted the Union. In a month or two its members.h.i.+p stood at 100, and by March 1896, 350 members had joined. The members.h.i.+p at the end of 1902 was 150, mostly book-folders, and the following points are prominent in the Union's demands:--

1. To obtain and maintain the recognised minimum scale of pay for every member;

2. To reduce hours of labour;

3. To regulate the relations between employers and employed.

[Footnote 28: It is interesting to note that whilst the cheapness of women's work as compositors in Edinburgh seems to have attracted a certain cla.s.s of work from London, the men's success in keeping up wages in the London bookbinding trade does not seem to have driven bookbinding into the provinces. There are one or two bookbinding firms in the provinces and in Scotland which employ girls, but mainly upon diary and account book work, the book trade being practically untouched. _Cf._ f.n., 28-29.]

It had no sick benefits, but paid 5 at death, and offered strike pay on condition that the strike was sanctioned by the committee. The reserve fund in 1902 was under 100.

In 1903 the Society approached the Printers' and Stationers'

Warehous.e.m.e.n praying to be recognised as a branch of that Union. A ballot of the men was taken, when 700 voted that the request be granted and 334 that it be not. The Women's Society has therefore ceased to exist as a separate organisation.

[Sidenote: The Manchester Society.]

A Manchester Society,[29] "The Manchester and Salford Society of Women Employed in the Bookbinding and Printing Trades" has gained some definite success in increasing wages during its six years of existence.

In its third Annual Report, 1899, it is stated that in May, 1898, the Society began an attempt to increase wages to a 10_s._ minimum after a three or four years' apprentices.h.i.+p, that as a consequence the wages of forty girls were raised in September from 9_s._ to 10_s._, and that subsequently thirty others received the s.h.i.+lling advance. In its next Report, 1899-1900, it states, without giving the number of girls affected, that "they now all receive 11_s._ and 12_s._ per week, where, prior to joining the Union, they earned 9_s._ and 10_s._ per week." Next year the members.h.i.+p was 165, and the last issued Report, 1902, whilst stating that "a slight increase of members.h.i.+p" had taken place during the year, gives no figures. "Losses through marriage and other circ.u.mstances," the 1901 Report says, "have been great," and the Society is kept going mainly by the devotion of one or two persons.[30]

[Footnote 29: The existing Society is the second attempt to organise the women in these trades in Manchester.]

[Footnote 30: The last balance sheet gives at a glance the position of this Society, and indicates its activities:--

BALANCE SHEET FOR THE YEAR ENDING APRIL 30th, 1902.--

_Income._ _s._ _d._ To balance from April 30th, 1901 114 0 4 " contributions 72 3 3 " Bank interest 2 9 11 ---------------- 188 13 6 ================

_Expenditure._ _s._ _d._ By sick pay 29 10 0 " out-of-work pay 17 1 8 " printing 2 15 9 " postages 0 8 6 " secretary's salary 5 12 6 " collector's commission 1 9 9 " grant to Women's Trades Council 2 0 0 " grant to treasurer 0 5 0 " auditing accounts 0 4 0 " deputation expenses 0 2 0 ---- -- ---- 59 9 2 " cash in Bank on April 30th, 1902 125 2 5 " cash in hands of secretary 4 1 11 ---------------- 188 13 6]

Attempts have been made to organise women elsewhere as, for instance, in Edinburgh, where a Union of women compositors existed for a year; also in Birmingham, where ten years ago a Union was formed specially to include the machine-rulers who had been introduced about ten years previously. But the movements have failed.

Such is the record of the organisation of women in the trades with which we are dealing. It is almost exclusively confined to London and Manchester, and in London, out of 19,000 women connected with bookbinding, most of whom are book and paper-folders, certainly not more than 500 are organised. In 1901, in the seven Men's Unions covering these trades there were 41,907 members, whilst the total members.h.i.+p of the Women's Unions was well under 1,000.

[Sidenote: Maintaining standards without organisation.]

Our enquiries have discovered, however, the existence of a kind of loose organisation of majority-rule and custom in some firms. Standards of prices and conditions are thus kept up. It must not be forgotten that where men and women work together all concessions won by the men's Unions are shared by women, as for instance, when the Typographical a.s.sociation of Scotland secured a fifty hours' week for Aberdeen compositors. This is an interesting feature of feminine methods. In one house we came across two collating-rooms, one of which was staffed by older hands, who stood upon their dignity and would not accept inferior work or tolerate reductions in wages. The other room was conducted after the methods of the ordinary employer of cheap women's labour; the workpeople were careless and casual and the room had no traditions and no industrial "public opinion." This force of opinion, which a.s.sumes almost the nature of caste, is most strongly developed amongst job hands. These women manage to keep up a comparatively high standard of pay, and we have discovered the most unusual circ.u.mstance that in one or two instances the wages of job women have been cut down to the Union rates. We have been told on most trustworthy authority that the unwritten laws of these job hands are sometimes enforced upon recalcitrant work-women by "a hiding."

[Sidenote: Organisation in the miscellaneous trades.]

As regards organisation in the more miscellaneous trades included in our investigation, little has to be said. A few card mounters once joined the Women's Printing and Kindred Trades Union after a strike, but soon fell away, and a Union started in 1890, of which little information can now be obtained, included some envelope makers: but by 1893 it, too, seems to have died.

No attempt has been made to organise women engaged in the preparation of materials for printing either in London or the provinces.

[Sidenote: The att.i.tude of employers.]

The att.i.tude of employers and employed to Trade Unions at the present moment is most varied. Naturally, a good many employers are in no mood to encourage Unions, because they do not know what might happen if the women's organisations became as strong as the men's. But, on the other hand, a considerable number of employers working under fair conditions and doing a trade of good quality, would welcome combination. It would help them against their cutting compet.i.tors, and they do not object to meet the reasonable demands of their women. In thirty-four cases employers were not aware of the existence of a Union at all. Fourteen forewomen knew about a Union, eleven denied its existence.[31] In no instance in London was a non-Union woman bookbinder discovered who knew of the existence of both the Unions, though the majority of the women knew of the existence of one or the other.

[Footnote 31: It is important to note in connection with this point that the power of a forewoman over women is generally more unquestioned than that of a foreman over men.]

[Sidenote: The women's att.i.tude.]

We were anxious to find out why they did not join. Some spoke with scorn of the older Union because it was only a benefit Society; others said, "No use in joining; you get nothing out of it;" others thought it dangerous; others suspected all Unions; others frankly admitted that marriage was sure to come along, and then they would work in factories and workshops no longer. An eloquent commentary upon this sentiment is to be found in the figures extracted from the Factory Inspector's Annual Reports and printed in Chapter II. When one works out from these tables the proportion between the males of over 18 years of age and the total number of males employed in the various trades and compares it with that of the females, it will be found that a comparatively excessive percentage of the latter are under 18 years of age. The same point is brought out with more emphasis and detail in Appendix VII. The women do not, in fact, feel it necessary to organise themselves, and a manager of a Co-operative Printing Works, where members.h.i.+p of a Union is compulsory upon women, informed us that they grumble when they are made to join and surrender their members.h.i.+p as soon as they can. The notes of some of the conversations reported are valuable indications of the mind of the woman wage-earner in this respect.

We can only say in conclusion that, in the first place, women do not take that strenuous interest in their labour conditions which is essential to successful organisation. In the second place, it appears that, except at occasional times of dispute, their work is so well marked off from that of men, that the men's Unions in these trades are coming more and more to the conclusion that it does not pay them to organise the women. In the third place, we have been surprised to find that the great majority of employers and of their women employees a.s.sume that wages are fixed and that any effort to alter them by organisation will be doomed to failure.[32] Our investigators have been given instance after instance of both increase and reduction in wages, but the general tenor of conversation is a pessimist and listless view that whatever _is_, is fixed.

[Footnote 32: _Cf._ p. 90.]

CHAPTER IV.

_MEN AND WOMEN AS WORKERS._

[Sidenote: Do women displace men?]