Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Worcester has revealed only 4 workers who began their career in unskilled trades.1

The effect is, however, equally disastrous to the industry. All employers in all kinds of business complain of the scarcity of responsible, to say nothing of skilled, workers. One clothing factory was forced to send to New York this fall and import a large number of workers. Another had to close one room of its factory, with a capacity for about 40 workers, because of inability to get workers. One of the clothing firms offered the investigator $5 for every worker she would send him. Dressmakers are closing their shops and going to work by the day or into the shops because of inability to get help. The demand for skilled workers far exceeds the supply. The opportunity for the skilled worker is great; the opportunity for the worker to acquire this skill is small.

The present method of learning the trades in the factories has proved far from satisfactory to all concerned. The new worker usually "picks up the trade" with what aid and time the forewoman or some other skilled worker can give. The majority of firms of the various industries visited agree that this is an inadequate and expensive process. The demand on the forewoman's time is continuous and the return small, since a large proportion of the workers do not reach the stage where they can give adequate return. The proprietor of the corset factory who estimated that his learners caused him an annual loss of $1,500 has been cited. The proprietor of a shirt factory estimated that each learner meant a loss of $50 to the firm. A shoe firm "will not bother with green girls-too expensive," while another takes only bright girls. A paper firm reports that one girl teaches another in both hand and machine work, but that this is an expensive method.

E. Summary of industrial conditions which confront young workers.— Several facts, then, are to be noted. The little girl of 14 or 16 has an opportunity to enter only unskilled work. The monotonous mechanical work which she does is destructive to rather than promotive of intelligence, responsibility, and preparation for a higher grade of work. The masses of young girls do not easily adapt themselves to this mechanical, monotonous work; drift from one place to another, thus learning or becoming proficient in no one trade. When they reach the age which makes them eligible for a higher kind of work, therefore, the masses have not developed or have lost the power to take advantage of the opportunity now opened to them. The factory industries requiring more skill have no satisfactory system of training the prospective worker for the trade. The result is that the mass of workers who begin work in the unskilled trades remain there and never get any higher.

1Study of dressmaking made by the research department of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Boston, to be published in its series on Economic Relations of Women.

F. Need of trade-training school.-One great need of the industrial world stands out prominently—a trade-training school which can take the 14 or 15 year-old girls who will not go to the regular schools and must go to work in a year or two. If this trade-training school can give her such equipment that she may be lifted over the preliminary unskilled processes in the industry and put upon work which continually trains and develops her for a higher kind of work, the great mass of unskilled, unstable workers must in time decrease.

VI. WOMEN-EMPLOYING INDUSTRIES OF WORCESTER.

With this in view, three problems come up for consideration: First, what are the women-employing industries of Worcester? Second, what are the opportunities as to numbers needed, self-development, financial compensation, and future outlook in each trade? Third, what can be done to adapt the women for the better trades and adapt the trades to the women workers so as to secure for both the best possible results? In other words, what is the need of and opportunity for trade training?

The general facts learned from the study of a single year's group of girls serve as a fairly good index to the women-employing industries of Worcester. Statistics show that approximately 1,300 women and 138 minors were employed in the mercantile establishments of Worcester during the past year; that 8,000 women and 1,000 minors, not including home workers, were employed in manufacturing in Worcester; that is, five-sixths of the women and five-sixths of the minors at work are engaged in manufactures.

Four industries occupy almost 90 per cent of the women employed in manufactures. The machine-operating trades, covering the production of corsets, women's clothing, and shoes and slippers, stand foremost, with 52 per cent of the women and 65 per cent of the girls employed in these four industries. The textile industries rank second, employing 18 per cent of the women and 20 per cent of the girls. Wire and metal goods rank third, with 15 per cent of the women. and 9 per cent of the girls. The metal trades draw a comparatively small number of girls from school, because of the heavier physical demands. Envelopes and paper goods rank fourth, with 13 per cent of the women and 5 per cent of the girls.

1 Statistics from records of factory inspection. These figures must be accepted as indicative rather than statistical.

[blocks in formation]

1 Statistics gained from records of factory inspector, together with those acquired by personal visits. A. Unskilled industries.-The textile industry, wire and metal goods and paper goods manufactures offer comparatively small opportunity for self-development, as has already been shown, though in some cases larger opportunity for financial advancement. The majority of the processes in the textile mills are highty mechanical and offer little opportunity other than tending machines. Weavers get good pay ($5 to $14 per week), but this branch has been closed to women in one large factory, because of the 56-hour law. In the carpet mills a large number of hand sewers are employed, and receive $12 to $18 a week. In the worsted and yain mills a small number of burlers or menders (hand sewers) receive from $6 to $12 a week.

The metal trades are probably the most hopeless of all trades as an industrial career for women, yet they are the third largest womenemploying industry of Worcester. The superintendent of one of the large wire factories granted that "there is little future" in the trade. Beginners in this factory start with 75 cents a day, the majority getting $1.75, with a maximum of $2 a day.

The paper trades are more desirable, in that the physical demands are less severe, the work cleaner, and the surroundings probably more attractive. The manager of a large envelope factory, however, frankly says there is no future in the business for girls, and that only workers of a type not high enough for skilled trades should be encouraged to go into it. The average girl learns the processes in one to two months, but according to one employer requires three years to reach the maximum speed. Folding of envelopes by machine is wholly unskilled work, the girl merely feeding the paper into the machine. Folding envelopes by hand requires a certain degree of accuracy, deftness, and speed, as does also covering pasteboard boxes with glazed paper. With the piecework system, envelope makers receive from $9 to $15 and box makers from $4 to $12, according to process and product. The manufacture of fancy paper products, such as valentines, cards, etc., is pleasant and attractive

work, but offers a short working season. There is opportunity for a comparatively small number of designers at $10 to $15, but the majority of the processes are unskilled and offer a range from $3 to $10 a week.

The proprietor of a large paper-goods factory says: "If a trade school could teach girls promptness alone, that would be worth something. Promptness, neatness, and a general knowledge of the industry should be taught those of not high enough type to be good material for skilled trades." This employer has struck the essential point in his appreciation of the need of a broader background and interest. The problem of how and when this broader background can be given the workers of these three factory industries is an open question. The small proportion of age and schooling certificates issued for the paper-goods factories corroborates the conclusion gained from visits to the factories, that the majority of these girls had reached the age of 16. The proprietors of the three paper-goods factories visited said they get most of their workers from the schools. If most of their workers come directly from the schools, and the majority are 16 years of age, this may account for the apparent higher grade of young girls in these factories.

The needs of the worker in these three factory industries, therefore, are somewhat different. The workers in the textile mills and metalgoods factories leave school early, and have little general or cultural education. The workers of the paper-goods factories may have, on the whole, more of the cultural education, yet the employer in the trade appreciates the need for a still wider interest and outlook. The opportunity for these workers probably lies either in part-time schools or in evening schools for the mature worker, giving a certain amount of supplementary training connected with the trade, but chiefly complementary teaching in domestic and academic subjects. Quite a large number of the girls visited in their homes asked if evening schools would be established, and expressed a desire to attend. A large number, however, would not be reached by evening schools, because of the demands on the physical strength of the girl or woman. who has a 10-hour working day.

B. The skilled industries.—(1) Machine operating: But one group of trades in Worcester, the needle trades, therefore, can be said to lay claim to a high grade of skill and offer opportunity for development and advancement.

The machine-operating trades show a state of transition from the low-skilled factory industries just discussed, to the high-grade skilled trades, dressmaking and millinery, and can not be considered as requiring more than a low grade of skill. The introduction of

1 September-December, time of maximum employment, 200. April-August, time of minimum employment, 26.

specialized machines which do only a special process, such as tucking, hemstitching, sewing on buttons, making button holes, and embroidering edges-the extreme division of labor, so that one girl does a single process from one day's end to another--and the supremacy of mechanical processes bave largely eliminated the need of and the demand for high-grade skill. Practically only three skilled processes exist in the factory-made clothing trades in Worcester. Of these, the cutting is monopolized with one exception by men. Of the two remaining processes, machine operating and hand sewing, the former employs by far the larger number of women.

The degree of skill required in machine operating is largely determined by the grade of product turned out. The machine-operating trades show 5 fairly definite stages of work which require (1) mechanical speed, (2) accuracy combined with speed, (3) accuracy combined with deftness, (4) constructive ability, and (5) artistic ability.

Machine operators on canvas goods-tents and awnings-or on overalls, stitchers and tuckers in a muslin-underwear factory, must acquire mechanical speed, primarily. Such workers are little above the envelope workers in degree of skill, with this slight difference, the power-sewing machine is subject to the worker who must feed the material through the machine straight, while the folding machine of the envelope feeder is wholly independent of the worker. Yet modern invention has introduced self-feeding, self-regulating hemstitching and tucking machines so that one girl can superintend 4 machines merely walking back and forth to see that everything is going right. A single industry, like the manufacture of corsets, for instance, offers the first four stages of work and necessitates the corresponding qualifications in the workers. A factory which produces a 69-cent or a dollar corset made of cheap materials, with little attention to lines and adaptation to form, requires a comparatively small de ree of skill and can be turned out at a high speed by a comparatively lowskilled worker. A factory which, on the other hand, produces a four or five dollar corset made of expensive materials with much attention to style and lines must have skilled workers of intelligence, deftness, and accuracy. The manufacture of high-grade waists and dresses requiring a high degree of skill and artistic ability has not yet been introduced in Worcester. The individual factories and kinds of products are therefore important in determining the desirability and possibilities of the trade.

The different processes requiring different degrees of skill, responsibility, and intelligence are open to the various kinds of workers best adapted to each; and the degree of skill, combined with the speed of the worker, determines and explains the wide range of pay discovered in the machine-operating trades.

« AnteriorContinuar »