The Pullman boycott : $b A complete history of the great R. R. strikeBurns, W. F.
History
The Pullman boycott : $b A complete history of the great R. R. strike
Burns, W. F.
Pullman Strike, 1894
The machinists, sheet iron and tin workers, foundrymen and blacksmiths
had all been reduced from 30 to 50 per cent during the last year, and
even heavier reductions, according to the report, have been made in
other departments. Although wages had been previously reduced, the
greatest cut went into effect last fall in the higher grades of labor.
The reduction then made was from 80 to 20 per cent and in the lower
grades 30 per cent. For example, the price paid for the decorating
finish on the outside of a Pullman sleeper before the reduction, was
$40.00, and now it is $18.00.
By working hard for ten hours a decorator may earn $1.90.
This sweeping reduction included all classes, and the laborers were
compelled to work for from 70 cents to $1.00 per day, all this in the
face of the fact that when a reduction was made three years ago, the men
were told that as long as the shops stood there would never be another
cut in the wages of those who worked upon the Pullman sleepers.
A committee of girls, from those who were barely keeping body and soul
together by working piece work for $2.50 and $3.00 per week, asked the
foreman for an increase to enable them to live, and his answer was: If
you cannot live upon the pay you are getting, go out and hustle for
more. Why should we wonder that houses of prostitution find no
difficulty in procuring inmates?
Think of young women having to board and clothe themselves, and in many
instances supporting an invalid mother or young brothers and sisters on
such meager wages.
The cold blooded avarice of the Pullman company is not even satisfied in
requiring its employes to work for starvation wages, for in what he
exacts from his tenant employes he is even more grasping.
That model town of Pullman is owned by the Pullman company and
everything about it is made to pay toll to this grasping monopoly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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