Women in the Printing Trades: A Sociological Study.
General
Women in the Printing Trades: A Sociological Study.
Printing industry -- Great Britain; Women -- Employment -- Great Britain; Women printers -- Great Britain; Working class women -- Great Britain
HOURS.--The hours are from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with one hour for dinner
and a quarter of an hour for tea; on Saturdays, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.,
with half an hour for a meal. They never get away at 6 though, not till
6.30 or later, for there are the machines to be cleaned and things to be
cleared up.
GENERAL.--Mr. S. sometimes comes round and talks as if he were the
kindest of employers. "He'll say, 'Take care of your head, there, dear.'
It makes you sick to hear him. If he'd give better wages it would be
more to the point."
4. Q., _Job Printing Firm in London. Visit to Works._
WORK.--I went through the works and saw 10 extra young girls sticking on
pockets for stamps on to an appeal sheet of ...; one girl feeding a
platen machine which was gumming instead of printing; 4 or 5 upstairs in
the regular folding room folding....
REGULARITY.--Q. has only 4 or 5 regular hands, and when there is a rush
of work, he takes on job hands. "You put up a bill and can easily get
100 if you want them." He dislikes the custom, but does not see how it
is to be obviated in the printing trade. "You suddenly have 75,000
circulars to do, and you don't know when the next order will be."
HOURS.--The hours are from 8 a.m. to 6.30 p.m., with one hour for
dinner, ten minutes for lunch and ten minutes for tea. Girls prefer
this to half an hour for tea and leaving at 7. On Saturdays the hours
are from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., no meal time being allowed. The married
women, however, rarely come till 9 a.m.
5. L., _Printing, etc., Firm in London. Employée's Evidence._
WORK.--200 girls are employed at L.'s. Informant does folding now, used
to do sewing by machine.
REGULARITY.--The work is regular, "but you never know when the work is
coming in. They are always busy with the ... guides at the end of the
month, and two or three job hands come in."
HEALTH.--She has always found the occupation healthy.
PROSPECTS.--None; is slow herself. She has worked at L.'s six years, and
has never known of anyone becoming a forelady.
DANGERS.--She has never had an accident, and was working on a machine
for five years.
HOURS.--The hours are from 8.30 a.m. to 7 or 8 p.m., with an hour for
dinner (from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.), and half an hour for tea (4 p.m. to 4.30
p.m.) and from 8.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Sometimes they are let
off early if there is no work. But some girls go and lark about in the
street, and then the manager scolds the forelady and she will not let
the others go. She never takes a holiday except Bank Holidays.
GENERAL.--Only talks to a few of the girls, but they are quite a nice
set.
6. T., _Weekly Newspaper Firm in London. Visit to Works._
WORK.--Folding, gathering, collating, sewing (all sewing by machinery),
or stabbing with wire, insetting, wrappering (glue pot), feeding folding
machines.
REGULARITY.--It is more or less regular, but there is the regular weekly
and monthly work, so there is less fluctuation than in "binding houses."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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