Women in the Printing Trades Part 31

TABLE PROCESSES.

All _table processes_, such as folding, knocking-up, gumming, numbering, paging, interlaying, etc., are done by women. The average wage varies from 8_s._ to about 12_s._ 6_d._ Numbering seems to be about the best.

Three numberers had taken 15_s._, but the average maximum was between 11_s._ and 12_s._ 6_d._

ENVELOPE MAKING.

_Training._--A beginner is given a teacher, that is, a more experienced worker, for six weeks. The teacher gets the profits of the beginner's work, and the beginner is paid about 4_s._ per week.

All the work in the establishment was piecework, with the exception of the new Scotch folding machine, which turns out 25,000 envelopes per day, as against 2,000 done by hand. The day wage is 12_s._ per week.

_Sub-divisions._--Envelope folders take 7_s._ to 15_s._ The smallest envelopes are 6_d._ per 1,000, the largest 1_s._ 10_d._

_Average wage_ for folding is 10_s._ to 12_s._ _Stamping_, 7_s._ to 10_s._ _St.i.tching_, 8_s._ to 10_s._ _Gumming_, 10_s._ to 14_s._

_General Remarks._--Envelope making is not a seasonal trade.

_Hours._--Maximum, 49 per week.

8.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m., winter.

8 a.m. to 6 p.m., summer.

One week's holiday in August.

One week's holiday at Christmas.

COLOUR PRINTING.

Colour Printing takes about six months to learn well.

_Wages._--10_s._ to 12_s._ for a woman. A man employed on a heavier machine took 20_s._

The forewoman takes 14_s._

BOOKBINDING.

By the rules of the Machine Rulers' and Bookbinders' Consolidated Union women may only bind paper pamphlets. They are not allowed to bind regular books. They may book-st.i.tch with thread or wire, glue, fold, bronze, and gild.

PAPER-BAG MAKING.

_Business No. 1._

_Conditions._--Cap bag-making is all piecework, except for beginners, who start at 4_s._ In fifteen months, manager says they should be able to earn 10_s._ per week by piecework.

_Average Wage._--13_s._ to 15_s._ Manager considered that in heavy cap bag-making 19_s._ was top wage ever taken by an extra good hand in extra busy time.

Eighteen girls were employed in cap bag-making.

A rougher cla.s.s of girls were employed in the sugar bag department, which is heavier work. The wages were higher for this heavier work. The average wage approached 15_s._

The bag-stringing machine was the only machinery employed in this business. It was worked by a foreman and forewoman. No married women were employed. The clerks were all women, taking 20_s._ per week. The manager preferred them to men because they were content with that wage as a maximum.

_Outwork_ given to old workers under known conditions, as since the bags are for the grocery trade it is important to know home conditions. Same price as for inworkers, but outworkers found their own paste and brushes, etc.

_Hours._--8 a.m. to 7 p.m., 1 hour dinner, 20 minutes tea. Sat.u.r.day, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

_Remarks._--The contrast between this business and the business next door (see following case) was very striking as regards relation between manager and employees.

_Business No. 2._

Girls are employed here in bag-making and table processes. The employer considered that the girls could average 9_s._ to 10_s._ He gave the highest wage for machine laying-on, which begins at 7_s._ and goes up to 12_s._ and 13_s._ This wage was given because of the danger of the process (I think the machine was the "Arab," which in union houses women may not work "because of the danger"). Manager believed a good many of his hands were married women. He did not care whether they were married or not. The forewoman and the girl in the warehouse were each taking 11_s._

_Homework._--Given out in busy times to whoever applied, without further precautions. Manager thought no outworker took more than 4_s._ to 5_s._ per week.

_Hours._--8 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.

Fifty-two and a half hours per week regular time. Just now (December) they were working ten hours per day.

August slackest month. Manager generally turned off hands then. Manager spoke of difficulty of getting workers--he could not get boys to feed the machines, for example, because it led to nothing.

Manager said he "conducted his business on purely business principles"

and got his work done as cheaply as he could.

MACHINE FEEDING.

This is the lowest work in letterpress printing. Girls are employed largely as feeders, and are replacing boys. The managers said that the work was not liked by boys, as leading to nothing, and it was difficult to get them. The wages for a machine feeder are 4_s._ 6_d._ to 5_s._ 6_d._ initial wage, which rises to 8_s._ 6_d._ or 9_s._ In the best workshops we were told that the firm tried to find better work for machine feeders when they had been some time with them and had proved themselves capable and steady. Other firms did not know what became of machine feeders when they grew dissatisfied with the small wage paid to them.

_Employment of Married Women._

It is curious to notice how few married women there are in the printing trade in Birmingham compared to the pen trade, for example. A better cla.s.s of girl seems to go into the printing trade, coming from better homes than women employed in the hardware trades. It is very exceptional for a girl who marries a skilled artisan in Birmingham to continue her work, and in these trades girls appear to belong more to the skilled artisan cla.s.s. Several employers refuse married women; one employer told me that he never had had an application for work from a married woman.

Only one employer was indifferent as to whether he employed married women, and did not know whether his hands were married or not.

_Women and Machinery._

It was very difficult to ascertain whether the machinery introduced meant dismissal of hands. In one business, for example, the thread sewing machine introduced 12 months ago did the work of 12 girls. The machinist was taking 12_s._ per week in place of 12 girls at 10_s._ to 12_s._ 6_d._ The manager said that they had not dismissed any thread sewers when this machine was introduced, but had absorbed them in other processes. They would, however, engage no more girls as thread sewers.

The new Scotch folding machine for envelopes, which turns out 25,000 per day against 2,000 done by hand, also was _said_ not to have been productive of dismissals.[98]

[Footnote 98: The only actual cases of dismissal of workers owing to introduction of machinery which I can ascertain is that of the new grinding machines for pens. The employer, who has invented the machine, told me he meant to dismiss about half his grinders and supply their places with girls fresh from school, as very little skill will be needed to work the machine. I hear that the largest pen business has ordered sixty of these machines, but I have not yet ascertained what effect it will have on that business. The employer in the first business mentioned spoke of the grinders as the most indocile of his workers, and as many of them belonged to the Penworkers' Union, he hoped that the machine would help in annihilating the union. In two businesses I was told that the cheapness of women labour r.e.t.a.r.ded the introduction of thread sewing machines, etc.]

_Continuity of Employment in Printing Trade._