FEMALE STRIKE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1083, 26 January 1883, Page 3

FEMALE STRIKE.

It is not often that we hear of women and girls turning out on strike, but that unusual occurrence has hem witnessed in this city within the hist few days. At intervals some ye rs past we have received communications complaining of the starvation wages paid by the cmtbiug tuanulacturers to their ban is ; but books have always been pro ■ meed to disprove the statements made,ami after some sight enntrovesy the sui ject has been allows Ito drop. It appears, however, that in the opinion of Messrs Beath, Soilless, and Co., low as the prices paid for needlewo k have been, they have cot been low enough ; so about six or seven weeks ago 10 per cent, was deducted from the wages given by them for piecework. There was grumb ing at this, but necessity demanded acquiescence. Encouraged by the success achieved, the firm in question dete mined to have another slice oil the earnings of its employes, but when a further reduction Was announcid sums flash and bloo 1 rebelled. 1 i throe factories the white slaves submitted, but those in the fourth “ went out.” Once mo.e the hooks are brought out for inspection, an 1 our reporter 'B assured that good hands can make w hat certainly apoear very decent wages. ‘■Hut, on the other haul, the employes assert that such wages cannot lie made unless they work not only the full eight hours in the lac .ory, but take home work and si' up until 11) or 11 o’clock every night." If they had to labour until 10 or II uu lev the old scale to meet their requirements, what will they have to c ! o nndei the new? It i possible that the state of the trade renders the roluctions unavoidable ; but if uot, the decrease m prices certainly seems very much like an attempt to grind the faces of the poor and helpless. We fear that in the attempt to protect th- ir interests many poor women aud girls will undergo great suffering and have anything outja “ merry Christmas.” But, after all, the discipline they will undergo will prove salutary if it leads them to overcome the sill.' vanity which withholds them from the comparative freedom of domestic service i.n keeps them the serfs of an overcrowded trade. When the custom of *' going out to service” had been established am mgst the class that now furnishes the factory hands, the offer of needlework would not have had the overpowering attractions which it has undoubtedly possessed. If women—young women especially—are wise, they will make haste to quit a business in which employers can knock off 10 or 20 pur ccut. of their earnings at pleasure. —Melbourne Argue,