History of Women in the United States: Volume 7/2: Industrial Wage Work

## χ SERIES PREFACE articles are ordered chronologically (with respect to substance), so that the whole can be read as an historical overview. The only exception to this ordering principle is Volume One, on Theory and Method, in which the contents are arranged in order of publication. Within each volume there is an attempt to include articles on as diverse kinds of women as possible. None of the volume topics is regionally or racially defined; rather, all volumes are topically designed so as to afford views of women's work, family lives, and public activities which cut across races and regions. Any volume in the series stands on its own, supplying as full a treatment of a designated subject matter as the scholarly literature will provide. Several groupings of volumes also make sense; that is, volumes two through five all center around domestic and family matters; volumes five through nine consider other varieties of women's work; volumes nine through eleven concern uses and abuses of women's bodies; volumes twelve through fourteen look at major aspects of socialization; and volumes fifteen through twenty include organizational and political efforts of many sorts. As a whole, the series displays in all its range the vitality of the field of women's history. Aside from imbuing U.S. history with new vision, scholarship in this area has informed, and should continue to inform, current public debate on issues from parental leave to the nuclear freeze. By bringing historical articles together under topical headings, these volumes both represent accurately the shape of historical controversy (or consensus) on given issues and make historians' findings most conveniently available for current reference. Because most women industrial workers in the nineteenth century were in the labor force for only a phase of their lives, before marriage and childbearing, union organization among them tended to be difficult and fleeting. Male craft union leaders, by and large, saw women-even those in the industrial labor forceas actual or potential daughters, wives and mothers, rather than fellow laborers, and wished less to organize them than to see them safely out of the labor market. After the turn of the twentieth century, however, union organizing among industrial 2 "The Working Girls of Boston," from the 15th Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, for 1884, by Carroll Wright, excerpted in Root of Bitterness: Documents of the Social History of American Women, Nancy F. Cott, ed. (Ν.Y.. E.P. Dutton, 1972), 311-313. \* I would like to thank Irving Ahella and Ian Radlonh tor their valuable comments and criticisms ol this paper. 3 G. Parsons. "A History of Labour Relations in Bell", unpublished manuscript. 1963, Bell Canada Historical Collection, (hereafter BCHC). β Early operaiors file, BCHC. 7 Circular to Supervisors re Hiring, Early Operaiors file, BCHC. »Ibid. honorarium when they returned home.) The first day of the strike, the scabs were taunted by the picketers at the Exchange door. "I hope you die of nervous prostration". 29 shouted one irate striker. Some of the Montreal strikebreakers had to be removed from their hotel when bellboys objected to their presence; other scabs complained of harassment over the telephone as they worked. All the Toronto daily papers were sympathetic to the operators. A Globe editorial heartily endorsed the strike, criticizing Bell's selfish and inhumane treatment of its women workers. The Company, however, was not censured for its use of strikebreakers, but rather for its neglect of the operators' health and mental well-being. In the York County Council a unanimous resolution was passed condemning Bell for its neglect of their employees' health: the Company was described as "inhuman, a menace to business . . . and should not be tolerated in a free Canada." 30 On Sunday, 3 February. Reverend J.E. StarT. a local Methodist minister, held a church service for the strikers. His sermon, taken from St. Paul's words I entreat thee also yoke fellow, help those women", condemned Bell's 'tyranny overthe weaker sex" and called for a more humane employment system which would not "strain women beyond their capacity and impair the interests of the unborn." 31 Yet, despite such public sympathy, the strikers gained no ground. Moralistic sermons and editorials were not backed up with laws compelling Bell to negotiate with the strikers, nor were the women even unionized. The only real weapon the women had in the dispute was the withdrawal of their labour power and that weapon had been quickly nullified by the use of strikebreakers. The Bell management was determined to avoid setting the precedent of discussing and negotiating working conditions with their employees: they were adamantly opposed to any semblance of collective bargaining. Charles Sise had made his ideological opposition to unions clear during a dispute with Hamilton linemen in 1900. In 1907 that opposition remained. Sise informed the Montreal press of his firm intention to lock out the women: "so far as we are concerned, the strike is over. The Company has all the new operators it requires." 32 Dunstan echoed this opinion, telling the Toronto newspapers that he might consider "on an individual basis only, any operator who wished to return to work on the eight hour schedule." 33 The Company did make some attempt to counter its unfavourable public image. In his interviews with the press, Dunstan stressed three arguments. First, he emphasized that the Company's most important concern was its obligation to the community, justifying the use of strikebreakers by professing that Bell was interested only in continuing its service to the public. Secondly, 2a Toronto News. 1 February 1907. Contents Series Preface Introduction Part 2. THE 1907 BELL TELEPHONE STRIKE: Organizing Women Workers Women, Wobblies, and Workers' Rights: The 1912 Textile Strike in Little Falls, New York WHY WOMEN WORK: A COMPARISON OF VARIOUS GROUPS-PHILADELPHIA, 1910-1930 Rethinking the Sexual Division of Labor: Pullman Repair Shops, 1900-1969 Disorderly Women: Gender and Labor Militancy in the Appalachian South WOMEN IN THE WORK FORCE Atlanta, New Orleans, and San Antonio, 1930 to 1940 Women's Work and Economic Crisis: Some Lessons of the Great Depression REDEFINING "WOMEN'S WORK": THE SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOR IN THE AUTO INDUSTRY DURING WORLD WAR II "THEY HAVE PLACED A PENALTY ON WOMANHOOD": THE PROTEST ACTIONS OF WOMEN AUTO WORKERS IN DETROIT-AREA UAW LOCALS, 1945-1947 WOMEN WORKERS AND THE UAW IN THE POST-WORLD WAR II PERIOD: 1945-1954 PROTECTION OF WOMEN WORKERS AND THE COURTS: A LEGAL CASE HISTORY Copyright Information Index Part of a fully indexed 20-volume collection which gathers together significant research contributions on the social, religious and political history of women in the United States, from colonial times to the 1990s.