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STATEMENT OF MRS. DOROTHY FARNELL, MEMBER OF THE AMALGAMATED CLOTHING WORKERS OF AMERICA FROM WEST WARWICK, R. I.

My name is Mrs. Dorothy Farnell. I live in West Warwick, R. I., and work as a stitching operator at the Arnoff Manufacturing Co. there.

My father died when I was 13 and I was forced to go to work so as to help support my sister of 7 years of age. My first job was with Fownes Silk Glove Co., in Amsterdam, N. Y. I received $6 a week. After that I worked in a knitting mill and a men's clothing shop at Utica, N. Y.

I married in 1924. Six years later I started to take in boarders so as to help meet expenses. In 1930, we moved to Connecticut. At this time my husband was earning $28 a week in a mill. When the owner of the mill decided to shut down, my husband and two other men worked at half pay, $14 a week, so as to keep this mill open and also to keep themselves with jobs. We moved to West Warwick, R. I., with this same mill. My husband's pay was increased to $22. I started to take in roomers again so that we could get a little more money to live on. Finally, my husband was too ill to work. I could not support my two children and my husband with only the money from roomers and in 1942 I found a job in a garment factory making slips for $14 a week. When the Arnoff Manufacturing Co. opened to make flying jackets for the Army Air forces I went there to work. I have been there since 1943. My husband hasn't been with me since then and I have had no assistance from him either.

In 1943 the house I was living in was sold and I was forced to move into a tenement house. I pay out $3 a week for rent, an average of $2 per week for oil, this being used for cooking and heating, $1 for transportation, $2 for insur ance, about $16 for food (this includes, ice, milk, and eggs). I have tried for 2 years now to find a decent place to live in. I can't find one which I can afford 'We have three rooms and a pantry. The only facilities we have are electricity and an iron sink with one faucet. The toilet is in the back yard. After pay ing my necessary expenses I have $4 left to buy clothing, pay doctors' and dentists' bills.

Last year my pay averaged $28.60 per week. This is not much these days to live on. I work on piecework. Some weeks there isn't much work, then I re ceive the 60 cents minimum which we have in our shop. It isn't nearly enough. My son is 15, and believe me, it is some job to keep him in clothes. He wears size 38 men's suits. His clothing costs as much as a man's, and he needs more than a man for he wears things out quicker, especially shoes. We couldn't manage at all if my boy didn't help in every way possible. In summer he mows lawns. A year ago he picked cranberries in the cranberry bog. He came home nights with his knees all swollen and cracked. This fall he picked potatoes. When he does these jobs he goes to school every other week during the season and he has to catch up his work then. He will be 16 in the spring. I would like to keep him in school, but at the present time it seems impossible. I have had a debt of $400 for the past 5 years which I haven't had an opportunity to pay anything one. I also owe a $50 dentist bill for the past year. Last summer when our plant was shut down I was forced to sell my washing machine and sewing machine so as to have enough money for food. It is the same everywhere in West Warwick. There are girls who do waitress work after working all day in the mills.

The cutters in our shop haven't worked since VJ-day. This means that eventually it will become my turn to be laid off. Earnings have dropped sines VJ-day. We have a 60-cent minimum in the plant I work in. When I am laid off I will be forced to go to another shop where the minimum rate is lower.

I want my boy to finish at least his high-school education. I have heard other testimonies where mothers have had to put their children to work ever at the age of 12. Our children should have the privilege of finishing their schooling. I have come down here to urge the Senators to pass this bill that wold give everyone a minimum wage of 65 to 75 cents an hour. Living costs haven't come down since VJ-day, although our earnings have. We have worked hard during the war and even then earned just enough to get by. I, personally, am no better off financially than I was at the beginning of the war; in fact, I an poorer. We want our wages to be at least enough so that we have enough for the bare necessities of life.

STATEMENT OF MRS. ESTHER FOSTER, MEMBER OF THE AMALGAMATED CLOTHING WORKERS OF AMERICA FROM POTTSVILLE, PA.

My name is Mrs. Esther Foster. I work as a spreader in the Style Specialists Co. at Pottsville, Pa. We've been working on Government work lately, mostly jackets, but ordinarily this company makes bathrobes. There are about 550 or 600 workers altogether. I have been there 13 years now and make $25 for a 40-hour week. That comes to about 62 cents an hour. But after deductions for social security, income tax, and bonds, I usually take home about $20 a week. I am a widow and am the only support of my two children and my widowed mother. If my mother did not own her own little house I don't know how we would make ends meet at all. My $20 a week just pays for food, taxes on the house, and insurance. The insurance doesn't come to much-just enough for burial money. If people didn't give us clothes, I don't know where we would get the money to pay for them. My little girl had an operation over 2 years ago, and I've just finished paying for it now. Most of the other time-workers in my shop earn $3 a week less than I do. I don't know how they manage, because most of them have people to take care of, too.

I certainly hope the Government does something to raise wages. We're barely getting along now. How far does $20 a week go? If I had a little more money, the first thing I'd do is have our house fixed. We're lucky not to have to pay rent, but the house is just falling apart now and has to have some repairs. Then I'd like to have a little more money to be sure that my two children can finish high school instead of going out to work to support themselves before they should. I want my children to have a better break than I did and I think the least they can do is finish high school, for the future of tomorrow is the child of today; and if the child of today does not have an education, what will the future of tomorrow be? Education is one thing in life that should be acquired by all children. How can our future of tomorrow be successful if the child must quit school to help support his family? For we are growing older and will look

for the child of today to take care of the tomorrow.

STATEMENT OF MRS. EDNA HOLLINGER, MEMBER OF THE AMALGAMATED CLOTHING WORKERS OF AMERICA FROM YORK, PA.

I am Mrs. Edna Hollinger. I live in York, Pa., and work at F. Jacobson & Sons, a shirt company there.

I am 25 years old and have been working since I was 15. My first job was as hand sewer on children's wear at $10 a week. I then went to work at Reliance factory on pajamas and 4 years ago came to the company where I now work. I'm a stitching operator on dress shirts.

My husband is a seaman first class in the Navy. He's been in the service for 25 months and in the Pacific for 22 months. Before that he was a truck driver. After we were married about a year, we decided to start buying a home so that we would have a good start in life. So we have this three-apartment home in York which we have already finished paying for. I rent out two of the apartments, one of $20 and the other for $26 a month. I have a 19-month-old baby boy and live with my baby and my mother-in-law in the other apartment. Aside from the rent from the other apartments, we have the allotment from my husband which comes to $80 a month, and my own pay check which amounts to a little over $30 a week with overtime.

That may sound like a lot of money to you, but it doesn't go far in meeting expenses for the baby and my mother-in-law. We have to pay $144 a year for coal and $12 a year for water. Our gas comes to from $6 to $9 a month, electricity is $3, insurance $8 a month. When my husband was home, he used to take care of a lot of repairs around the house. Now, I have to spend more money keeping the house in good shape. Whatever is left after I pay for the expenses around the house, I use for food or for clothes for the baby.

If I didn't work, we couldn't manage at all. And, I don't want my husband to have to come home and start life all over again with a lot of bills on his hands. We had a pretty good start with the house, and I want to keep us out of the red. That's why I'm working.

78595-45- -87

STATEMENT OF MISS HILDA LAROCHELLE, MEMBER OF THE AMALGAMATED CLOTHING WORKERS OF AMERICA FROM WATERVILLE, MAINE

My name is Hilda LaRochelle and I work at the C. F. Hathaway Co., a shirt factory with about 500 workers in Waterville, Maine. I've been there about 4 years and work now as a shirt folder. This is really a pressing operation, and since I am very skilled at it by this time, if I work every single minute I some times make as much as 85 cents an hour on the piece rates. But lately we haven't been working full weeks and I usually take home about $30 a week. We have a pretty large family back home. Neither my father nor mother can work. I live with them, my niece, another sister, and a boarder in a house which we rent for $25 a month. All of my family has to get along on my earnings, $7 a week which we get from the boarder, and $5 which we get for support of the niece. Even earning as much as 85 cents an hour, it's hard to manage. I have needed an operation for several years and have been unable to have it because I can't save up enough money for it. And, aside from that, I have to pay a lot of money for injections, medicine, and special foods besides steady medical care for my mother.

There are several reasons why I am down here in support of this minimum wage bill. For one thing, I know that even on my 85 cents an hour, it's hard to manage with my responsibilities, and I certainly want to be sure that I won't have to be working for starvation wages after the war. Then, also, I know that there are plenty of people in my factory and in my town who don't make as much as I do and who have responsibilities, too. I want to be sure that they will have enough to live on. That's why I think the Government should make it a law that nobody should get less than 75 cents an hour.

STATEMENT OF MRS. BILLIE CUNNINGHAM, MEMBER OF THE AMALGAMATED CLOTHING WORKERS FROM FAYETTEVILLE, TENN.

I am Mrs. Billie Cunningham, Fayetteville, Tenn. Until this summer I worked as a final inspector at the Blue Ridge Shirt Manufacturing Co. in Fayetteville. I got 40 cents an hour for this work, but there was almost never a full week's work for me and my pay check was usually not much more than $13 a week.

I never worked until 3 years ago. My husband was a railroad conductor and earned pretty good money. We were able to start buying our own home, but we couldn't save anything else because I had some nine operations that took just about all our money. Three years ago my husband had to retire on a pension because he developed cataracts on his eyes. He will never work again. That's when I had to go to work at Blue Ridge.

My husband gets $91.12 a month from his pension. Until I was laid off this summer, I was bringing home between $13 and $15 most weeks. We get $25 a month for renting out one of the apartments in our house. My husband's pension, and the $25 rent, and my paycheck when I had one, is all the income we have.

The house we are paying for has three apartments in it. My husband and my 17-year-old daughter and I occupy one. Another is accupied by my 74-yearold aunt, who helped bring me up, and a 50-year-old woman who lives with her and helps her out. The third is rented for the $25. Out of our income we still pay $50 a month on our house, $109 a year for taxes on the house, $4 a month for water, $1 a month for gas, and we also pay for electricity, coal, and insurance. We give my aunt her apartment and pay for her light and water and heat. But she and this 50-year-old woman bake cakes when they can to try to earn enough money for their groceries.

I barely get by with food on the money we have now. I haven't had a new dress in a long time. Whenever I do start out to get something I need for myself, I usually end up with something for my daughter. She's 17 now and just at the age when she needs so many things. Besides, she's bigger than I am and I can make over her old clothes for myself.

I would like to be able to get a job that pays more than 40 cents an hour that I could be sure that my daughter would finish her education. She's almost through high school now and wants to go on and take a secretarial course s that she will be able to help support her father, too. I would like for her to take that course so that she won't have to go and work in a factory for 4 cents an hour.

STATEMENT OF STEPHEN GANNON, MEMBER OF THE AMALGAMATED CLOTHING WORKERS OF AMERICA FROM NEW YORK CITY

My name is Stephen Gannon. I am a cutter in the firm of Cohen, Goldman & Co. of New York City, one of the largest manufacturers of men's clothing in the country. I am appearing here on behalf of the men's clothing workers. Although men's clothing workers are not now among the lowest paid groups, they are nevertheless directly concerned with the proposed increase in the minimum wage. They know from experience that irregularity in their employment is directly due to changes in purchasing power.

I have been a cutter for Cohen, Goldman for over 20 years, after having been an apprentice cutter for 4 years. The work of a cutter is highly skilled, requiring a long period of training and great responsibility, because a single error on the part of a cutter may cost the employer a great deal of money.

I am here, however, to speak for all men's clothing workers, because cutters, as a matter of fact, represent only about 5 percent of all men's clothing workers. And, even though our weekly rates are not among the lowest, I can clearly remember during the last 10 years when men's clothing workers in the contract shops in New York were making only $700 a year because of "slow time." Through our union, we have been successful in raising our wages over the years. But we know that no matter how high our weekly rates are, if there is not sufficient work to go around, we will not make enough throughout the year. Today, those men's clothing workers, who during the war and until VJ-day were employed more than 50 percent on the manufacture of uniform clothing for the armed forces, feel the effects of reconversion unemployment. We do not expect this period of slack work to be prolonged, for we know that as soon as adequate piece goods are available, we will be busy making suits and overcoats for men returning from overseas. But the present depleted pay check brings freshly to mind the memory of the depleted or absent pay check that haunted us during the depression and the recession of 1937 and 1938, when there was not enough purchasing power in the country. That is why we know that our own full employment, like that of all other workers, depends on the maintenance of consumer purchasing power through higher minimum wages as well as other means.

You Senators have already heard testimony bearing on the fact that America is not adequately clothed. Several of the witnesses who testified before your committee last year urging the Congress to adopt the Pepper resolution told you that their husbands had not been able to buy a suit of clothes in as long as 18 years. As a matter of fact, in 1939, one of the best prewar years in the men's clothing industry, the industry produced only one-half suit for each adult male in the country. And since there are always some people who buy more than one suit a year, this means there are millions who do without altogether. If low-wage workers could be assured that their minimum earnings would not fall to 40 cents an hour, they would not be afraid to buy that sorely needed suit of clothes, and men's clothing workers would be assured of full employment.

But I don't want you to think that our interest in this bill is a selfish one. We realize that this measure is actually an urgent and emergency measure for millions of American workers, and I am here to let you know that the men's clothing workers stand united with all other workers in support of this measure which will help maintain our economy at a level which will make a decent standard of living possible for everyone.

EXHIBIT 83

STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY ALBERT J. FITZGERALD, PRESIDENT, UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO, AND MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO

The close of the greatest war in history finds the American workers determined to win the peace. Having prevented the catastrophe of fascism from overwhelming the world, they are in no mood to tolerate the reappearance of those conditions making possible its rise. They want to see those Siamese twins of fascism and war, unemployment and starvation, banished from the earth. And they recognize clearly that the best way to accomplish this is to start the ball rolling right here at home. That is the reason behind their determination to establish a full production, full employment economy in America.

To continue the high levels of production and income that prevailed during the war it is imperative that wages, especially in the lower income brackets, be raised. President Truman, Secretary of the Treasury Vinson, Reconversion Director Snyder, and Secretary of Labor Schwellenbach, have all indicated the necessity of increasing wages, particularly those falling below what is needed for a fair and decent standard of living. As President Truman so aptly put it in his message to Congress, "The foundations of a healthy national economy cannot be secure so long as any large section of our working people receive substandard wages. The existence of substandard wage levels sharply curtails the national purchasing power and narrows the market for the products of farms and factories."

But it seems that Congress does not know this. For the past 2 or 3 years it has shown more concern in protecting the profits and the property of industry than in safeguarding the income of labor. As a result, it has voted billions for businessmen, but not one thin dime for workingmen. This large-handed policy toward industry and empty-handed policy toward labor have combined to make American workers fighting mad. They are determined to hold Congress to strict accountability for the human side of demobilization. And they will not take no for an answer. They want favorable action and they want it now.

That is why we in the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, CIO, representing 700,000 workers in the electrical machinery industry. are here today to urge the passage without delay or crippling amendments of the Pepper substandard wage bill (S. 1349).

This measure, cast in the form of an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, has the unqualified endorsement and support of the United Electricians. By establishing an immediate minimum wage of 65 cents an hour during the first year after passage and by requiring a minimum hourly rate of 70 cents during the second year and 75 cents after the expiration of 2 years, the pending legislation represents a definite step forward in the attainment of a fullemployment economy. Besides, by broadening the coverage of the Fair Labor Standards Act to include food processing workers and merchant seamen, and by providing for the recommendation by industry committees of minimum wage differentials for jobs which should pay more than 75 cents an hour, the proposed Pepper bill is designed to prevent the idea of full employment from being used as a disguise for human exploitation.

About 22 percent of those working in the electrical machinery industry earn less than 65 cents an hour. A large proportion of these are in unorganized shops or shops organized in other unions. In the shops organized by the United Elee tricians the payment of substandard wages is due to the prevalence in the industry of historic wage differentials based on sex. As a union, we have fought vigorously and consistently against any discrimination of women and, as a result, we have narrowed down that discrimination. If historic differentials, which constitute a real discrimination against the women of our industry, are done away with, substandard rates of pay, as defined in the Pepper bill, will be eliminated. The Pepper bill, if passed, would automatically eliminate a good part of this discrimination against women. Since the minimum hourly wage for men's jobs in the electrical machinery industry approximates 70 to 80 cents, the Pepper bill would bring the rates on women's jobs to the same level as men's jobs.

Just what is this historic differential in rates paid to women? Companies in the electrical field, such as the Big Two-General Electric and Westinghousehave what they are pleased to call men's and women's jobs. Two separate rate schedules are kept with women's jobs being paid 15 or 20 cents an hour less than the men's job with equivalent job content. The differential which is maintained is not justified by the sytem which the companies have in effect to measure the job content of men's and women's jobs.

Both General Electric and Westinghouse pride themselves on the scientific and up-to-date job evaluation systems which they use to measure the relative worth of their jobs. These job evaluation systems measure all jobs on the basis of common characteristics, such as the education, experience, and aptitude re quired, physical and mental demands of the job, the responsibilities of the job, and the nature of the working conditions. For example, at the Westing house Newark meter plant, both men's and women's jobs are assigned points on the basis of the degree to which the aforementioned characteristics are present. Despite the fact that the job content of women's jobs is measured on the same scale of characteristics as are men's jobs, women's jobs are arbitrarily put into separate labor grades which pay rates 152 cents an hour less than the equivalent male rate with the same job content.

The General Electric Co. also evaluates the job content of men's and women's jobs on the same scale of characteristics, but the rates for women's jobs are only

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