United Automobile Worker

Women War Workers
Are Being
Neglected

Words of praise for the job women are doing in war plants roll without restraint from the mouths of top officials of government, industry and labor. This praise has been earned, but the woman war worker deserves more than lip service: she deserves recognition and help in her mounting difficulties of every-day living.

Every-day living problems most harass the woman war worker. Fear of grappling with them prevents thousands of women from going to work in armament plants where they are so urgently needed - to buy only what is needed in the neighborhood didn't happen.

If a woman is to give her best to her job she should not be plagued and preoccupied by the lack of convenient facilities for marketing, buying clothes, or getting her hair "done."
Many men jeer at the statement that a woman works better when she has had her hair freshly shampooed and curled, but there it is and they better learn to accept it.
There is no blinking the fact that industry must become more and more dependent upon feminine labor as the war progresses and the manpower situation tightens.
Special conveniences to accommodate these workers must be set up if industry is to reap the fullest benefit from it.
Labor unions have fought the good fight for women in the matter of equal pay for equal work.
They have demanded safe working conditions for them. In some states they have succeeded in achieving mandatory rest periods for women factory workers.

EDUCATION NEEDED

But the war has created additional problems.
Labor unions which have heretofore had a membership almost exclusively male are suddenly realizing that thousands upon thousands of women now belong to their organizations.
These women can become loyal unionists if given an opportunity to receive union education.
Or, by sheer force of numbers they can destroy the unions to which they belong not by conviction, but only because of maintenance of membership or closed shop clauses. Yet to date no real job of teaching these women the fundamentals of unionism has been attempted by labor.
So here we are with the greatest force of women in industry our country has ever known.
Government depends upon them.
Industry is dependent upon them.
They have impressive numbers in labor's ranks. And all three groups state publicly that women war workers are doing a wonderful job and then, by and large, ignore them.

PROBLEMS CITED

The problem of going to the store and buying food for herself and her family is a serious one these days, even to the woman who has no other job. For the woman who works outside her home eight out of 24 hours it is almost insurmountable. By the time she leaves her place of employment she is tired. She arrives at a grocery store and what has happened? Either the store is closed or there is left for her open but only a few items that she wants that day.

CO-OPS' MOMENT

This seems the opportune moment for the co-operative movement and local unions to set up shopping centers in the local halls, in an idle building adjacent to the plant, or in the plant, where management will cooperate.
The co-op could be open for certain specified hours - when shifts change. It should be operated for workers in plants of that neighborhood, with admission to the store by show of union membership card only.
At Studebaker Local 5, UAW-CIO, in South Bend, Indiana, a co-operative grocery and meat market has been established in the local hall, which is within a few blocks of the factory. There may be others but it is not the general rule.
Beauty parlors have been installed in a few plants. Why not beauty parlors in all plants where large numbers of women are employed? If not in the plant, then in the vicinity and operated by the union for its members.

IN-PLANT SHOPPING

In some localities department stores have changed their schedules to accommodate women who work during ordinary shopping hours.
But why not in-plant showrooms so that women can order wearing apparel on their lunch hour or before and after work? This would be a boon to the employees and the retailer, and would alleviate overcrowded transportation systems.
This innovation has been tried out in a few factories and has proved successful, but in the majority of cases its possibilities have been overlooked.
L. Bamberger, a subsidiary of Macy's department store in New York, operates a branch in the Harrison, N. J. plant of the Otis Elevator Company. Open one day a week, on pay day, the workers are given delivery service as well as charge accounts.
A branch of Bloomingdale's department store in New York has been opened at the Sperry-Gyroscope Company on Long Island.

REDUCES ABSENTEEISM

In-plant shopping, where it has been tried, has reduced absenteeism to a minimum, and has made startling difference in workers' morale.
But for these and a few other cases the woman war worker has been left to struggle on as best she can. Management, labor, or government must give her help if she is to perform to the best of her ability. She is not working in a factory on whim; she is there because the men must be in the front lines and she is a vitally important cog in the machinery of war.
The fact is that women are being ignored. If cognizance is not taken of their difficulties they may prove a boomerang to the very organizations newly dependent upon them.