The Daily Worker

Western Union N.R.A. Code Doubles Messengers' Work, With No Rate Rise

Western Union's Lying Pictures

Messenger Boy Tells What the Reality Is

By a Western Union Correspondent

BROOKLYN, N. Y.-We see a few men seated side by side as young boys awaiting their turn to go out for a call, for a few measly pennies.

These men are way past their prime of life, bald and gray, and seated at a job that even we young boys hate.

We wear a ridiculously cut old-fashioned uniform; large heavy caps which we usually carry in our hand, tight fitting pants close around our calves, and puttees which cut into our ankles. Could we not get high shoes?

We work hardest in all sorts of rains and freak weather and are the least paid.

The Western Union Telegraph Co. hardly posts beautiful pictures of healthy looking boys on the walls, with flattering captions. They do not see the thin, small, undernourished and under-paid boys at all; somehow they see only health where ill health flourishes.

NEW YORK.-To show how Western Union Telegraph Co. messengers are being exploited, I will explain the method used in paying these employees.

The territory around the office is divided into four routes, northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest. These routes are in turn divided into zones, A, B, C, D and so forth, depending on the size of the territory.

Each office has a different rating for each zone. A busy office would have a lower rating than a slower office. The rating is so fixed that messengers don't earn more than $8 a week.

When the Western Union Telegraph Co. signed the N. R. A. code (a mysterious code that Western Union employees have not seen) a doubling system was introduced. The territory was divided into two routes, east and west. A messenger has to walk twice as far for one zone. Under the four-route system he would get two zones.

The rating on zones was cut twice before the N. R. A. code was signed. These two cuts still remain. The double-up system amounts to an additional 40 per cent cut. I have written to the Washington Information Bureau, 1322 New York Ave., Washington, D. C., for a copy of the N. R. A. code the Western Union Telegraph Co. signed, and I have not heard from them.

Three weeks before holidays, messengers are compelled to go out soliciting for four hours every day. During these three weeks messengers earn on the average about $6 a week.

Messengers are required to change their uniforms once every week on their own time, losing about two hours.

I wish you would do something to organize these exploited messengers.