Document text
11
Name --Jane K. Leary, 32 Acorn St.
Informant --John Healy, wife and son
iubject--The Shoemaker of Lynn
Unions and Strikes
eoMest a the strikes in my day in the shops wuz caused
_
by competition. One manufacturer would take a few cents off
a pair a shoes, and then the other manufacturer would
have ta do the same if he wuz ta sell his shoes. Say
he had a customer fur a good many years and that customer
found he could buy the same kinda shoes from some one
else fur less money. Well, he'd have ta sell 'em fur less
too.
Section #poplc sitet
page 1
_1011V-41Se the manufacturerld take somethin0 off twenty or
thirty operations. Held.ge rem' an' say, III want a cent
a pair off th s First thing ya know there'd be about
thirty cents off a case. Sometimes that'd cause a strike.
I wuz never caxght in a strike myself but I know
they made a lotta misery in Lynn. The first big one wuz
in the 160s. In '72 come the Ironclad. That wuz when the
manufacturers drawed up the resolution to only pay wages
that they all agreed on. They shut up their shops sooner
than pay higher --them shops as belonged to the Ironclad.
Page 2
Another big strike wuz about ears ago. There wuz
riots then. That wuz because of the fella* that come here
from St. Louis tq work ta keep the shops open. The American
Federation brought lem.,\
In them days most a the unions a the shoe shops wuzn't
joined up with the Federation or with unions in ether phaces.
There'd be a cutters union in one shop but it wun't be joined
with the cutters in any other shop. Sameimay with the stock
fitters and the edgesetters and the stitchers said the welters.
the cutters wanted ta go out, they'd often get the
stitcher. ta go with fem. That would most always cripple
the shop. Fur the .stitchers is the key to a shop.
/-4:"(L-1—another help in cripplin' a shop in a strike wuz
the edgesetters. They wuz scarce. Net sa many knowed that
trele. A shop din't need sa many fur one edgesetter could
do as much work at edgesettinl as ten cutters could gut.
But ya needed 'em ta make shoes jest the same, and because
not many learned the trate, they wuz hard ta find ta do
A
scabbing time of a strike..
page 3
-e"The unions protected a fella in time of slack work.
In the old days, part of the men would be laid off, but after
the unions come in, the time would be divided up amongst
all them members that had been in the shop fur six months.
If ya quit though, ya wuz out until come a good time and
ya could get a job in the shop fur six months agin.
-9-vThem wuz the days when the unions wuz jest beginnin,
ta gain power and aorta even up the power the min had with
that the boggles had. Today nothins much more is thought
of a shoe boss than is of a worker. But in my day, if you
wuz a shoe boss, the workorld almost bow down to ya.
page 4
Drinking.
"There wuz a lotta drinkinl by the men in the shops, that
is by some men. Others din't drink atall.
"But the men din't do all the drinkinl. The women did
their share too and it wusn't the young women neither. A
lotta the older women'd gather in some one's home, and they'd
send a kid with a pail ta the back door of one i the bar rooms
that wuz scattered all over the city. The kidld knock on
the back door and give in the pail and the money, and then
he'd soon get a pail with the foam runnin' over the top.
Many's the time when I wuz a kid, did I earn a bit a money
goin' after beer fur a bunch a old women who had come ta chew
the fat in some one's kitchen.
"They din't often get drunk, but they got ta feelint
good. An' ellen times their men were in the bar feelin'
the same way.
"And we kids that fetched the beer soon found out
which bar gave the best measure. Sometimes the pail'd be
half full a foam and then by the time you'd get back to
the house ya wuz carrying it ta, you'd only have a half
pail. We got on ta that fur if we din't bring good measure,
they wouldn't pay us ta do it the next time.“
page 5
Racial complexity of the Shoe Army
"Taday the shops has all kinds a people working in gem.
When I first went in, there was jest Yankees and Irish and
Irish Americans.
"The strikes brought in a lot from the provinces (Canada)
and a lotta folks from down Maine. Later the Greeks come,
land the Italians, the Germans, the Polish and a.lotta others."
Aunt Mary told her side of this story. There was con-
siderable hard feeling against those from Canada and Nova Scotia.
"During a rush season, those from the provinces and
Nova Scotia would come ta help in the stitching room. How
they'd work ta get our jobs when the rush season wuz over.
They'd soup and stay after closing time and bring presents
ta the forela But they din't get anything fur it.
"For manygs the time, the forelady wouldtring me a case
a miss's shoes. There's wuzn't sa much ta stieh on them as
on the grown-ups and ya'd get as much pay fur it. Them
wuz the pick of the lot in the stitching teem. Children's
din't have sa much ta stitch either but there wuz more a
them ta a case. An' we got paid by,the case."