Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1901 — DOMESTICS IN A UNION. [ARTICLE]

DOMESTICS IN A UNION.

Sixty Thoasand of Them in Chicago to Form a Labor Organization. Sixty thousand domestics employed in the homes of Chicago are ready to join a union which it is said may develop into the strongest labor organization on earth should the housemaids in other cities join the movement. Delegates to the Chicago Federation of Labor who at? tended the meeting were astounded when Sophia Becker of the Shoe-Stitehers' Union made the announcement that thousands of servant girls in Chicago were already members ot a bona-fide labor organization. When she announced that “abolition of domestic slavery” was the slogan ot the women, and that tens of thousands of servant girls in Chicago were eager to enter the field of industrial warfare, men in the hall cheered. Mis* Becker, who is a delegate to the Chicago Federation of Labor and prominent in union circles, grew eloquent as she pictured the wrongs end indignities heaped upon domestics, and declared that “the time had come for the girls to throw off the yoke of slavery and fight for privileges enjoyed by other women.’ Regular days of duty and wages not below a stipulated figure will be demand ed by the union. Permission to receive company and light rooms will also be required. It is said domestics are at present assigned to dark rooms or In some out-of-the-way corner where there Is neither light nor ventilation, and the first effort of the organization will be to remedy this.