THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



Some Labor Problems in the Rubber Industry. 



THE rosT-vvAR I'tRKii) has prcsemed to the rubber manutacturer 

 labor problems undreamed of in the cost-plus, work-or-fight 

 era from which we have just emerged. Radicalism and 

 strikes have fortunately been less frequent and serious than in 

 many of the allied industries, but this circumstance has not 

 blinded the manufacturer to the necessity of a fair and liberal 

 labor policy. For enlightened production, men realize that a high 

 labor turnover is expensive. 



.-Acting upon this principle, they have granted two wage in- 

 creases in the rubber shoe held during the past six months and 

 have secured the cooperation of the workers themselves by more 

 intelligent welfare work, shorter hours, schools for non-English 

 speaking employes and schools for foremen, all of which have 

 helped toward the goal of men ased production. 



WOMEN WORKERS INCREASING. 



Owing to the war the influx of women in rubber manulacturing 

 of all kinds has been notable. Twenty per cent of the factory 

 work in the plant of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, 

 Ohio, is done by women, .\mong the jobs performed by women 

 workers are: finishing tires, cutting and splicing fabrics for bal- 

 loons, weighing rubber, molding and trimming rubber heels, 

 operating electric trucks, running machines for refining and 

 straining reclaimed rubber, running rubber washing machines, 

 splicing and trimming tire tread bands, making tubes, and sepa- 

 rating sheets of rubber. The war also proved thai the work of 

 time clerks, inspectors and stock rocm attendants is ideally suited 

 to women workers. In the rubber shoe industry women have 

 been employed from the beginning. They are used in the cut- 

 ting room for sorting and booking work, in the preparatory de- 

 partments for stitching tennis uppers, making quarters, cement- 

 ing linings and inside work, and in making gum shoes and 

 gaiters. Inspectors and forew-omen in these departments have 

 nearly all graduated from the bench. Among the more recent 

 jobs for which women are being trained are mak'ng boots and 

 heavy gaiters, formerly done exclusively by men, and operating 

 clickers and cutting machines. The introduction of sole layers 

 and machine lasters has removed the former obstacle of strength 

 required to perform these operations. 



The bettering of working cond.tions has been a direct result 

 of the increased number of women workers. The factory nurse 

 and the rest-room have been introduced. Some factories make a 

 practice of serving hot coflfee or tea during the morning hours. 

 Boarding and lodging houses, even in the larger cities, and day 

 nurseries where mothers can leave their children \inder compe- 

 tent care while at work, are signs of the times. 



HOW TO ENCOURAGE REGULAR ATTENDANCE. 



Irregular attendance is the greatest problem with female help. 

 In rubber shoe manufacturing this not only means loss of pro- 

 duction but also the danger of valuable material, cemented and 

 jjrepared for making, becoming air cured and scrapped. One 

 factory takes care of this by having several "drop" teams of 

 workers who make up the tickets of the girls who are out. Others 

 have tried giving a weekly bonus for perfect attendance, but in 

 these days of high wages this scheme has lost its appeal. A more 

 recent idea has been the creation of a spirit of rivalry between 

 team and individual workers for the best record of "firsts" with 

 a prize for the winners which they hold only so long as they can 

 maintain their record. 



Still another idea has been the "committee" system in accord- 

 ance with which groups of workers are organized under the 

 heads of "attendance" committees, committees on "economy antl 

 efficient production," clc. (_)ne objection to this system is that if 



It IS not carefully handled it may create jealousy among the 

 operators, and be looked upon either with suspicion or jealousy 

 by the girls not included. 



Baseball teams in the summer, and a bowling league with each 

 department represented by a team in the winter, serve to stimu- 

 late teamwork and interest among the men, and if this interest is 

 fostered by the factory paper it will often lead to beneficial re- 

 sults. Foremen and executives can help matters a great deal by 

 showing a knowledge of the games and interest in •them by 

 their attendance at matches between rival teams. Along the same 

 lines, one factory holds a dance every day during the noon hour 

 and reports that it helps a great deal toward keeping the women 

 workers in regular attendance and contented and happy. 



FAULTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT DEPARTMENT. 



The emplojmcnt department in itself is not especially new, 

 but manufacturers are watching and studying it more closely 

 than ever. How does it function? Are the applicants for em- 

 ployment examined for the job to determine their qualifications 

 or are they picked in hit-or-miss fashion? If there is no job 

 available for the applicant at the time, how is he turned down? 

 A letter from a rejected applicant woke one concern up to the 

 fact that it was losing its reputation and help as well by the 

 cold-blooded policy of its employment department. The man had 

 waited an hour and a half for an interview only to be told 

 finally by an office boy that all the jobs had been filled. He had 

 no opportunity to talk to anyone in authority and went away in 

 an exceedingly bitter frame of mind. 



One morning not long ago a man about 45 years old and of 

 slender build walked into the employment bureau of a rubber 

 company and asked for work. The only job available was truck- 

 ing rubber from the freight cars to the stock room. "It's a very 

 heavy job. I don't know whether you would want it or not," he 

 was told. "How heavy?" asked the man. "Oh, the rubber weighs 

 from 200 to 30O pounds a load," was the answer. The man was 

 I'bviously unsuited to the job, yet he hesitated. He needed the 

 work. "Take it or leave it," was the impatient rejoinder from 

 the narrow, forbidding ticket window. The man did not take the 

 job, but if he had he would have been allowed to take it. Many 

 of the large concerns now require a physical examination of all 

 applicants, and in this case, it would have been a protection for 

 the worker as well as for the employer. 



START THE NEW WORKER RIGHT. 



Much depends upon the first day on the job lor the new em- 

 ploye. If he is kept idle for several hours waiting for the busy 

 foreman to assign him to his task, he naturally forms the im- 

 pression that time doesn't amount to very much in that particular 

 plant. There are many things he wants to know about the work- 

 ing conditions which very often he has to pick ,up from his 

 fellows. When do they pay? How much time do they have 

 for lunch? Any morning rest periods? Any smoking privileges? 

 Where are the sanitary accommodations located? These are 

 little things, but to the new man they are the things he naturally 

 wants to know. 



.Nearly all of llie waste oi material and petty pilfering caused 

 by green employes can be laid at the door of the foreman who 

 failed to instruct his men. The workman who cut a piece of tire 

 duck from the roll and used it for a towel was not wholly to 

 blame. Not more was the apprentice shoemaker who mixed her 

 upper scrap with the friction trimmings. Breakage of cases in 

 the packing and shipping room is a loss often allowed to con- 

 tinue without any attempt to check it. "Pat, you wouldn't tear 

 up a rnc-dollar bill, even if it wasn't yours, would you? Well, 



