Women in European Culture and Society by Deborah Simonton

Author:Deborah Simonton [Simonton, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, General, Social Science, Women's Studies
ISBN: 9780415684385
Google: BY0DtwAACAAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-01-15T01:30:58+00:00

2.34 Women strike

Amalie Seidl, Gedenkbuch 20 Jahre österreichische Arbeiterinnenbewegung, Adelheid Popp, ed. (Wien, 1912), 66–9.

In 1893 [Vienna], I worked in a factory that employed about 300 men and women workers of whom a majority did not earn more than 7Kr a week…. As a packer in the warehouse, however, I was paid the splendid wage of 10Kr and was among the best-paid female workers…. I succeeded in making my colleagues understand the importance of a May Day celebration, and we succeeded in getting the May Day off. Naturally, the next day, the only topic of conversation in the factory was the events of May Day, and during the rest period in the large factory hall I tried to prove that with the right organisation, we could improve our working conditions. During my speech, which was intently listened to, no one noticed that the head of the factory had also listened … Needless to say, punishment followed immediately, specifically, my dismissal…. when I reached the narrow street where my parents lived, I was more than a little astonished to see police stationed at the front door to the building … The rather large courtyard was crowded with female workers from the factory waiting for me and shouting that they would not take my dismissal quietly. I addressed them, standing on the chopping block, telling them that this was all very nice, but if they did want to strike, they should demand more than just my reinstatement. None of us knew what to demand, but we did want to strike! We agreed in the end that I should show up at the factory the next day (May 3); by then they would agree on their demands and perhaps also on the colleagues who would present the demands … demands for a reduction of working hours from 12 to 10 and my reinstatement were rejected by the firm. Because of the great heat in the workrooms, the women stood about half dressed and went barefoot, but at a moment’s notice, they left the factory, their clothes on their arms and carrying baskets with their meagre midday meal or coffee thermos…. I rushed to comrade Dworschak [Popp] to deliver the news of the strike…. The women in three other factories joined us, so that after a few days about 700 women were on strike. Naturally, this being the first women’s strike, it caused a sensation, and the bourgeois press took notice of it, complaining that now female workers were also being ‘incited’. There were also exceptions. The correspondent of an English bourgeois daily wrote that ‘the strikers who used the fourteen days mainly for recuperation in the fresh air, looked considerably better at the end of the strike than before.’ No wonder! They could hardly be expected to look good with a work day of twelve and thirteen hours in rooms where the temperature sometimes rose to 54°C or in the bleaching plant with its stench of chlorine, or in the dye shop where ‘lovely’ aromas made breathing a torture.

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