The owner of the factory at length consented to meet
the workers with the League organizer in conference at the New York
headquarters, and after several weeks the strike was settled on the
workers' terms.
The New York organizer also helped the Boston League in the strike of
the paper factories of Holyoke, Massachusetts. The cause of the strike
here was an arrangement under which eight girls could be got to do the
work of twelve. Here the workers actually stood up for a share of the
profits under the new arrangement, or else that the discharged girls
should be reinstated. The manufacturers chose the latter alternative.
The Candy Workers' Union in Boston was also formed through the Women's
Trade Union League. The girls had walked all over Boston for two days
asking policemen, carmen and anyone else who would listen to them how
to form a union. They had no umbrellas, and their shoes were dripping
with the wet. They were Jewish, Italian and American girls. As a
result of the organization formed they obtained a very material raise
in wages, the better allotment of work in the slack season and the
taking up of all disputed questions between the manufacturers and the
union.
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