The Young Workers League begins a campaign against the exploitation of the mostly young, mostly women workers at the Newark light bulb factory.

‘Edison Lamp Co. is Slave Hole’ from Young Worker. Vol. 4 No. 25. July 18, 1925.

Average Wage Given to Young Workers Is $13.50 a Week–Y.W.L. CAMPAIGN BEGINS

NEWARK, N.J. Low wages, and severe exploitation under a piece work and speed up system is the lot of the more than 1,500 workers, mostly young workers and a majority of them girls, who are employed in the Edison Lamp Co, plant of this city.

The average wages for those who work by the day is $12 to $15 per week. Those who are employed at piece work, and they are in the majority, hardly make more. It is only a limited number who under the severest system of speeding up succeed in making $20 a week. There are married men in the plant making $20 and less than $20 a week. And for these starvation wages the workers must put in from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 or 47 hours per week.

The low rate for piece workers can be seen from the fact that the packers receive 1/2 cent per each carton containing 60 lamps. For overtime only the regular rate is paid.

Only after one is regularly employed for 10 years in the plant is he entitled to one week vacation, and this means that hardly any one is entitled to a vacation, for the great number who are always young workers because they receive lower wages, are never employed such a long period. There is no prospect for advancement. The workers are doomed to these bad and unbearable conditions of slavery no matter how long they are employed.

The workers are dissatisfied but have so far made no attempt to organize themselves into a union so that they can unitedly fight for better conditions. As individual workers they are all helpless. If they pursue their grievances too hard they are fired. They have no redress. The only way the workers of this plant will be able to improve their lot is by organizing the plant.

The Young Workers League of Newark, which is a section of the Young Workers League of America, the only organization that fight militantly for the interests of the working class youth of this country, will try to help the workers of the Edison plant to organize into a shop unit of the league. The Young Workers League calls upon the workers to organize and fight for the following immediate improvement of their conditions.

1. A minimum wage of $25 per week for all young workers.

2. Absolute abolition of the PIECE WORK AND SPEEDING UP SYSTEM.

3. A 5-day week and a 6-hour day for all young workers under 18.

4. No night work for any under the age of 20, and double pay for over-time.

5. A 4-week vacation with full pay for all workers each year.

6. Equal pay for equal work for adult and young workers of both sexes.

7. A 40-hour week for all workers.

The Young Workers League of Newark also calls upon the young workers of the Edison plant to join the Young Workers League, the only political organization of the working class youth of America, and together with the rest of the militant youth of the country fight for the abolition of the present system of capitalism where those who do all the work starve and those who do nothing live in luxury. The Young Workers League asks you to join with it in a fight for the creation of a workers government that will organize a new society where there is no exploitation, where the young will receive all the opportunities for the development, and all of the workers will receive the full product of their labor.

The Newark branch of the Young Workers League meets every Monday at the Newark Labor Lyceum, 704 S. 14th St.

The Young Worker was produced by the Young Workers League of America beginning in 1922. The name of the Workers Party youth league followed the name of the adult party, changing to the Young Workers (Communist) League when the Workers Party became the Workers (Communist) Party in 1926. The journal was published monthly in Chicago and continued until 1927. Editors included Oliver Carlson, Martin Abern, Max Schachtman, Nat Kaplan, and Harry Gannes.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/youngworker/v04n25-jul-18-1925-yw.pdf