Taterskin & The Eco Defenders: Book 2, Chapter 31
Book 2 ("Tell It to Future Generations"), Chapter 31 of 56
CHAPTER 31
“You will be the center of attention of all the Pigeons in the city; not only will you be covered in the offscourings of our flying friends, but you will also be the laughingstock of the neighborhood, and your friends (if you have any) and your family will not even want to be anywhere near you, for fear of being caught up in the bombardment. After all, you will furnish ‘target practice’ for the Pigeons, and some of them will miss their targets by a foot or two at times. You will be the pariahs of the city.”
Blanck and Harris saw they were defeated and sued for peace. “Anything! Anything! Whatever you want! OK, 50 hours per week it is. We’ll give you what you wanted. Now will you leave us alone?”
“Not yet,” Buzz said. The Bees came up with some more headlines to flash out for the ‘viewing pleasure’ of the waiting sweatshop slave drivers. The first one was:
MENE, MENE, TEKEL AND PARSIN
Then more followed, such as:
LET MY PEOPLE GO!
Then:
AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL
Then:
A LIVING WAGE AND A FULL DINNER PAIL
Then:
A FAIR DAY’S WAGE FOR A FAIR DAY’S WORK
Finally, merely for fun and to infuse a little levity into the proceedings (things were getting more than a little tense):
EAT AT JOE’S
After conferring with the Bees (they forming words in the air, and she on paper), Clara Lemlich stepped up to the owners. “We have six more requests,” she told Blanck and Harris. “Strike that. Let me rephrase. We have six more demands. They are” — and she gestured to the Bees. Buzz lined out the letters, one by one, which were then filled in by the droning group of Bees. The first demand was:
NO MORE LOCKING OF THE DOORS!
You see, purportedly out of fear of people leaving early or stealing property, the owners had been locking the exit doors. At the end of the shift, they were searched for any shirtwaists that they may have stashed away in their purses or handbags. This locking of the doors was, though, a serious health hazard. It was a safety issue as, in the case of fire (which had happened more than once before), it delayed or prevented the escape of the workers.
That exact scenario would have happened soon if it was not prevented: On March 25th of that year (1911) the fire that would kill 146 would take place if it had not been prevented by the teamwork of the Bees, Clara, and the original Eco Defenders.
The owners explained their reason for locking the doors, but were again menaced by the droning Bees who, aggravated by their execrable excuse, buzzed right in front of their eyeballs until they threw in the proverbial towel.
In close connection with that demand, the Bees then changed their living sign to:
SAFETY PRECAUTIONS MUST BE IMPLEMENTED
Clara told them the specifics of that would be delineated at a later time, but high on the list of priorities was a fire escape that would accommodate more people, was free of debris, and of higher quality and stronger material than what they now had. The employees would not return to work until a suitable replacement was installed, and the workers would still be paid at their base rate until such time. In other words, it was in the interests of the owners to solve the problem by replacing the fire escape ASAP. The workers as well as the city would inspect and approve it before the employees would return to work.
This demand and its conditions provoked even more wailing and gnashing of teeth on the part of Blanck and Harris, but an increase in the volume and pitch of the Bees’ droning, and a move by them to again pitch camp on and around the owners’ faces, was enough to cause the men to quickly capitulate. They sighed and grunted irritatedly, but knew they were whipped and had no viable recourse other than to agree to the workers’ demands.
As you can see, there’s strength in numbers, even when the individuals in the majority are only one one-thousandth the size of the giants they are opposing.
The Bees continued their practical choreography:
100% BASE PAY RAISES FOR ALL, WITH PROFIT-SHARING
The owners knew they couldn’t refuse to go along with everything demanded, but did make this complaint: “If we do that, we will have to raise our prices! And all the other company owners will hate us and say we’ve set a terrible precedent!”
Clara offered them a solution: “As it happens, there’s something else you could do other than raise prices.”
“What’s that?” Harris asked, not believing there was any other option.
“Take less profit for yourself.”
Going to such “extremes” was the furthest thing from their minds, though. Although they earned a thousandfold what the workers did, they felt they couldn’t live on less. After all, their accustomed standard of living had to be maintained, at all costs (no pun intended).
“As to the other shop owners turning on you, I am tempted to say, ‘Tough!’ but instead I will ask Buzz and the Bees a question,” Clara said.
“Shoot,” said Buzz.
“Will Triangle Shirtwaist be the only company you visit with these demands?”
“By no means. We will visit them all, if necessary, from the worst (this one) on up — or down, I guess I should say. At some juncture, they will get the point — the owners will let each other know what happens to them if they refuse to comply — and our work will be done. But our vigilance will live on. We will be ever ready.”
“What else?” whined Blanck. “If you keep this up, you’ll put us in the poorhouse!”
“I doubt that,” Clara said. “As for poorhouses, we know about those. It is from them that we demand to be lifted up. It is not fair that you get to live in mansions while we live in cramped, stuffy, dank tenement buildings. We are tired of being tired and sick of being sick.”
Her fellow workers heartily agreed with that sentiment. She then added: “That leads to our next demand.”
Clara again gestured toward the Bees, saying, “Maestros?”
The bees formed the following with their shimmering bodies:
FULL MEDICAL BENEFITS FOR ALL
“Now you’ve gone too far, Miss Lemlich!” Harris said. “How can we stay in business if we reduce your hours, elevate your pay, and pay your doctor bills to boot?”
“It’s not as bad for you as you are making it out to be,” Clara replied. “Don’t you think the quality of our work will be better if we are healthy? Have you never reasoned out that we will be more productive working fewer hours, as we won’t be overly exhausted? A healthy workforce is a productive workforce. A well-rested workforce is less likely to work slowly or haphazardly. I think you will find that you also will benefit from these changes.”
“If that’s the way it’s going to be — paying you more while you work less,” Blanck spluttered, “I may as well sell my share in the business and hire on as a shirtwaist maker myself!”
“I would be willing to trade places with you, if that’s what you want,” Clara said, straight-faced. “I’m not loath to take over your management duties after I train you on the sewing machine.”
Blanck didn’t even answer Clara’s proposal. He simply pouted and glared at her. Everyone knew he would never really swap places with his workers, when it came right down to it. That was just bluster, disappointment, and frustration speaking.
During that back-and-forth between Clara and Blanck, the Bees had formed another demand:
BETTER WORKING CONDITIONS
“Better working conditions?!? What do you mean? You girls have it made here: you get to sit down all day, and you have a roof over your head to keep you dry on rainy days,” Harris said.
“The air is stuffy, the light is dim, the noise is oppressive ... shall I go on?” one of the workers from the crowd said, having grown bold as she saw which way things were going. This encouraged others, and they all stepped forward, looking daggers at the two owners. The atmosphere had changed from the usual deference and fear of the owners to one of bold defiance.
Clara smiled. The Bees buzzed and droned in harmony. The pitch of their humming had vacillated between a menacing low tone to an irritated high one, but had now subsided down to the middle range, more like a loud purr.
“And now, for our final demand,” Clara said, introducing it by stretching out her right arm, hand open, toward the Bees.
Slowly and dramatically they formed the words.
WORKERS ORGANIZATIONS WILL BE ALLOWED
The owners simply sighed loudly, looked at each other, and shook their heads in resignation — which is not to say they resigned their positions, but rather that they were resigned to the fact that they would no longer be allowed to run a dangerous sweatshop and take home the great majority of the earnings for themselves. They would now have to share more than a mere pittance, or afterthought, of the proceeds with the workers.
The owners saw what the Bees could do, and they believed the threats about the Pigeons, too. But when proprietors of other factories in the city and throughout the region heard about the capitulation of Blanck and Harris to “a mere girl,” they didn’t believe the story the Triangle Shirtwaist owners told them about the Bees.
This disbelief on their part led to calamity for them, though.
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