1910.  Work before seven in the morning was prohibited, all time after five o’clock was considered overtime, and must be paid for at time-and-a-half rate.  The passing of the eight-hour law in May, 1911, suggested to some ingenious employers a method of getting behind their own agreement, at least to the extent of utilizing their plant to the utmost.  They accordingly proposed to free themselves from any obligation to pay overtime, as long as the eight consecutive hours were not exceeded.  The leaders of the union saw the danger lurking under this suggestion, in that it might mean all sorts of irregular hours, or even a two-shift system, involving perpetual night work, and going home from work long distances in the middle of the night.  After many months of haggling, the union won its point.  All work after five o’clock was to be paid at overtime rate, with the exception of Monday, when the closing time was made six.  This because in all laundries there is apt to be delay in starting work on Monday, as hardly any work can be done until the drivers have come in from their first round, with bundles of soiled linen.  This arrangement remained in force at time of writing.

As regards wages, Miss Matthews estimates the average increase in the twelve years since the Steam Laundry Workers’ Union was first formed at about thirty per cent.  With the exception of the head marker, and the head washer at the one end, each at twenty-two dollars and fifty cents per week, and the little shaker girl on the mangle at seven dollars per week at the other, wages range from eighteen dollars down to eight dollars, more than the scale, however, being paid, it is said, to every worker with some skill and experience.  Apprentices are allowed for in the union agreement.

The union does not permit its members to work at unguarded machinery, hence accidents are rare, and for such as do happen, usually slight ones, like burns, the union officials are inclined to hold the workers themselves responsible.

All of the steam laundries in San Francisco, now thirty-two in number, are unionized, including the laundries operated in one of the largest hotels.  The union regards with just pride and satisfaction the fine conditions, short hours and comparatively high wages which its trade enjoys, as well as the improved social standards and the spirit of independence and cooeperation which are the fruit of these many years of union activity.

But outside the labor organization, and at once a sad contrast and a possible menace, lie two groups of businesses, the French laundries and the Japanese laundries.  The former are mostly conducted on the old, out-of-date lines of a passing domestic industry, housed in made-over washrooms and ironing rooms, equipped with little modern machinery, most of the work being done by hand, and the employes being often the family or at least the relatives of the proprietor.  In their present stage it is quite difficult to unionize these establishments and they do cut prices for the proprietors of the steam laundries.