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Toronto
Messenger Boys’ Association
Plan to
Petition Hepburn for Protection
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Child Workers Plead
For Sixty-Hour Week
Ask $8 Minimum Wage; Some
Receive $2.50
Seek Health Examinations,
Stated Employment Times, Proper Lunch Periods
Toronto Star, October 13, 1937
By Margaret Gould
The working children of Toronto are pleading for a
maximum 60-hour workweek at a minimum wage of $8/week.
They are planning to appear before Premier Hepburn shortly to ask for
this protection. They are also going to ask for medical inspection of
children before they go out to work to determine their fitness.
At present it is estimated that many hundreds of juveniles are employed
80 hours at wages as low as $2.50 and $4.00. And they go out to work
regardless of their health conditions.
Here is the irony indeed! Men have the 40-hour week but young boys of
15 and 17 years of age are pleading for a minimum 60-hour week.
The Ontario Factory Act states that young people should not work more
than 60 hours a week, that no young person should work more than 10
hours a day and that they should be allowed one hour for lunch.
But this is not enforced. The youngsters work 12, 14 and 16 hours a day
and have to eat their meals “on the run.”
The lads are now going to try to secure reforms for themselves. The
have organized an association which they call “The Toronto Messenger
Boys’ Association.” Anthony Farentino is the head and moving
spirit. He
came to tell me about their aims and plans.
“It’s not only for ourselves that we want to improve things,” he tells
me. We want to protect the boys who float into this kind of job every
year. We want a break for the boys of tomorrow. We want to protect our
little brothers, because you know how the younger ones follow the older
brothers in those jobs. If nothing is changed they will always s have
to go through this mill.”
“Why,” he asked, “should the boys waste their strength and get nowhere?
Don’t you think that a 10-hour day is long enough for a boy to work? We
have worry and strain and responsibility, besides the heavy lifting and
going out in all sorts of weather.”
“So,” he summed up, “this is what our organization has worked out:”
“We want a working week of 60-hours, divided as follows: “
“Four days a week, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.”
“One day a week, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.”
“Saturdays, from 8 a.m. to midnight, but not later.”
“Two half-hour lunch periods a day should be allowed. As it is now the
boys have no time to eat a proper meal.”
“The boys need protection for Saturday nights especially,” he pointed
out, “because now they work until 2 on Sunday morning. After delivering
orders all day, they have to stay to clean and close up. So they don’t
get home until all hours.”
“There is at least one messenger boy who gets killed each year,” he
sighed, “and it is a wonder that more are not killed because they are
so tired and sleepy by the time they go home on their bikes.”
“Some boys should not be at this work at all,” he remarked, “because
they are not fit for all the heavy lifting and shoving that they have
to
do. I know several that came home and collapsed. We think there should
be a doctor’s certificate before they are taken on.”
Anthony Farentino had hit on a problem that has been worrying medical
and social workers for some time. Indeed, he has the president of the
U.S. and the League of Nations agreeing with him.
Recently the president of the U.S. issued a “children’s charter” in
which it is proclaimed:
“For every child the right to protection against labor that stunts
growth either physical or mental, that limits education, that deprives
the of comradeship of play, of joy.”
“For every child such teaching and training as will prepare him for a
living which will yield him the maximum of satisfaction.
“For every child a community which recognizes and plans for his needs,
protect him against physical danger, moral hazards and disease.”
“The least a state can do,” says the Children’s Bureau “is to protect
its young workers. Before going to work they should be given a physical
examination and helped to a job for which they are fitted. While at
work the minor should have a chance to continue his studies and advance
himself.”
“After going to work juveniles should be protected by the law from
working too long hours,” continues the bureau, “and also protected from
working at night or in unhealthful occupations. Trained factory
inspectors should see that these laws are enforced.”
The international labor organization of the League of Nations over 10
years ago set up the following regulations for the protection employed
juveniles:
“The employment of young persons should be forbidden at night - between
the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.”
“Children under 14 should be assured of not less than 14 consecutive
hours night rest, and to young persons under 18 not less than 9
consecutive hours night rest.”
Although Canada has been a member of the league since the beginning,
yet these child labor conventions have never been officially ratified.
No definite legislation exists in Canada, which meets these
requirements. The spirit of the School Attendance Act implies this but
then it’s not carried out in practice.
Mothers and teachers of these boys are worried, but they feel helpless.
They are afraid to complain because they might lose the child his job.
Said one mother, “I don’t know what to do nor where to turn. My boy
doesn’t sleep enough and he never eats on time. His clothing is thin
and he is in the wind a lot. But what can we do? His earnings don’t go
far enough. He often has colds and I’m always afraid of a serious
sickness. He has to get up at six in the morning and does not come home
often until after midnight. He is pale and thin and my heart breaks to
look at him. He misses the special classes but then what can he do?”
Few boys can have recreation or cultural interests. There is neither
time nor energy for it. One boy wants terribly to learn to play the
accordion. But he works everyday from 8 in the morning to 7:30 in the
evening and on Saturday until 2 a.m. He has not the time to take
lessons and if he did, he couldn’t practice.
This boy is frail yet he lifts bags and bushels of produce weighing
over 100 pounds. When he is not delivering, he is cleaning the cellar.
He gives his mother part of his $2.50 weekly wage, the other part he
has to pay on his bicycle. He has nothing left for clothes, or for his
longed for accordion.
“There are boys who work two weeks for one weeks pay,” said Anthony
Farentino. “And then there are places where two boys, an older and a
younger brother, work together for the price of one boy.”
The Messenger Boys’ Association is therefore going to try to secure
improvements. They have a lot to do and a long way to go.
“I hope,” said Farentino, “that all messenger boys in the city will
join this organization and help to get protection for themselves and
all the boys.”
The association will soon send out a call for a mass meeting of
messenger boys. It is going to be a gala affair with music and a show.
The lads are also going to ask one of the newly elected M.P.P.’s to
address this meeting.
We do not yet know who the lucky man is going to be but luck is the man
who secures the trust and following of these vital youngsters.
The boys also plan to campaign among housewives, consumers, and the
mothers of luckier children than themselves to ask for their
cooperation.
“We will ask them not buy in the stores which do not treat their
messengers right,” they say. They plan to issue a crest so that these
stores may be identified.
It is not Huckleberry Finn and Oliver Twist talking. It is the lad who
delivers your groceries and your bottles of ginger ale who is asking
for a “break.”
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