Re: Pay grades


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Posted by David Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Wednesday, January 06, 2010 at 19:40:57 :

In Reply to: Re: Pay grades posted by Kaegi [24.113.81.122] on Wednesday, January 06, 2010 at 19:22:08 :

People don't realize the big strike wasn't about more pay or about better working conditions. It was mostly about the companies requiring the miners to shop at the company store and board in the company boarding house (hence returning a big chunk of that pay to the company). It was also about muckers getting 25 cents a day less than miners, on the grounds that mining was more skilled, whereas the miners agreed that mucking was harder work and all should be paid the same. But $3/day was high pay in those days (10 hour days, 6 days a week), which is why men from all over came to the mining districts hoping to get a job underground. Of course the money went through the miners' hands like water, as it still does, and it ended up supporting lots of local businesses.

It was definitely risky work, and if it wasn't risky it was hard. On the other hand, feeding the rock crusher for $1/day wasn't easy work either, so better to be paid well for hard work than paid poorly for it.



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