The working conditions were quite unfavorable to the employees. They worked in excess of 60 hours per week for just a few dollars. The sanitary condition of the streets, homes, and shops in the tile Jewish settlement were rather bad, and did not compare favorably with that of other nationalities, except the Italian and the Polish, which in some respects were worse. This is the scene described at a Ludlow Street Sweater's Shop in 1890, "Men and women bending over their machines, or ironing clothes at the window, half-naked The Road is like a big gangway through an endless work-room where vast multitudes are forever laboring. Morning, noon, or night, it makes no difference; the scene is always the same." (Comment, "How The Other Half Lives", New York City/East European Jews/At Work). A citizens committee was organized in Chicago to make an investigation of the true conditions and they eventually published a report based on the testimony of the employees of seventeen firms and thirty-one shops. It's prognosis of the situation basically said that the natural method of removing the causes of irritation in the shops and of making a more healthful and social life, is some form of shop organization among the workers in the shops. However, the industry is very complicated; the labor highly subdivided the dependence, of the operatives on the foreman so great, that it seems next to impossible to bring about normal conditions, .
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unless the operatives themselves are able to express their own views and complaints through committees without fear of loss of position or the enmity of the foreman. ("Chicago and Its Jews", Chicago/East European Jews/At Work). .
Another way to combat the poor conditions was to form labor and trade unions. The Jews had a big influence in trades of sewing and cigars. Concerning the trade regulations, they must be regarded as an element to be reckoned with.
