FACTORY FREEDOM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20548, 25 October 1928, Page 21

FACTORY FREEDOM.

GIRLS GAIN BASIC RIGHTS IN JAPAN. Among 10 demands made by 1200 girl workers at a muslin factory in Tokio there are (1) the freedom of marriage, and (2) freedom of going out of the factory, states the Japanese newespaper Osako Mainichi. The factory officials declare that these two and other demands are practically in force, and deserve no particular consideration. It may be so because it is hard to believe that there arc any employers to-day who would deny the female employees the opportunity of getting married, or lock them up in the factory dormitory like so many convicts, but the fact that these girl workers have demanded them, and consequent to the refusal by the employers have declared a strike, shows they have not a? much freedom as they should have. This virtual lock-up of the girl workers hi a factory, however, was no unusual affair several years ago. The idea was not so much to regard them as habitual escapadoes as to keep them from the influence of other factory owners who were wont to entice them with inviting terms when they felt a shortage of hands. In either case, it was solely for the interest of the employers that the personal freedom of the girl workers was sacrificed.