Other People's Work: Factories
Reportage
Description
Reporters going undercover as factory workers in order to expose awful working conditions from 1888 to present.
Articles, Books, Video/Film
II-"Song of the Shirt" - Eva Gay (aka Eva McDonald aka Eva Valesh) - St. Paul Globe | Eva Gay's Visit to the Girl Workers in Minneapolis Shirt Factories; Some of the Dark, Dank and Disagreeable Shops of the Shirt Workers; Girls Must Furnish Their Own Machines, as Well as the Sewing Materials; Starvation Wages for Hard Work--Girls Terrorized by Their Taskmasters.
April 8, 1888
Gay wrote a series of articles on posing as a factory worker to assess conditions in Minnesota with a pledge to ...I-"The Toiling Women" - Eva Gay (aka Eva McDonald aka Eva Valesh) - St. Paul Globe | Eva Gay's Trip Through Bag and Mattress Factories of Minneapolis; Sewing Mid Clouds of Dust--Hardships Hand in Hand With Small Wages; Employers Who Provide Necessary Conveniences and Others Who Do Not; Girls Compelled to "Stand for Their Health" -- Mattress Works Employes
April 1, 1888
Gay wrote a series of articles on posing as a factory worker to assess conditions in Minnesota with a pledge to ...III-"Working in the Wet" - Eva Gay - St. Paul Globe | Eva Gay's Glance at the Girls Who Work in the Laundries; Some of the Work is Terrible and the Pay is Generally Low; Girls Acknowledge the Work is Surely Breaking Their Health; More of the Crusade, with Some of the Natural Consequences
April 15, 1888IV-"Eva Gay's Travels" - Eva Gay - St. Paul Gobe | Among the Girls Who Toil in the Steam Laundries of Minneapolis; Beal's the Place Where Poor Girls Work and Get No Pay for It; One Laundry Where the Girl Help is Treated as It Should Be; Why Girls Go Astray--Character No Object--Observations on Laundry Life
April 22, 1888I-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily TImes | A Lady Reporter's Experience in the Shops with the Sewing Serfs. Making Tidies at Sixty Cents a Dozen and Paying Three Dollars for the Privilege
July 30, 1888
The first in Nell Nelson's series based on time undercover in factories employing girls and women in Chicago. The ...II-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | Further Details of the Factory Investgation Conducted by "The Times'" Lady Reporter. A Cloak Concern Where Nothing But Fear of the Law Seems to Prevent The Use of the Lash
July 31, 1888
The second article in Nell Nelson (a pseudonym)'s undercover series on the working conditions of women and girls in ...III-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | Startling Experiences of "The Times'" Lady Reporter in the Factory of Julius Stein & Co. Left in a Foul and Filthy Corner of the Workroom Until Outraged Nature Succumbs
August 1, 1888
The third article in Nell Nelson's series on women and girls who work in Chicago's factories. Nelson went ...IV-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | "The Times'" Lady Reporter, in the Guise of a Factory Bondwoman, is insulted by a Scoundrel
August 2, 1888
The fourth article in the undercover series exposing working conditions in Chicago's factories for women and girls. ...V-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | While Among Chicago's Weak Serfs The Times Lady Reporter Finds Mr. Goss' "Good Jew"
August 3, 1888
The fifth installment of Nell Nelson's undercover reports from Chicago's factories, documenting the working ...VI-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | "The Times'" Lady Reporter Spends a Day in Goldsmith's Tailor Shop at 258 Rumsey Street
August 4, 1888
part of Nell Nelson's undercover series on working conditions for women in Chicago's factories. Nelson worked ...VII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | Nell Nelson Puts in a Whole Day with Pardridge & Co. on State Street
August 5, 1888
Nell Nelson works as a dry-goods clerk as part of her undercover look into the conditions for female laborers in ...VIII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | A Second Investigation "By Request" of Some of the Places Already Visited
August 6, 1888
Nell Nelson's undercover series examining women's working conditions in Chicago factories continues with a ...IX-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | The "Times" Lady Reporter Finds Some Factorymen who treat their Employees Decently. At the Dearborn Feather Duster Company's Place the Conditions Could Be Improved.
August 7, 1888
Nell Nelson's undercover series exposing working conditions for women in Chicago's factories continues. This ...X-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | "Nell Nelson" investigates the Boston Store and Is Shocked at What She Finds. A Basement that on a Hot Day is So Stifling it Reminds One of the "Black Hole of Calcutta."
August 8, 1888
The undercover series continues its expose of working conditions for women in Chicago's factories. Nell Nelson ...XI-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | "Nell Nelson" spends a Day Among the Serfs and Bondwomen in the Shops of "Little Hell." For Four Hours of Unceasing Toil in a Dirty, Crowded Tailor's Room She Is Paid Six Cents.
August 9, 1888
"Nell Nelson" finds work in a slop shop for a day, making ready-made clothes for a measly wage, part of her ...XII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | Places Where Virtue Counts for Nothing and Is Not Tolerated by the Employer. Body and Soul Must Be Given Up To The Scoundrels Or The Employee Loses Her Situation.
August 10, 1888
Nelson's undercover stories about working conditions for women in Chicago's factories continue. This article ...XIII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | "The Times" Reporter Wanders Into The Loud-Smelling Tailor-Shops on Twelfth Street. An Insight Into the Peculair Methods by Which Wholesale Clothing Dealers Grow Rich.
August 11, 1888
A (male) reporter is taken through the cloak factories by an insider volunteer as Nell Nelson's undercover series on ...XIV-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | Nell Nelson Continues To Expose the Slave-Grinding Hell-Holes of Chicago
August 12, 1888
Part of the Times's undercover series on working conditions for women in Chicago's factories, based on undercover ...XV-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | A "Times" reporter Accompanies a Health Officer on Another Visit to The Slave-Pens
August 13, 1888
A Times reporter makes a second trip with the health department to factories in Chicago, where working conditions ...XVI-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | A Young Widow Attempted to Support Herself and Child by Making Overalls
August 14, 1888
Nell Nelson gives the account of court room plea for mercy by a woman working in Chicago's garment industry. The ...XVII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | Their Condition in the Shoe Shops as Described by "The Times" Lady Reporter. Little Heroines Who Work For Three Meals, a Roof at Night, and Their Carfare.
August 15, 1888
"Nell Nelson" goes to a shoe factory and examines the working conditions of young girls working to support their ...XVIII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson -Chicago Daily Times | Take a Trip with a "Times" Reporter Through a Mattress and Pillow Manufactory
August 16, 1888
Nell Nelson reports on the working conditions for women in a mattress factory in Chicago as part of her undercover ...XIX-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | "Nell Nelson" Spends an Hour n the Factory of Henry W. King & Co, on Union Street, And Reads The Old Story of Want and Misery, Ill Health and Privation - in the Faces of The Toilers
August 17, 1888
Nelson continues her undercover expose of women's working conditions in Chicago factories.XX-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | "Nell Nelson" Spends a Half-Day in the Princess Knitting Company's Unwholsomene Factory
August 18, 1888
Nell Nelson works a job usually completed by female child laborers at a Chicago factory. Part of an undercover ...XXI-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | A "Times" Reporter Gets into a Paper Box Manufactory That Puzzles and Bewilders Him
August 19, 1888
The final article in the "Nell Nelson" undercover series looks at a paper box factory, and also responds to ...XXII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | They want Neither Pity, Charity, Nor Tracts but Practical instruction
August 26, 1888
Nell Nelson follows up her undercover reporting on the working conditions for women in Chicago's factories with a ...XXIII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times | A Poor Sewing Woman's Story of Pain, Poverty, and Privation, Sickness and Sorrow
August 27, 1888
The Times publishes a letter written in response to the City Slave Girls series, with commentary, as one of two ...I-"The Woman That Toils" - Bessie van Vorst - Everybody's Magazine | "Experiences of a Literary Woman as a Working Girl"
September 1, 1902
The precede in Everybody's reads: "The following is an account of the writer's actual experiences while working for ...II-"The Woman That Toils" - Marie van Vorst's- Everybody's Magazine | "Experiences of a Literary Woman as a Working Girl"
October 1, 1902
Marie van Vorst at work in a Lynn, Massachusetts shoe factory under the name of Belle Ballard for "The Woman That ...III-"The Woman That Toils" - Bessie van Vorst - Everybody's Magazine | "Being the Experiences of Two Gentlewomen as Factory Girls"
November 1, 1902
Bessie van Vorst working undercover in a knitting mill at Perry, New York for a five-part series in Everybody's ...IV-"The Woman That Toils" - Marie van Vorst - Everybody's Magazine | "Being the Experiences of a Literary Woman as a Working Girl"
December 1, 1902
Marie van Vorst's experiences posing as a worker in a southern mill for a five-part series in Everybody's Magazine, ...V-"The Woman That Toils" - Bessie van Vorst's - Everybody's Magazine | "Experiences of a Literary Woman as a Working Girl"
January 1, 1903
Final part of the series by the sisters-in-law van Vorst investigating how women of the other half live and work.Bessie (Mrs. John) and Marie van Vorst's "The Woman Who Toils: Being the Experiences of Two Gentlewomen as Factory Girls"
1903I-"Merlina's Job in Oscar Herrera's Factory" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 14, 1981
The first in a series of articles about LA sweatshops, based on undercover reporting as a Spanish-speaking worker by ...II-"Five Days' Work for Felix Mendoza, $38.74" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 15, 1981
Wolin continues her account of working undercover in California sweatshops, the underworld backbone of the state's ...III-"'This is the filthiest of all industries'" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 16, 1981
Wolin looks into the Health Department's investigations into the state of California's garment industry.IV-"Homework: The Alien’s Secret Support System" Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 18, 1981
The third chapter of Wolin's undercover work in the garment industry. Here, the reporter examines garment ...V-"Seven Hours in a Union Shop for $2.50" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 19, 1981
Wolin, as part of her investigative series on Los Angeles's garment industry, is hired to work in a union shop, ...VI-"Merlina faces the labor commissioner - and wins" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 20, 1981
The reporter confronts a union shop she worked in undercover as an undocumented worker as part of an investigation ...VII-"'I"m not Joan of Arc. I'm a garment manufacturer.'" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 21, 1981
The seventh chapter in Wolin's series of reports on the LA garment industry. Wolin spent time working undercover in ...VIII-"The work is 'killing' Martha and Oscar" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 22, 1981
The reporter, who worked in several factories in LA posing undercover as an undocumented worker, confronts the ...IX-"The fading of Felix Mendoza's dream" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 23, 1981
Wolin returns to the first factory she visited undercover as an illegal garment worker in Los Angeles, and ...X-"Employer Meets Employer—Merlina, Melton, Mendoza" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 25, 1981
Wolin confronts another manufacturer about her time spent working undercover in several LA garment factories.XI-"It’s Another Mike Wallace Trick!" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 26, 1981
Wolin confronts another owner of a manufacturing plant, after working undercover in the LA garment industry as an ...XII-"The retailer's side of the story" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 27, 1981
Wolin talks to retailers who sell clothes from the manufacturers she worked for posing undercover as an undocumented ...XIII-"Who are the players? What are the problems?" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 28, 1981
Wolin continues her investigative report on LA's garment industry, based on time spent undercover working in factories.XIV-"Bradley: 'I wouldn't want to speculate...'" -Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
January 29, 1981
Wolin interviews LA's Mayor Bradley about the working conditions and lack of regulation she found while posing ...XV-"Brown: 'It's wrong for a civilized society...'" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald Examiner
January 30, 1981
Merle Linda Wolin interviews California Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. about her findings after reporting undercover ...XVI-"What it will take to 'outlaw slavery'" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald Examiner
February 1, 1981
Final piece in the Sweatshop series, based on the reporter's undercover work in LA's garment industry.Editorial: "What to do about 'Sweatshop'" - Unsigned - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
February 8, 1981
An editorial on the effects of Wolin's undercover reporting from Los Angeles's garment industry"Factory Girls in the Big City" - Lucy Hosmer - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
November 26, 1896
An undercover expose of life for the working women of the shoe factories of St. Louis, under the direction of ..."Made in the U.S.A." - Helen Zia - Ms. magazine
January 1, 1996
Helen Zia goes undercover for Ms. Magazine to investigate the sweatshops of San Francisco that employ Asian-American ..."65 Cents an Hour - A Special Report" - Jane H. Lii - New York Times | "Week in Sweatshop Reveals Grim Conspiracy of the Poor"
March 12, 1995
Lii spends a week as a Chinatown sweatshop worker."I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave" - Mac McClelland - Mother Jones | My brief, breathtaking, rage-inducing, low-paying, dildo-packing time inside the only online-shipping machine.
March 1, 2012
Journalist Mac McClelland was asked by his editors to go undercover posing as a warehouse worker at Amalgamated ..."I Got Hired at a Bangladesh Sweatshop. Meet my 9-year-old Boss" - Raveena Aulakh - Toronto Star | Meem, 9, works 12-hour shifts at a factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She dreams of becoming a sewing operator, buying more hair clips and helping her family.akhaiof
October 11, 2013
Aulakh went undercover to experience worker life in a Bangladeshi garment factory.