"To be compelled to work 365 days in the year without any rest is a hard task for a laborer. The Trimmers of the city of Chicago have no rest. They work on Sundays and holidays alike, and receive no more pay for work done on Sunday than for work done on any other day. Whenever we get a vacation, we must pay for it . . .

Whenever we lose a day to sickness, we are not paid for that day . . .

Should one of us get hurt, or taken with severe illness, we would not be able to pay for medical care for more than a few weeks before we would become wards of the hospital or objects of charity. We cannot get insured and properly prepared for the future on so little a salary ...

Public opinion is with us. No citizen . . .

who ever saw a trimmer freeze to the iron lamp post when it was 20 below zero, or carried to the hospital when laid low by a shock, or trudging through the rain like a drowned rat, or swept from his feet by a blinding, cutting snowstorm, or racking with pains of rheumatism contracted on duty, would ever object to the arc-light trimmers getting a raise in pay."

Henry Martin, Local 49, Chicago 1899