Right at this time when we were over there was when
they had the strike in the project. My husband had
happened to come in to town to bring me his paycheck
and the next morning when he went back out to work,
he couldn’t go to work because the strike was
on. The reason for the strike was that the Six Companies
decided that there were so many men for every job
that they’d just cut the wages on the muckers.
Of course, the muckers were just day laborers, anyhow,
and were making only about four dollars a day; they
were at the bottom end of the totem pole already.
So all the craftsmen decided that they would go on
strike, too, because if the company would succeed
in cutting the muckers’ wages, they’d
cut all the craftsmen’s wages next.
Then, the government threw up a gate at Railroad Pass
at the edge of the reservation, the government reservation,
and any man to get through, had to have a pass showing
that he had work and he was working. So, no one could
even get past the gate to rustle for a job. Of course,
because my husband and this other man had come in
to see their families they couldn’t get back
to go to work; so they were out of work.
As I said before, they threw up a gate real quick
at Railroad Pass, which was the edge of the area that
the government owned- -the government reservation-
-so that all the people that were inside the gate
couldn’t get out and those that were outside
couldn’t get back in unless they had a pass
and could show they were legal workers in the area.
So, of course, those that were out of work couldn’t
get into Las Vegas to buy groceries and things. This
was before Six Companies had its store. |
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