able to secure appropriate pay raises, as the market demanded a skilled labour force.
Average wage rates were as follows:
December 1940 1.20 zlotys per hour
January—June 1941 2.50—3 zlotys per hour
Autumn 1941 3 zlotys per hour
As the work day was generally 10–11 hours long, the pay amounted to 12-30 zlotys per day in the respective periods.
In autumn 1941, an apprentice earned about 10 zlotys a day. A master craftsman employing 3–4 workers earned, in the given periods:
December 1940 30—40 zlotys a day
January—June 1941 60—100 zlotys a day
Autumn 1941 100 zlotys a day
It should be noted that the workers’ wage increases resulted from conflicts in the carpentry industry, and even though workers were not organised, they ultimately were successful since they were indispensable to the production process.
It would be an exaggeration to claim that all carpentry workshops were, without exception, employed in mass production. Some craftsmen could not adapt to the type of work itself, nor to the conditions of the supply market. These were mainly master carpenters who could not stoop to the tacky, standardised production that used the worst timber, usually green.
[17] The “monopolist”, the Nawrocki Company, had—as mentioned—agents in the ghetto, either representing its interests or taking independent orders. The network of intermediaries was more extensive, however, as other entities came between entrepreneurs and workshops, such as mechanical carpentry workshops, side intermediaries, brokers for the purchase of raw materials, casual financiers, outsourced employers, etc.
In any case, one can say that the end customer rarely came into contact with the manufacturer. Experts state that truly direct orders delivered by workshops to end customers make 3 or 4 % of the total bulk deliveries. This small percentage includes customers such as the SA and SS groups, which used their old connections from the time before the ghetto had been sealed.
Such unusual manners of mediation resulted in the natural desire to reach the end consumer directly. Individual workshops were not strong enough to achieve this, so the Union of Jewish Craftsmen undertook the task.
