The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory

The cigar factory

Of those men who were called to the front from the small town of 27,000 souls, 179 never came home. Among these was one tobacco worker. As the war dragged on, the sufferings of those at home had increased, and these could not be alleviated either by the tangible advantages of the day nursery or the stiff-upper- lip jollity of wartime propaganda. Ripple effects of the Russian Revolution of 1917 were felt in Hungary too, and the desperate and needy factory women began to try to unionise themselves. The Eger newspaper states that “this is no wage debate: a serious political battle is going on waged between the factory workers, which could easily sweep workers from other factories and plants along with it.” When the central office of the national Social Democratic Party found out about the activities of the factory women, they sent representatives to the tobacco factory with the subsequent result that the majority of the women joined the Social Democrats Trade Union.

The directorate of the Excise Office warned factory director Lajos Mertz to be cautious: “All union activity in the factory must if possible be stopped, and in cases where it does erupt it should be made clear that we have our rules, and so long as they are valid, we should adhere to them. We do not recommend that our employees join a union, and we do not recognise any extramural union activity. Nevertheless, given the excitable temperament of the people at the present time, those cases of union activity that we do detect should be handled with the utmost possible delicacy.” The feeling of powerlessness and the caution evinced by the Excise