URU - 2013 - #002 - SERIE - RURAL WORKER RIGHTS, SHEEPSHEARER

Uruguay - 2013 - Permanent Serie of Rural Worker Rights, Sheepshearer

Options:

SERIE --- 0,90 EUR
SERIE [2X2] --- 3,70 EUR
FDC not Sent --- 2,30 EUR
FDC Sent on First Day --- 9,00 EUR
COVER Sent on First Day --- 6,00 EUR

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Issue information:

Country: Uruguay
Date: February 22nd, 2013
Printed: 400.000 copies

Stamp Shape and Size: Rectangular [27 mm. x 20 mm.]
Perforation: Lines
Gum: Self Adhesive

Block Configuration: 25 stamps [5 x 5]
Block Shape and Size: Rectangular [219 mm. x 195 mm.]

FDC Type: Normal
FDC not sent Shape and Size: Rectangular [165 mm. x 105 mm.]
FDC sent on issue day Shape and Size: Rectangular [235 mm. x 105 mm.]

Cover Shape and Size: Rectangular [241 mm. x 159 mm.]

Catalogue information:

Michel: No Data Available
Ivert: No Data Available
Scott: No Data Available
Stanley & Gibbons: No Data Available

Topics:

Issue:

This stamp is the second release of year 2013, and also the second one of a permanent serie, thought to spread awareness about the right of rural works enshrined in law 18.441, added in Uruguay law system on December 24th, 2008.

This permanent serie will be compounded by many stamps, eight already were issued at the moment was written this article, and in each of them a different rural activity, and in particular, the rural worker involved in it, will be focus of the issue.

In this particular issue, the sheepshearer is the activity choosen, and the design for depicting this task was to show two of this rural worker in his duty, shearing each one a different sheep.

The design of the stamps is limited to the scene of this two sheepshearers, one wearing a nice hat, working with three sheeps inside a land surrounded by a fence, under a nice lightly clouded sky.

The right of rural works enshrined in law 18.441 were: Limitation of labour to 8 hours a day; Payment of overtime for time which exceeds the legal time; Intermediate rest for continuous-time workers; Free day between 12 hours labour days; Weekly free day.

Other rural worker rights that are not included in law 18.441, however very important for them are: Freedom of union association; Collective bargaining; Participation in the Councils of wage.

A sheepshearer is a worker who uses (hand-powered)-blade or machine shears to remove wool from domestic sheep during crutching or shearing.

During the early years of sheep breeding in Australia, shearing was carried out by shepherds, assigned servants, Ticket of Leave men, and free labourers using blade shears. As the sheep industry expanded, more shearers were required. Although the demand had increased, the conditions had not, and shearers had to contend with terrible working conditions, very long hours and low pay. In 1888, Australia became the first country in the world have a complete shearing, at Dunlop Station, finished using machines. By 1915, most large Australian sheep station shearing sheds had machines that were powered by steam engines. Later, internal combustion engines powered machines until rural power supplies became available.

In most countries like Australia with large sheep flocks, the shearer is one of a contractor's team that go from property to property shearing sheep and preparing the wool for market. A workday starts at 7:30 am and the day is divided into four “runs” of two hours each. “Smoko” breaks of a half hour each are at 9:30 am and again at 3 pm. The lunch break is taken at 12 midday for one hour. Most shearers are paid on a piece rate, i.e., per sheep. The shearer collects a sheep from a catching pen, positions it on his “stand” on the shearing board and operates the shearing hand-piece. A shearer begins by removing the wool over the sheep's belly, which is separated from the main fleece by a rouseabout while the sheep is still being shorn. The remainder of the fleece is taken off in one piece by following an efficient set of movements.

In the case of powered shears, the movements used are those devised by Godfrey Bowen, in approximately 1950, or the Tally-Hi method. In 1963, the Tally-Hi shearing system was developed by Kevin Sarre and the Australian Wool Corporation who promoted the technique using synchronised shearing demonstrations. Sheep struggle less using the Tally-Hi method, reducing strain on the shearer and there is a saving of about 30 seconds shearing each sheep. When finished, the shorn sheep is removed from the board via a chute in the floor, or wall, to a counting out pen, efficiently removing it from the shed. The latest shearing patterns which are used by some of the most efficient shearers around the world, world record holders, world champions, etc. have less blows due to better sheep control and positioning. These patterns ensure that there is less strain placed on the sheep and the shearers due to the advanced techniques used.

A professional or "gun" shearer typically removes a fleece, without badly marking or cutting the sheep, in two to three minutes depending on the size and condition of the sheep, or less than two in elite competitive shearing. Shearers who “tally” more than 400 sheep per day are known as “gun shearers”. Gun shearers using blade shears can achieve much lower numbers, about 50 to 70 a day. A learner (shearer) is a shearer or intending shearer who has shorn less than a specified number of sheep.

Block:

The block, although it did not add any more topics, it has the peculiarity that all of the last autoadhesive blocks issued by Uruguay is presenting. This singularity is that, in autoadhesive issues, the perforation that generally exist between the stamps in the border of the block and the limit of the block itself, in this issues did not exist, creating many variations of the stamps in the block.

The variations generated are many. The most common, and the one that we could consider as the most representative stamp of the block, is the variation of the stamps that are not in the borders of the block, the block of 3x3 that is located in the center of the stamp.

Then, the other variations, in order of frequency in the block, are the three center stamps of the first column, having larger left margins, the three center in the fifth column having larger right margins, also the three center stamps of the fifth row, that present arger bottom margins.

There is also, as you already had imagined, the three center stamps of the first row, with the top margin extended, however, although the the ones of row two and three are equal, the other is a particular one, as it has the block number in it.

Finally, the four stamps of the corners, are each one a different variation of the stamp. Stamp at row-col position one-one has left and top margin extended, the one at position one-five has right and left margins augmented and also it includes the four squares to show the ink colours used to print the block. After that the remaining variation are the ones at position five-one, and five-five, with left and bottom, and right and bottom, margin increased respectively.

FDC:

The desing of the First Day Cancelation for all the permanent series is the same for a period of time. It is a fixed design that has a configurable date, that is set to the date of issue of each permanent serie stamp released.

The actual design chosen, is the one used since year 2012, and it shows a frontiers only map of Uruguay.

If you consider that there are another topics in this stamp, that were not spot in this review, you are encouraged to telling me about them, so please do not hesitate to post a comment. I would appreciate your help very much.