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977 stories matching strike
- The $3 Million Strike: How the Great Northern Railway Bet on Breaking Workers
In the winter of 1893, the railroad’s board calculated that paying workers less was cheaper than losing millions to a strike. They were right—and Seattle paid the price.
- A Federal Injunction Kills the Northern Pacific Strike Before It Starts
As receivers slash wages 3 to 5 percent, a Milwaukee judge bars the railroad brotherhoods from ordering a walkout—and the order is being extended 'to cover this state,' binding Northern Pacific men all along the line to Seattle.
- Seattle's Railroad Strike Goes Quiet—but the Unions Keep Fighting
As the national railroad boycott convulses the country, Seattle's yards stay quiet under troops and deputies while local unions back Debs, condemn violence, and negotiate food and livestock passage through boycotted lines.
- When the Great Railroad Strike Reached Seattle
In July 1894 the Pullman boycott finally tied up the Lake Shore road in Seattle — local switchmen walked out in sympathy, and the company answered with firings, Winchester-armed deputies and a federal judge.
- The Pullman Strike Collapses — and Seattle Quietly Comes Out Clean
As the great railroad strike of 1894 sputters to defeat nationwide, the Post-Intelligencer pauses to credit Seattle's police and strike leaders for keeping the city free of the violence that scarred the rest of the country.
- Three Thousand Pack the Armory to Cheer Debs and Denounce Pullman
Seattle workingmen and their allies fill Armory Hall to hear the strikers' side of the fight — a night of fiery speeches, white ribbons of peace, and one heckler hustled out the door.
- The Northern Pacific Offers Strikers a Last Chance—With Strings Attached
General Manager Kendrick says former employees can reapply after the Pullman strike, but only if they were not leaders or agitators—and they will rank behind the men hired to replace them.
- The Steamboat Strike That Tied Up the Sound
Officers of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company refuse to accept wage cuts, halting ferry service between Seattle and Tacoma in a rare display of maritime labor solidarity.
- The Looming Northern Pacific Strike
Tensions boil over as Northern Pacific railroad employees weigh a general strike against wage cuts and the company's attempt to dissolve organized labor.
- The Black Diamond Strike: When a Single Wage Dispute Paralyzed 350 Miners
A local labor assembly ordered a halt to production at the Black Diamond coal mine after a miner was paid as a laborer despite working underground. Company agents claim ignorance of the cause, but the men stand firm.
- The Tacoma Strike, Undone and Redone in a Single Day
Northern Pacific tries to declare victory, but firemen, switchmen and engineers vote to stay out—while Debs wires that the fight is still solid.
- A Second Railroad Strike Threatens Seattle as Union Demands Great Northern Stand Down
Seattle's American Railway Union president receives a telegram from Chicago ordering a halt to Great Northern's assistance to other roads — and local trainmen brace for another walkout.
- A Judge's Verdict on the Pullman Strike: The Men Who Stayed on the Job Came First
A federal judge in Seattle refused to order the receivers of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern to reinstate fifteen striking ex-employees, praising the non-union engineers who kept the trains running and condemning the boycott as an attempt to destroy the business that had paid them.
- The Race War in Roslyn: How Seattle’s Coal Mines Became a Battleground for Labor and Lynching
As strikers hold the line, the company imports Black miners from Illinois to break them. The result is not just a labor dispute, but a violent racial confrontation that exposes the dark underbelly of Washington's industrial boom.
- Switchmen's Strike Tightens Its Grip on Northwest Freight
Despite railroad claims that operations are normal, the American Federation of Labor steps in to support the striking switchmen as shipping remains at a standstill.
- The Sound Goes Silent: Steamboat Crews Strike Over Wage Cuts
A coordinated walkout by skilled engineers and captains across Puget Sound brings mail service to a halt as operators face the reality of losing their irreplaceable workforce.
- The Great Strike Wave of 1894
Across the nation, laborers and coal miners are organizing and striking against wage cuts, prompting a debate in the press about the true state of the economy.
- Blacklisted on the Waterfront: Northern Pacific Punishes Strike Leaders
After the 1894 railroad strike, a Northern Pacific superintendent admits the company will not rehire “strike leaders or agitators” — and one ex-switchman says the boycott follows him even to a steamship wharf.
- Seattle’s Sympathetic Strike Ends—With a Petition, Not a Picket Line
Lake Shore & Eastern workers formally call off their Pullman boycott, ask the superintendent for their old jobs, and appeal to a federal judge for reinstatement.
- Spokane’s Plumbers’ Strike Escalates
A two-month-old labor standoff between the plumbers' union and master builders threatens to halt all major construction in the city.
- The Great Northern Railroad Strike
A historic federation of railway workers defies their own union leaders to launch a massive wildcat strike across the Pacific Northwest.
- The Guard Mutinied Over a Railroad Strike
A 1894 court of inquiry found Tacoma’s Company G guilty of mutiny, cashiered a captain who surrendered to strikers at Sprague, and exposed a forged strike-edition letter.
- Railroad Strike Paralyzes Cascade Division
Freight trainmen walk off the job in Ellensburg over safety concerns and bond requirements, sparking a tense standoff.
- Spokane Telephone Operators Walk Out in Solidarity
Striking operators and linemen demand to return as a unified body, defying company attempts to replace them.
- James J. Hill Tells Seattle the Strike Never Should Have Come West
The Great Northern president calls the Pullman boycott pointless on the Coast, warns idle men will struggle to find work again, and stays coy about his deal with the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company.