The Burlington Quarry Strike
Forty laborers left behind in Burlington after the Great Northern railroad’s stone quarry abruptly shut down without paying their wages.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The steamer Henry Bailey brought down from Burlington a gang of about forty men yesterday who had been employed in the quarry at that place by the mining contractor, P. D. Burke, in getting out stone for the Great Northern railroad. The men claimed to have struck because their pay had not been forthcoming. They asked for transportation to Seattle over the company's line, but were refused. Those who had any money made arrangements with the captain of the Henry Bailey to bring them down. About ten or fifteen others, who had no cash, proceeded to walk down. An official of the company said last night that the men had not struck, but that the quarry had been shut down, throwing them all idle, and the company did not feel that they were entitled to free transportation to Seattle. The company still holds money which was due Burke and proposes to settle with the men out of it.
“The men claimed to have struck because their pay had not been forthcoming.”
The precarious nature of contract labor in the 1890s echoes modern struggles with wage theft and the instability of the gig economy. Just as these quarrymen were left stranded by a sudden shutdown, construction workers today often face similar vulnerabilities when mid-level contractors fail to cover payroll.
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