The Deckhands' War on the Steamer Wasco
A standoff between non-union workers and labor organizers ends in a victory for the crew, marking a volatile shift in the Seattle labor market.
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 union deckhands have finally won the fight against the steamer Wasco. Her non-union crew quit her Wednesday evening, claiming $35 per month was not enough pay for the work they were doing. An effort was made to get another crew to take their places at the same rate, but none could be found who were willing to go. The result was that a union crew was finally taken at the regular union scale of wages, $43 per month. The Wasco is the boat off which the non-union deckhands were kidnapped some time ago by members of the union. The kidnapped men claimed the men who carried them away took a revolver and some money away from them and then put them on the road to Edmonds, with an admonition not to return to Seattle. They were picked up at Edmonds by the steamer Hasnalo and taken to Coupeville, where they lived, but a few days later they returned here. They threatened criminal proceedings against the men who carried them away, but that is as far as the matter was ever carried. An attempt was made by the Western Central Labor Union to boycott the boat, but with poor success. It looks now as though the trouble was settled for good.
“Her non-union crew quit her Wednesday evening, claiming $35 per month was not enough pay for the work they were doing on the boat.”
This 1892 labor conflict on the waterfront highlights the fierce, often physical nature of early union organizing in Seattle. While the scale of pay has changed, the struggle over maritime wage standards and the push for unionized labor on the Puget Sound remains a core part of the city’s economic narrative today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.