Miners Under Pressure: Wage Cuts in Roslyn
As mining conflicts boil over in the Coeur d'Alenes, workers in Roslyn face a sharp 25 percent pay cut in their upcoming contract.
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.
In the contract which will be submitted to the miners and drivers at Roslyn on May 1, the only material change from the contract of last year is that it reduces the wages of entrymen 25 per cent. Heretofore they have been getting $3.33 per yard for entry work and $1 per ton for the coal taken out. The new contract makes it $2.50 per yard and $1 per ton. The entrymen will, under the new system, get $7.50 where formerly they received $10.
“The only material change from the contract of last year is that it reduces the wages of entrymen 25 per cent.”
The economic pressure on Roslyn miners in 1892 mirrors the broader precarity of the Pacific Northwest's labor history. Today, the town is a preserved historic site, yet it remains a touchstone for the region's long, often bitter struggle between resource extraction and worker sustainability.
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