Seattle Shipwrights Refuse to Cross Picket Lines in Victoria
Local union men stand in solidarity with Victoria caulkers, refusing to take work from a contractor who bypassed labor standards.
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The Shipwrights' Union held a meeting Saturday night and a long discussion took place on the question of allowing members of the Seattle union to go to Victoria to work for Whitelaw, the man who had the contract for building the pontoons to float the wreck of the San Pedro. It appears that at the time Whitelaw began work on the pontoons, he could not get enough union men and the union allowed him to hire non-union men. Later on, a number of caulkers belonging to the Victoria union struck for some reason, but the Seattle union men employed on the job refused to go out with them, as the latter had no grievance and it was not a union job. Now Whitelaw wants men for another job and does not want to hire members of the Victoria union if he can avoid it. He therefore applied to the Seattle union for men, but the union decided not to allow any men to work for him until he makes peace with the Victoria union. The subject caused a long discussion, as nearly all the members of the trade are idle here now and are very anxious to secure work if they can only do so without violating their union principles.
“The union decided not to allow any men to work for him until he makes peace with the Victoria union.”
Labor solidarity across the Salish Sea remains a persistent theme in Pacific Northwest history. Just as these 1892 shipwrights refused to undercut their counterparts in British Columbia to secure work during an economic downturn, modern unions in the maritime and tech sectors continue to grapple with the ethics of cross-border labor movement and the pressures of wage competition.
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