The Wellington Strike: When Coal Miners Said 'No' to a Pay Cut
In July 1876, 70 miners at the Wellington colliery were fired for refusing a wage reduction, bringing the mine to a halt in a struggle that defined labor relations on the Pacific Northwest frontier.
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.
STRIKE AT WELLINGTON.
It will be remembered that a few days ago the proprietors of the Wellington colliery made a proposition to the miners, that if they took a reduction of 20 cents per ton in the price of mining the mine would be kept working to its full capacity. The miners refused and 36 men were kept on at full rates and the remaining 70 were discharged. On Wednesday the miners at work were informed that unless they took the reduced price they must also stop work. The miners then held a meeting and decided not to accept the reduced rate. All work at the mine is stopped, with the exception of five or six men who are driving the slope under a contract.
This suspension of operations we trust may be of short duration, for the benefit of both employers and employed.
This 1876 dispute over piece-rate wages at the Wellington colliery (near present-day Auburn) highlights how early labor conflicts in Washington were often localized but intense. The refusal to accept a pay cut mirrors modern tensions between gig-economy workers and platform algorithms, where base compensation is constantly scrutinized by both laborers and owners.
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