Seattle's Brewery Workers Refuse a Ten-Hour Day
The city's brewers want longer shifts and unpaid Saturday work. Their men's union says no — and the fight goes to a Sunday meeting that could set the pattern for every brewery on the Coast.
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The Seattle brewery proprietors met the committee from the Western Central Labor Union and the Brewery Workmen's Union Friday evening in the Western Central hall for the purpose of reaching an understanding on a contract to be made with the Brewery Workmen's Union for the ensuing year.
A similar meeting was held some time ago, but the brewery workmen desired time to submit the proposition of the employers to their general officers at San Francisco, so the contract which was to expire on May 1 was extended to June 1.
The reply of the general secretary, Alfred Fuhrman, was read at the meeting Saturday. It stated that it would be a violation of the principles of the union to allow the members to return to a ten-hour day and render extra service on Saturday without pay, as the proprietors demanded they should do. He conceded the local union the right to yield on some minor points, but insisted that it must remain firm on these two.
The brewers wanted further time to consider the question, so it was decided to hold another meeting next Sunday afternoon to finally dispose of the matter. The brewers submitted another proposition less objectionable than the first. It was for the adoption of an agreement similar to that existing between the Eastern brewers and the National Union of Brewery Workmen. It is doubtful if this proposition will meet with the approval of the officers of the Coast union, for the reason that its adoption would soon lead to the adoption of a like arrangement in all the other cities on the Coast to the disadvantage of the workmen. The brewers stated that they would consult the Tacoma brewers and be prepared to take final action at the meeting Sunday. It seems from the friendly manner in which the matter is being handled that it will be settled without trouble.
“It would be a violation of the principles of the union to allow the members to return to a ten-hour day and render extra service on Saturday without pay, as the proprietors demanded they should do.”
A century and a half before Seattle's delivery drivers and coffee-shop baristas were arguing over schedule predictability, the city's brewery hands were fighting the same two questions: how long is a day, and which hours get paid. The union's refusal to bend on the ten-hour day was never only about Seattle — the Coast union's officers understood that a concession here would be copied in Portland, Tacoma and San Francisco within a season. That logic, that a local shop sets the regional standard, is exactly how Seattle labor fights still get argued today.
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