The First Strike Against the Eight-Hour Day
Contractors are already looking for loopholes in the new Washington state labor law, sparking a legal showdown between building firms and the Western Central Labor Union.
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.
Last Saturday afternoon, a complaint sworn out by R. H. Lake was filed in Judge Cann's room against Smith, Wakefield & David, contractors on the Fourth Avenue regrade, charging them with violating the eight-hour law and demanding the arrest of the members of the firm. As soon as the state eight-hour law went into effect, notice will be taken against the contracting company. The eight-hour law states that contractors shall not require or allow their men to work more than eight hours a day. Smith, Wakefield & David are paying their men at the rate of 18 cents per hour for eight hours' work, and then allowing them to work two extra hours at 20 cents per hour. The contract for this work stipulates that eight hours shall constitute a day's work, and members of the Western Central Labor Union feel confident that they can compel the contractors to live up to the law. On the other hand, Smith, Wakefield & David feel that the law will not stand the test of the courts. In all probability the case will go to the supreme court, as the members of the Western Central Labor Union are determined to enforce the law, and the contractors have expressed themselves determined to fight it.
“The members of the Western Central Labor Union feel confident that they can compel the contractors to live up to the law.”
The struggle over the eight-hour day in 1903 reflects the same tension present in modern Seattle: the city's growth—then driven by massive infrastructure 'regrades' and now by high-density development—often comes into direct conflict with the rights of the labor force that builds it. Just as contractors in 1903 attempted to bypass the law through split-shift wage schemes, modern gig economy debates center on similar efforts to circumvent worker protections.
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