The Seattle Longshoreman’s Strike of 1888

When the steamer Alki arrived in Seattle last Wednesday night, there were but two union men on the wharf; the rest were non-union men, as there were fifty union men at that time down sound working on the steamer Umatilla. When the mate of the steamer Alki went on the dock to get a gang to work, the first man he asked was a union man, who informed him that he would not work that night, but would work in the morning. The mate, not liking this, went about to get other men to discharge his freight that night, which he had a perfect right to do. The union men, as soon as they learned this, attempted to prevent the non-union men from working, leaving but one of the union men on the dock. All the other men that were on the dock then were non-union, yet the blame was placed on the shoulders of the Longshoremen’s Union, as the one man simply refused to work that night. If there had been any of our union men on the dock that night, there would not have been any trouble, as he would immediately have had a gang of men to work; and I claim that whatever trouble arose when the captain tried to procure other men, was not caused by the Longshoremen’s Union, but by the fact that the captain attempted to force men to work at an hour when they were not accustomed to, or their union men to turn the cold shoulder to those who were not.