A Laborer's Grievance Over Skimpy Wages
A worker on the Madison Street grade reports that his contractor is withholding pay, sparking a debate on fairness and city debt.
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.
Jim J. Connelly, who says he worked for Contractor Strong on the Madison Street grade, complains that he was only paid at the rate of 17 cents on the dollar for his September work and at the rate of 40 cents for his October work. If Mr. Connelly took any such pittance from Contractor Strong as full payment for his due, he was decidedly a soft one, and has been badly cheated by a bilk. Contractor Strong takes neither 17 nor 40 cents on the dollar from the city, but 100, and 100 he should pay his hands and creditors. If anyone is to lose money on this job it should be Contractor Strong himself, and after him his bondsmen, and not the laborers and tradesmen. It will strike the average citizen as a remarkably cool proposition for a contractor to discount his own paper on any such extraordinary terms. Mr. Connelly should have made Mr. Strong pay him every dollar and every cent he owed him.
“If anyone is to lose money on this job it should be Contractor Strong himself, and after him his bondsmen, and not the laborers and tradesmen.”
Wage theft remains a persistent issue in Seattle's construction industry, mirroring the historical struggle of laborers fighting to be paid what they are owed by contractors who enjoy full municipal payments while stiffing their workers.
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