The Roslyn Coal Strike and the 'Supplanting' of Labor
As a wave of five hundred Black miners from Illinois arrives by rail to replace striking workers in Roslyn, the Yakima Herald records the cold mechanics of industrial strikebreaking.
Eleven cars, carrying about five hundred negro miners for the Roslyn mines, passed through Yakima Wednesday night. They are from Illinois and are to supplant the striking white miners. This movement by the coal company will probably break the strike and make Roslyn a peaceful place for some time to come.
“They are from Illinois and are to supplant the striking white miners.”
This 1889 report captures a common tactic in Western labor history: pitting workers against one another along racial lines to break union solidarity. It reflects the harsh realities of the Northern Pacific Railroad's era of industrial expansion, where corporate interests prioritized continuous production over the labor rights of their existing workforce.
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