The Manufacturer's Trap
A labor paper exposes the duplicitous correspondence of a prominent industrialist plotting to break union agreements.
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.
James Van Cleave made a theatrical speech to the members of the manufacturers' association in Seattle last week. He told them all about his trouble with the wicked labor unions and solemnly declared that he was an innocent victim of the malicious and vindictive American Federation of Labor. Poor, harassed Mr. Van Cleave! Let us see about it. In the early part of 1906, long before there was any dispute between Mr. Van Cleave and the A.F. of L., he carried on a series of correspondence with Mr. Turner, who was an agent for a professional strike-breaking bureau. There are some choice extracts from his letters to Mr. Turner: 'I do not believe it to be wise to begin right away to put in non-union men or men who are obnoxious in any way. It may be possible for us to begin in a quiet, unassuming, and systematic way to put into our shop as many of the non-union molders as can be found in the country. I am particularly anxious to have the Iron Molders union commit an overt act that will cancel and wipe out of existence all the trade agreements now in existence between the employers' association and the iron molders' union. It is going to be my business to run the Iron Molders' union into a trap.' Mr. Van Cleave, by his own admission, invited and brought about the trouble that has ensued with organized labor.
“I am particularly anxious to have the Iron Molders union commit an overt act that will cancel and wipe out of existence all the trade agreements now in existence.”
This 1909 account of corporate 'union busting' via intentional provocation mirrors contemporary labor struggles, where large corporations are still frequently accused of manufacturing conflicts to erode collective bargaining rights.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.