Bringing the Union to the Woods
Facing isolation and declining membership, Snohomish County shingle weavers pioneered a district-based organizing strategy to reach workers in remote mills.
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The shingle weavers found that members who could not attend meetings due to their isolation from towns soon became delinquent in their dues and lost interest. Every non-union weaver or delinquent brother is a constant menace to the success of the organization, so the locals concluded that if 'Mahomet could not come to the mountain, the mountain would go to Mahomet.' The result was a division of the state into districts and the placing of organizers in the field to regularly visit mills, collect dues, and initiate new members. Snohomish County, which was the first district to be organized, held a convention in Everett last Sunday. Plans were laid to combine Skagit and Whatcom counties with Snohomish and place an organizer constantly in the field. V. Clifford is president of Snohomish County; George G. Morrison is secretary; and Ernest Kuehl is the organizer.
“If Mahomet could not come to the mountain, the mountain would go to Mahomet.”
This 1909 struggle to reach workers in isolated industrial sites mirrors today's challenges of labor organizing in decentralized or 'gig' economy workplaces. The 'mountain to Mahomet' philosophy remains a core strategy for modern unions trying to maintain solidarity across fragmented landscapes.
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