Labor Editor Confronts Clergy Over Non-Union Church Contract
An Everett trade unionist reports on the AFL convention and a failed promise from the Presbyterian Department of Church and Labor regarding local construction contracts.
The story, cleaned up
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E.P. Marsh reports from Toronto, where he attended the twenty-ninth annual convention of the American Federation of Labor. While there, he attempted to secure assistance regarding the construction of the First Presbyterian Church in Everett, which was being built by a non-union contractor. Marsh had previously secured a promise of cooperation from the Presbyterian Department of Church and Labor, but upon confronting Mr. Stelzle of that department, was rebuffed. Stelzle claimed his work was national in scope and that he had no authority to intervene in local autonomous church affairs, leaving local unionists to feel betrayed by the institutional church.
“There is nothing I can do at all. You see the Presbyterian churches are autonomous, and if I should take the matter up they would probably tell me it was none of my business.”
The tension between local labor organizers and religious institutions over construction ethics highlights the enduring Everett struggle to prioritize local, union-waged labor. A century later, questions of who builds our community infrastructure remain central to the civic debate over economic growth.
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