The Strategic Limits of the Strike
United Mine Workers President Thomas L. Lewis argues that strikes should be a final recourse in the ongoing tension between capital and labor.
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President Thomas L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers, in his annual report, declared that the strike as a method of organization has not proved a success. 'Our right to strike can never be surrendered, but it should be the very last recourse, and every other exhausted before a suspension of work is ordered or takes place,' the report read. 'Let us put ourselves on record that so long as one employer insists on the right to combine with other employers to develop industry, accumulate wealth and buy labor at the cheapest possible rate, just that long will the mine worker insist on the right to organize with his fellow mine worker, to dictate the terms upon which we will sell our labor. Capital and labor should co-operate and work together, but if there must be a struggle between dollars and men then men should and must be triumphant.'
“If there must be a struggle between dollars and men then men should and must be triumphant.”
In 1910, the labor movement was grappling with the viability of the strike as a bargaining tool, a debate that echoes in contemporary discussions regarding the effectiveness of modern labor actions versus legislative lobbying. The fundamental tension described between the 'rights of labor' and 'capital accumulation' remains a central feature of local economic discourse in Everett's industrial landscape.
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