The Laundry Strike Solidifies
Everett labor organizers celebrate the unexpected solidarity between laundry workers and their delivery drivers as the community rallies to the cause.
The laundry proprietors did not figure that the drivers would stand pat and were a badly surprised bunch when they went out in sympathy with the striking laundry workers. If every bunch of strikers had the sand and grit that the laundry girls showed, very few strikes would be lost. That the sympathy of the public is with the laundry workers was amply demonstrated by the quick response on the part of hotel, restaurant, barber shop, and saloon proprietors to the appeal of the committee soliciting work for the union. The shingle weavers donated twenty dollars from their treasury to the striking girls and followed that with a collection which netted twenty dollars more. Added to that, they voted to fine any member who sent his laundry to a concern involved in the present struggle. That is the kind of sympathy that counts for something and is appreciated more than resolutions.
“If every bunch of strikers had the sand and grit that the laundry girls showed, very few strikes would be lost.”
This 1910 labor dispute highlights a moment when Everett workers leveraged cross-industry solidarity to fight for better wages. The 'sympathy strike' tactic remains a potent, if rare, tool in modern labor organizing as workers continue to fight for living wages in an expensive local economy.
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