A Year of Struggle and Solidarity
Reflecting on the industrial battles of 1909-1910, Everett's union leaders recount the switchmen's strike and the ongoing fight for the eight-hour day.
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.
The year that has passed since Labor Day, 1909, has been an eventful one for organized labor. We have had our struggles and our victories, our joys and sorrows. Though the year has been tempestuous, we are nearer the goal for which we strive—the full emancipation of the men and women of toil from privation and want. The longest and most bitterly fought struggle was the switchmen's strike. Beginning the first of last December, it held the stage on the industrial battlefield for nearly five months. Opposed by the wealth and power of several great railroad corporations, and menaced by the blacklist, they waged the grandest war the northwest has ever witnessed. Currently, the machinists of Everett are out for the eight-hour day in contract shops, and electricians are on strike against the Stone & Webster company for better conditions. The eight-hour day is as inevitable in the metal industry as in any of the building trades.
“The eight-hour day is as inevitable in the metal industry as in any of the building trades.”
Everett's reputation as a 'union town' was forged in the early 20th century through these exact industrial clashes. The 1910 focus on the eight-hour day and the influence of powerful local corporations like Stone & Webster mirrors modern debates about corporate influence in labor and the ongoing fight for fair scheduling.
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