The Manufacturer’s Anti-Union Crusade
A labor editorial exposes how the National Manufacturers Association orchestrates regional attacks on workers’ rights.
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.
It is not hard to prove the existence of a 'class consciousness,' and it does not confine itself to the producers by any means. Employers of labor are quite 'class conscious.' Who took up the fight of Van Cleave against a labor conflict which primarily involved but one factory? The National Manufacturers Association. Who jumped into the eight-hour-day fight of the metal trades workers of Los Angeles? The Manufacturers Association. Who jumped with both feet into the present fight in this state for a women's eight-hour day? The Metal Trades Association of Seattle—a body of manufacturers that employ but few women and then only as stenographers and office clerks. It is hard to imagine what possible effect the eight-hour law for women could have on these organizations, but a class imagines itself vitally attacked and sends out the danger signal to all its component parts. Employers are fully cognizant of the existence of a 'class struggle,' and don't you forget it.
“A class imagines itself vitally attacked and it sends out the danger signal to all its component parts.”
This 1911 editorial captures the era's intensifying struggle between organized labor and trade associations. Today, the debate over labor's influence on policy remains a defining feature of Everett's civic life, echoing the historical tension between local industry and the rights of workers.
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