The Van Valley Bottling Works Remains Unfair
A labor dispute over wages and union jurisdiction continues to heat up in Everett.
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.
Somebody, with an evident purpose, is circulating the report that the trouble between the Van Valley Bottling Works and the Brewery Workers union has been settled and the firm is now fair. This is untrue. At the time we go to press, the brewery workers themselves are authority for this statement. The brewery workers union sets the scale for employees in the bottling works and holds jurisdiction over the plant. The drivers for this plant had their wages reduced five dollars a week below the scale set by the brewery workers union, and a conference between the union representatives and the firm proved futile. The strikes and boycott committee of the Trades Council was also unable to effect a settlement and the council concurred finally in the action of the brewery workers in placing the bottling works unfair. The only concession made since by the firm has been to raise the drivers two dollars a week, but they are still receiving three dollars a week less than the union scale and the bottling works has NOT been taken from the unfair list, any report circulating at this writing notwithstanding.
“The only concession made since by the firm has been to raise the drivers two dollars a week, but they are still receiving three dollars a week less than the union scale.”
Everett’s labor history is defined by its strong union roots and the constant friction between organized labor and local business interests. Today, the city’s economic landscape has shifted from industrial manufacturing to service and aerospace, yet the underlying tension regarding fair wages and the impact of 'unfair' labels remains a classic feature of local labor activism.
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