The Unbroken Line of Everett Machinists
Striking workers at the Sumner Iron Works receive community support as union solidarity continues to hold.
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.
Several local organizations decided to give the machinist pickets who have been faithfully on duty in this city for more than a year a little Fourth of July celebration, taking the form of a substantial donation from the union treasuries. A report from the Trades Council meeting indicated that only three men are left at the Sumner Iron Works from the original bunch of fifteen strike-breakers imported from St. Paul. The machinists remain confident of an ultimate victory for the eight-hour day all along the coast.
“It is a tribute from some of the union boys of Everett to a little band of men who have got grit.”
The Sumner Iron Works was a cornerstone of early Everett industry, and this report highlights the persistent, year-long labor struggle that characterized the era. Today, the site of such industrial labor battles is often unrecognizable, but the tension between organized labor and imported strikebreakers remains a recurring theme in the history of Snohomish County.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.