Everett’s Union Wives Organize
A newly appointed organizer rallies the women of union households to leverage their purchasing power for the labor cause.
The story, cleaned up
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That no mistake was made by the unionists of this city when they engaged Mrs. Rose H. Moore for a month's organization work was evident last Monday evening at the first regular meeting of the Women's Label League since she began work in the city. At that meeting, twenty-eight new members, women relatives of union wage workers, were initiated. Mrs. Moore has very pronounced ideas on the relation of women to the labor movement. She argues that women are the primary spenders of the family income; by demanding the union label on everything they buy, they can force merchants to support labor unions in their battles for better wages and shorter hours. The league aims to organize not just the wives of working men, but also working girls into trade unions, so that the strike, the picketing, and the injunction will not be necessary.
“In her hand lies the purchasing power. She is in large degree the spender of the family income. Business is business always with the merchant.”
This 1911 organizing effort highlights how long the labor movement has relied on the 'purchasing power' of households to exert influence. Today, the same logic persists in debates over ethical consumption and 'buying local,' though the tools of labor organization have shifted from the Union Label to digital mobilization.
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