Street Railway Workers Strike Over Wage Cuts
Italians employed by the Tacoma Railway and Power Company walk off the job after their daily wage is slashed from $1.75 to $1.60.
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.
Probably because the Tacoma Railway and Power Company is trying to save money to buy a new cable, Italians employed in relaying tracks on G Street had their wages cut vertically by the company from $1.75 to $1.60 per day of ten hours. The Italians refused to work and other men were put in their places. Fearing that the strikers might attempt to prevent the new men from working, the streetcar company asked for a detail of police to preserve order. About 100 men struck when the new order was made known. They have been getting $1.75 a day for the past two months and claim they cannot live on less. 'We are not Chinamen,' said one of the strikers this morning, 'and won't work for 'Chinamen's' wages. We don't want to come into a union town, either, and cut wages.'
“We are not Chinamen, and won't work for Chinamen's wages. We don't want to come into a union town, either, and cut wages.”
This 1904 labor dispute echoes modern struggles over the rising cost of living and stagnant wages in Tacoma. The strikers' explicit rejection of a 'race-to-the-bottom' wage structure highlights the complex and often ugly intersections of class, labor, and xenophobia in the Pacific Northwest’s early industrial history.
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