The Power of the 'Union Store' Card
Walla Walla labor leaders move to bring women into the fold, turning the tide for local retail staff.
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.
The Walla Walla Trades and Labor Council met in regular session last evening with the usual attendance. The Council emphatically endorsed the action of the local Clerks' Protective Association in accepting female clerks into its membership. This move is expected to bolster the union's influence. A recent incident highlighted the importance of this shift: a union sympathizer from out of town refused to shop at a store where the clerks were not union members, despite the store displaying a 'Union Store' card. He took his twenty-dollar purchase to a competing business that was fully unionized, illustrating how the lack of inclusive membership was costing merchants their patronage.
“The Trades Council emphatically endorsed the action of the local Clerks' Protective association in accepting among its membership the female clerks of the city.”
Early 20th-century labor organizing in Walla Walla frequently grappled with the exclusionary nature of guilds, but this account shows a pivotal moment where the pragmatic need for solidarity outweighed traditional gender barriers in the retail sector, much like modern retail organizing efforts still struggle with the inclusion of part-time and female-dominated workforces.
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