Streetcar Strike Looms in Seattle
Transit workers demand wage hike to 30 cents an hour and threat of a total system shutdown hangs over the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress.
Seattle, Wash., Aug. 19.—Unless President Furth of the Seattle Electric Co. will submit all differences between the street car company and its employes to arbitration and grant an increase in wages to 30 cents per hour, the union men threaten to walk out at four this afternoon and tie up every line in the city. This would cause much inconvenience to the delegates attending the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress as well as to the public.
“Unless President Furth of the Seattle Electric Co. will submit all differences... the union men threaten to walk out.”
Labor disputes over wages and arbitration in public transit remain a recurring flashpoint in Washington cities today. The frustration of commuters and city leaders in 1903 mirrors the tension that persists when essential services become a bargaining chip for worker conditions.
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