Spokane’s Plumbers’ Strike Escalates
A two-month-old labor standoff between the plumbers' union and master builders threatens to halt all major construction in the city.
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The plumbers' strike which started two months ago, seemingly is no nearer a settlement than when it started, and both sides are determined to fight it out to a finish. It is estimated that the strike has cost the strikers $20,000 in wages, and, adding to this the losses suffered by the master plumbers, and the capital that would have been invested in buildings but for the strike, the trouble has cost Spokane more than $30,000. On the night of October 28 the plumbers' union decided to make a demand on their employers in the morning for a raise from $5 to $5.50 per day. The master plumbers refused the demand and the union men struck. Seventy-two plumbers were thrown out of work at the beginning of the strike. The Building Trades' Council took the strike in hand and ordered all crafts to cease working on buildings where non-union plumbers were working. The Master Builders' Association then declared that if the sympathetic strike went into effect it would stop all the building operations in the city. The Master Builders' Association then declared that it would employ no members of unions affiliated with the Building Trades' Council. The master builders have not as yet made good their threat, but declare that they propose to do so after the holidays.
“The union claims that it has plenty of money in its treasury and that it will fight it out if it takes years to win this strike.”
Labor disputes over wages and union recognition remain a recurring tension point in Pacific Northwest construction. Just as in 1903, the threat of 'sympathetic strikes' and lockouts reflects the ongoing struggle over power in the building trades.
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