Labor Federation Rejects Move to Lift Boycott
A heated floor fight breaks out at the State Federation of Labor convention over a continuing boycott against an exposition.
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The boycott placed against the A.-Y.-P. by the State Federation of Labor last year will stay in effect. The federation, in annual session yesterday, refused to hear read a resolution to lift the ban. C. H. Miller, a barber delegate from Seattle, led the fight on the floor for the lifting of the boycott and he protested vigorously that he should be privileged to read his resolution, but he was voted down. This was the hottest fight of the convention. The resolutions committee declared that the convention could not properly take up the matter, since it had not come up on request of the building trades council of Seattle, which had the original grievance against the exposition. Miller declared that the action sounded the death knell of trades unionism in Washington, but all of his motions were lost by large votes. The delegates also passed a resolution condemning the language used by Judge Wright in the contempt of court case regarding Gompers, Morrison, and Mitchell, calling it an attack on freedom of speech.
“I have been sent here to speak for 25 members of my union and I am going to block this convention for two weeks if necessary.”
Internal disputes over how labor movements handle boycotts and organizational grievances have long shaped Washington's political landscape. The conflict between the state-level federation and local Seattle trades councils mirrors the perennial tension between grassroots organizers and established hierarchies in labor history.
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