Washington's First Step Toward an Eight-Hour Day
After a morning defeat in the House, lawmakers narrowly push through the controversial eight-hour work bill for women, despite loopholes for canneries.
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.
Olympia, Feb. 17.—The bill prohibiting the employment of women or girls longer than eight hours a day was reconsidered by the house yesterday afternoon, after being defeated in the morning, and was finally passed by a vote of 51 to 36. The defeat of the bill in the morning, when the vote against it was 45 to 42, was due to the failure of some of the members to keep their pledges. It can be dodged by canneries by placing their female help on piecework and working them as long as they please. It was found that canneries could not be exempted constitutionally. The entire force back of the eight-hour movement then rallied and pushed the bill through. Representative Bell of Pierce County was a leader in the fight for the bill.
“It can be dodged by canneries by placing their female help on piecework and working them as long as they please.”
This 1909 legislative battle highlights the early, messy reality of labor protections in Washington. While the law aimed to set a standard, the 'piecework' loophole reflects the persistent struggle between corporate interests in Washington's canneries and the basic rights of workers, a tension that still echoes in modern debates over gig-economy labor laws.
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