The Switchmen’s Strike Remains Unbroken
Local union leaders condemn the 'treachery' of trainmen who crossed picket lines during the ongoing regional railway strike.
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Local officials of the Switchmen's Union in Everett state that the ongoing strike has not been settled, despite reports to the contrary. They specifically rebuke members of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen who abandoned the picket lines to return to work for a small wage increase. Despite this defection, union leadership insists that a core group of eighteen switchmen in local yards remains committed, and that the regional strike, stretching from Billings to the coast, remains active under union headquarters. The paper characterizes the return-to-work actions as a betrayal of solidarity, dismissing rumors that the strike has been officially called off.
“The trainmen couldn't stand the gaff and how they can attempt to square their conduct by any known spirit of unionism, is an enigma that true blue union men cannot solve.”
This reflects the volatile labor disputes in the Northwest railroad industry in the early 1900s. The tension between different railroad unions regarding strike-breaking remains a frequent theme in modern historical labor analysis.
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