City's Eight-Hour Law Survives Legal Challenge
A local court rules that the city of Tacoma can enforce its eight-hour workday mandate against a construction firm's protest.
Judge Huston today handed down a decision in the case of the George Milton Savage company against the City of Tacoma, to prevent the enforcement of the eight-hour law. The decision is not on the constitutionality of the law, but is to the effect that in the present case at least the law is valid and the city can enforce it.
“The decision is not on the constitutionality of the law, but is to the effect that in the present case at least the law is valid and the city can enforce it.”
Labor rights in municipal contracts have been a consistent friction point between civic authorities and private capital for over a century. This legal tussle in 1904 captures the early institutionalization of the labor protections that would eventually define the 20th-century American workplace.
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