Labor Unrest on the Waterfront
The collier Wellington faces delays after the crew abandons ship over wage disputes.
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.
The sailing of the new collier, Wellington, for the north, was delayed by the desertion of her crew. All the men were shipped in England for a term of three years at the rate of wages prevailing in that country. On arriving here they became dissatisfied at receiving something like a fourth of the wages paid to those shipping out of American ports, and yesterday all hands left the ship, forfeiting the money already due them.
“They became dissatisfied at receiving something like a fourth of the wages paid to those shipping out of American ports.”
This incident reflects the early labor struggles of the Pacific Northwest, where port workers recognized the massive disparity between international pay scales and the local cost of labor, a precursor to the militant union movements that defined Seattle's waterfront.
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