Seattle Chamber of Commerce Takes Aim at Longshoremen
The Chamber of Commerce moves to break the power of harbor unions, threatening to form competing organizations and call for police intervention.
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.
At the meeting of the trustees of the Chamber of Commerce, the committee appointed to investigate alleged discriminations against the port of Seattle by the Puget Sound stevedores and the exactions of the longshoremen’s and sailors’ unions made a lengthy report. The Longshoremen's Union was blamed for standing in the way of the shipping interests of the port. The Chamber adopted a recommendation to form a competing organization to break the union's influence and to provide 'necessary police protection' for non-union laborers should the current unions refuse to change their policy.
“It was recommended that steps be taken, in case the union refuses to change its policy, to form another organization to compete with it.”
The tension between organized labor and the Chamber of Commerce is a foundational element of Seattle's history. This 1892 move to 'break' the longshoremen's power echoes the ongoing struggles over labor rights and port control that have shaped the city's economic identity for over a century.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.