Longshoremen Wage War on 'Alien' Crew
A ship captain was arrested in Tacoma for allowing his foreign crew to load lumber, sparking a battle over labor rights and local wages.
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.
Tacoma, April 11. Captain S. Jorgensen, of the Norwegian ship Hiawatha, was arrested last evening for a violation of the alien contract labor law. He had been employing his crew of eighteen men to load the Hiawatha with lumber. He was released on $500 bond and will have a hearing on Thursday. Albert E. Joab, representing the Longshoremen's Union, stated: 'If our point is sustained, it means hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages for the longshoremen of Tacoma and the entire Sound. By loading his ship with alien contract labor, Jorgensen would keep out of the pockets of Tacoma longshoremen thousands of dollars. Longshoremen hold it is their right to load vessels in preference to alien contract labor.'
“If our point is sustained it means hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages for the longshoremen of Tacoma and the entire Sound.”
The conflict between global maritime shipping interests and local labor unions is a persistent thread in Pacific Northwest history. This 1893 dispute over who has the right to perform port work mirrors the ongoing tensions in the modern labor market regarding globalization and fair wages.
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