Shipping Magnates Prepare for War Against Sailors' Union
The Ship Owners' Association of the Pacific Coast is moving to break the power of the sailors' union on Puget Sound by opening branch offices for non-union hiring.
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The Ship Owners' Association of the Pacific coast is quietly preparing to inaugurate a vigorous warfare against the sailors' union on Puget sound. Secretary Williams, of the association in San Francisco, is laying the foundation for a big fight. He is quietly arranging branch offices on Puget sound where non-union seamen can ship on association vessels. He proposes to pay good wages, but will not permit advances to be paid to boarding house masters or shipping agents. The money will be paid directly into the hands of the individual seamen. Seamen who engaged to ship on association vessels will be carefully guarded against assaults from union sailors. Attorneys will be retained to prosecute all such offenders. Nearly all the big mill companies are in the association, and in a few weeks the fight will commence. This contest will finally determine the issues between the organizations.
“The Ship Owners' Association of the Pacific coast is quietly preparing to inaugurate a vigorous warfare against the sailors' union on Puget sound.”
Labor conflict on the waterfront has defined Puget Sound for over a century. The practice of 'boarding house masters' extracting fees from sailors—a form of debt peonage—was a key driver of early maritime labor organizing in Seattle.
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