Longshoremen’s Strike Ends in Defeat
The labor dispute between Seattle longshoremen and the Pacific Coast Steamship Company has ended, with the workers forced back to the docks on company terms.
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 longshoremen's trouble with the Pacific Coast Steamship Company is at an end as far as any opposition is concerned, although there has been no formal agreement. The longshoremen concluded that they could not hold out in the present condition of business, when men are so plentiful, and notified Superintendent Johnson that they were ready to work under conditions imposed by the company. As yet there has been no work for them, the small amount of freight brought on the last steamer being no more than the non-union men, who have been regularly employed, could handle. The longshoremen will now be given an opportunity to do the work, but will be treated as individuals and not as a union.
“The longshoremen will now be given an opportunity to do the work, but will be treated as individuals and not as a union.”
This account of union-busting and the use of 'plentiful' labor to break a strike echoes the long, fraught history of labor organizing on the Seattle waterfront. It serves as a reminder that the rights of collective bargaining were hard-won against companies that preferred individual employment contracts to diminish worker power.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.