Baking Company Denies Labor Lockout
Management clarifies that union bakers left of their own accord, fueling a dispute in the Seattle labor market.
We notice in your issue of this day that at a meeting of the Western Central Labor Union held last night it was stated that the Queen City Baking Company had locked out all union bakers. This is not true. We have always employed union bakers until they of their own free will and accord refused to work for us. We have always paid the wages demanded by them. We are now paying union wages and propose in the future, as in the past, to deal justly, honestly, and fairly with everyone we have dealings with.
“We have always employed union bakers until they of their own free will and accord refused to work for us.”
Labor disputes over wages and union recognition were common in late 19th-century Seattle. This brief letter to the editor captures the immediate, often heated, public narrative battle between employers and labor organizations that defines Seattle’s history.
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