The Rainier Avenue Rail Strike
Electric railway workers face a wage cut to keep the line running as the receiver demands concessions.
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 strike of the employees of the Rainier Avenue Electric Railway lasted only a few hours and was settled yesterday morning. Receiver W. J. Grambs met with the old employees at Columbia and argued that as receiver, his only resource for paying wages was the earnings of the road. He warned that unless they accepted a reduction in pay, he could not generate enough money to cover their current wages and arrears. The workers yielded, returning to work with the assurance of receiving their reduced pay in cash, rather than having half of it credited to their accounts.
“They yielded to his arguments and returned to work, with the assurance of getting all the reduced wages in cash, while formerly half simply went on the books to their credit.”
This strike highlights the precarious nature of early infrastructure labor in Seattle. The tension between the financial insolvency of private transit operators and the workers' need for stable pay remains a recurring theme in modern urban transit debates.
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