Ballard Mill Workers Win Wage Fight
After an attempt to cut pay, Ballard shingle mill workers successfully pressured owners to maintain the old wage scale.
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 movement of the Ballard shingle men to reduce the wages of the knot sawyers and weavers has been abandoned, and it is likely that all the mills will be running today at the old scale of wages. The reduction offered was not a general 10 percent cut, but a specific lowering of rates. The first firm to yield was the Seattle Cedar Lumber Company, which started its mill yesterday at the old rates and agreed to pay in cash every ten days instead of in sixty-day time checks, as heretofore, which were often discounted.
“The first firm to yield was the Seattle Cedar Lumber Company, which started its mill yesterday at the old rates and agreed to pay in cash every ten days.”
This struggle highlights the common 19th-century practice of paying workers in 'time checks' or scrip rather than cash, which essentially acted as a hidden wage cut. The workers' ability to force a return to the old scale and demand cash payment represents a significant, though small, victory in the ongoing labor struggles of the era.
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