The Day the Wharves Froze: Tacoma’s Lumber Workers Strike Over Wage Cuts
In March 1890, dockworkers at Tacoma’s massive timber mills walked off the job when owners slashed their monthly pay from $60 to $45. The resulting gridlock piled lumber so high it brought the entire industry to a halt.
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.
TACOMA, March 14.—The Tacoma mill at Old Town is shut down by reason of a strike. This morning the wharf men received notification that their wages were to be reduced from $60 to $45 a month. They handle the lumber as it comes down the chutes, and when they stopped work the lumber kept piling up until everything was dogged. The mill necessarily was shut down.
During the day other men were found to take the places of the strikers, but the latter persuaded them not to go to work. Charles Hanson, the president, is in San Francisco and as the order of reduction came from that city it is presumed it emanated from him. The Pacific mill two months ago reduced the wages of its wharf hands from $50 to $35, and had a strike of short duration, the result being that the reduced price prevailed.
This 1890 dispute over wage cuts at Tacoma’s timber industry echoes modern labor struggles in the Pacific Northwest, where workers continue to fight for living wages against corporate cost-cutting. The image of lumber piling up and paralyzing a local economy is a powerful visual metaphor for how essential infrastructure relies on fair compensation.
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