Spokane Metalworkers Walk Out — and the Hill Roads Buy Peace With a Raise
Thirty-five machinists, blacksmiths and boilermakers strike the Union Iron Works over a nonunion hire, while the Northern Pacific and Great Northern sign an 8-cent raise and the eight-hour day for thousands.
A strike of the metal crafts which already involves thirty-five machinists, blacksmiths and boilermakers at the Union Iron Works at Spokane has been declared on refusal of the company to discharge a nonunion blacksmith. It is expected that when the matter is taken up by the central labor bodies the patternmakers and moulders will be called out and a general strike ordered involving the entire force of 125 men.
After a conference lasting several weeks between executive officers of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railroad companies, and delegates from the International Association of Machinists and the Brotherhood of Boilermakers, an agreement was reached and signed at Tacoma by which the Hill roads will pay these employes, several thousand in number, an increase of 8 cents an hour, and granting the eight hour day.
“A strike of the metal crafts ... has been declared on refusal of the company to discharge a nonunion blacksmith.”
In 1910 the eight-hour day was still something workers had to strike for, shop by shop. The Spokane walkout over a single nonunion hire is the same fight unions wage today over contract language and scabs — and the railroad settlement shows what organized pressure could win when the roads needed peace.
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