The Waterfront Pay Strike of 1882
A Seattle longshoreman calls out the steamship company for wage stagnation and abysmal working conditions, demanding a living wage for the dangerous work of loading the S.S. Geo. W. Elder.
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.
Editor Post-Intelligencer: I see by this evening's Chronicle a tax item on the cause of the Elder being delayed at this port. Allow me to state the truth of the matter. On the arrival of the Elder this morning, the mate asked me how much I wanted per hour to work. I told him 40 cents. He told me it was all right, and to get him twenty men. I was in the act of leaving to get the men when Mr. Tibballs came up and said he would not pay it—meaning the 40 cents. As to the food they gave the longshoremen on the Elder last trip, the men could not eat it, and had to leave the ship at meal times and go to a restaurant to eat. Mr. Editor, the longshoremen at San Francisco and Victoria get 50 cents per hour, and still the Company's officers begrudge paying men the modest sum of 40 cents. Hoping you will lend us a hand through your able columns, we will ever pray, etc. — LONGSHOREMAN, Seattle, May 4, 1882.
“The longshoremen at San Francisco and Victoria get 50 cents per hour, and still the Company's officers begrudge paying men the modest sum of 40 cents.”
This 1882 labor dispute over the S.S. Geo. W. Elder highlights the historic tension between Seattle’s maritime workforce and the companies controlling the docks. It mirrors modern debates in the region, where dockworkers and gig laborers continue to struggle for wages that keep pace with the high cost of living and the quality of employer-provided benefits.
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