The Struggle for the Seattle Mills
Striking workers at the Seattle mills face a stalemate as employers struggle to find enough non-union labor to maintain operations.
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 developments in the mill strike today were all favorable to the strikers. Two more mills have joined the strike, and the Ship Mills in this city, which were started with non-union men yesterday, are idle today, the firm not being able to secure enough men to keep in operation. The Aetna Mill, which the owners confidently expected to be running non-union this week, is still closed down, but it is believed that they will be in operation tomorrow. The additional departure of the mills involved was the Standard Iron and Nail Company of Clifton, West Virginia, employing one hundred men, and the Belmont Iron Company of Canal Dover, Ohio, forty men. The Seattle mills have also joined the scale and the strikers are greatly encouraged.
“The firm not being able to secure enough men to keep in operation.”
This 1885 report captures the precarious nature of labor organizing in early Seattle, where employers actively sought to replace union workers with 'non-union men' to break the picket line. The tension between mill owners and laborers remains a foundational thread in Pacific Northwest history, mirroring modern debates over labor rights, gig work, and the power dynamics of the regional economy.
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