Seattle Coal Workers Strike at the Docks in 1886
A tense confrontation unfolds at the Seattle coal bunkers as workers strike against company intimidation.
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.
Seattle, June 4. The coal workers at the Seattle Coal & Transportation Company’s bunkers in Seattle went on strike today. They are refusing to load coal for the company, alleging that the company is attempting to force them to accept lower wages. The strikers, they claim, are protected by the city and the military are held in readiness to control a riot. A body of special police, consisting of about 20 men under command of Captain J. H. McGilvra, are stationed at the docks to protect the company's interests and the Chinese laborers who are currently working there.
“The strikers, they claim, are protected by the city and the military are held in readiness to control a riot.”
This 1886 labor standoff over wages and the use of strikebreakers at the Seattle waterfront reflects the historic volatility of the city's labor movement. Conflicts between organized labor and corporate interests remain a perennial feature of the Seattle region's economic and civic evolution.
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