The Ten-Hour Day comes to Port Gamble
A major mill company unilaterally reduces labor hours without cutting pay, setting a new industry standard in the Puget Sound.
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.
On and after November 1, 1886, the Puget Mill Company’s mills at Port Gamble, Port Ludlow, and Teekalet, W. T., will start at 7 o’clock a.m. and run until 6 o’clock p.m., with one hour at 12 o’clock p.m. for dinner, until further notice. Ten hours will hereafter constitute a full day’s work for all artisans, mechanics, and all other mill hands. This move on the part of the company proved a great surprise to their employees, who were accustomed to the habitual twelve-hour shift. If the Puget Mill Company has taken the lead in establishing a ten-hour day at its mill ports, other mill corporations will soon follow suit, and it is safe to predict that by the first of January, 1887, ten hours will be considered and paid for as a full day’s work all over Puget Sound.
“Ten hours will hereafter constitute a full day’s work for all artisans, mechanics, and all other mill hands.”
This 1886 shift marks a pivotal moment in labor history, as the 'eight-hour movement' began to filter into the PNW industrial economy. While Seattle workers today navigate modern gig-economy precarity and burnout, the fight for the standard work-day remains a foundational struggle of the regional labor movement.
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