The Shipyard Walkout at the Port Blakely Mill
When an employer mandated a ten-hour workday, laborers staged a strike that pitted the mill's authority against the collective will of the workers.
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.
At Port Blakely, the company gave the employees notice that hereafter ten hours would be considered a day's work, and that they would thereafter be paid full wages for ten hours' work. This seemed to be accepted and everything went smoothly that day. During the interval, one or two men, who had made themselves in many ways objectionable to their employers, were called into the office and paid off. Instead of leaving and going where their talents would be better appreciated, they remained at Port Blakely and organized a strike which successfully influenced the men. The result was that when the whistle blew for the mill to start up yesterday morning, the men who had been influenced refused to work. One side of the mill was started up by the employees who refused to fall in with the strikers, and was kept running all day. During the forenoon, Captain Renton ordered the men who had quit work to call at the office. He threatened them that he had no further use for those who did not wish to work for the Company, and would furnish them free transportation on the boat Blakely to Seattle. The men claim that during the past week, the company has forced the Chinese employees about the mill to take the places of the strikers. The strikers have been warned to leave the company's premises, and if they do not comply, the claim of the law would be appealed to to make them vacate. The shipyard and mills are the property of the Port Blakely Mill Company.
“Captain Renton ordered the men who had quit work to call at the office. He threatened them that he had no further use for those who did not wish to work for the Company.”
Labor disputes over working hours and the management of immigrant labor populations have long been a feature of the Pacific Northwest. This 1886 strike over the transition to a ten-hour day echoes the modern, ongoing struggles of Seattle’s gig and tech workers negotiating for better pay and manageable hours in a tightening labor market.
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