When we saw in our General Strike: The Milk Wagon Drivers consulting late into the night over the task of supplying milk for the city’s babies; The Provision Trades working twenty-four hours out of the twenty-four on the question of feeding 30,000 workers; The Barbers planning a chain of co-operative barber shops; The steamfitters opening a profitless grocery store; The Labor Guards facing, under severe provocation, the task of maintaining order by a new and kinder method; When we saw union after union submitting its cherished desires to the will of the General Strike Committee: then we rejoiced. The longshoremen ask permission to handle government mails, customs and baggage. He mentioned the needs of gas in hospitals and laboratories, and the need of transportation for the various city institutions. In no case is it recorded that this return was taken by the rank and file. of L. Strike At the time, workers in the United States, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, were becoming increasingly radicalized, with many in the rank and file supportive of the recent revolution in Russia and working toward a similar revolution in the United States. The Seattle General Strike of 1919 was a five-day general work stoppage by more than 65,000 workers in the city of Seattle, Washington from February 6 to 11. [12][14] In general, work was not halted if doing so would endanger lives. Ir of a complete organization of the industry, they had a small and struggling union, organized in a few shops, but unable to gain an entrance into some of the big markets which were controlled by the representatives of the packers. In Tacoma, the interest in Rochdale stores also reached a climax, resulting in the establishing of three such stores in a space of two weeks. A note from the Laundry Owners Club, accepting the Washington Laundry as the one to be exempted, was also submitted, together with the rest of the requests from the laundry drivers and laundry workers. Thus while the workers of Seattle had to create a new organ, the General Strike Committee, they did not come into direct conflict with the existing union structure, precisely because of the factors which made that structure unique. Demands for Exemptions We did not realize how large a feature of the job the transportation work would be.”. The Auto Drivers, Bill Posters, Ice Cream Drivers, and Milk Drivers were not present and were reported as having returned to work. That’s all. In the evening the Teamsters reported that a meeting of the rank and file had unanimously voted to strike, again till Tuesday noon in accordance with the recommendation of the General Strike Committee. policy; as Harry Ault, editor of The Union Record, and a moderate in the local labor movement, put it: “I believe that 95 per cent of us agree that the workers should control the industries. For we knew it was worth the four or five days pay apiece to get this education in the problems of management. A group called the "Labor War Veteran's Guard" forbade the use of force and did not carry weapons, and used "persuasion only. of L. representative and international officer) by the persons responsible for the strike that he had ordered the teamsters back, and that he might have acted differently if he had been treated by these bodies as the Committee of Fifteen had treated him. This editorial was perhaps more variously interpreted than any statement made during the strike. A strike committee, for example, can be only a means by which different groups of workers coordinate their activity; on the other hand, it can be a new directing authority. I don’t care about the car line or the other departments.” Perhaps it was the very completeness of the strike, or perhaps the pressure from meetings of business men. The strike was not a simple shutdown of the city. But the vast majority were striking “just for sympathy,” just as a show of solidarity. Many opponents of organized labor hoped to see the Labor Movement of Seattle broken by the attempt to handle a General Strike, and many old-timers in the labor Movement feared that this would indeed happen. The arrangements for transporting cooked food from one place to another did not work perfectly. Logged in users: ▶ Can comment on articles and discussions The Cooks Union reported at this time that their arrangements for feeding the strikers and the public were well under way. Some crafts had stopped before the hour set. What Was the Strike For? Hardware stores ransacked their storehouses for discarded supplies of lamps of the sort used by last summer’s resorters in beach camps, and sold them out at a substantial advance in price. [19] The Mayor continued his rhetorical attack on February 9, saying that the "sympathetic strike was called in the exact manner as was the revolution in Petrograd. What did come out of it, as will be seen as the story proceeds, was precisely what was hoped for in this editorial, ”more and more activities under the management of labor.” The stimulus to cooperative enterprise and to the enthusiastic working together of unions was the most important, permanent and constructive result of the General Strike. unions had traditionally been all white, the employers had no trouble recruiting 30 to 40 thousand black workers as strikebreakers. The Russian Revolution was supported by large numbers of workers in the U.S. as elsewhere. In the late 1910s, the Pacific Northwest was a hotbed of political radicalism. A general strike hit Winnipeg in May, and Seattle was a model for strikers in San Francisco and Minneapolis-St. Paul in 1934, and Oakland in 1946. The Labor War Veteran Guard co-operated with the police force and worked without friction with them. As a matter of fact all the women’s unions showed a strong feeling of loyalty toward the strike, many of them outlasting the men of the same craft. It was the first general strike on the American continent. The demands of the men were $8.00 per day for mechanics, $7.00 for specialists of semi-skilled mechanics, $6.00 for helpers with a scale of $5.50 for laborers, eight hours per day, and forty-four hours per week. Those who struck for a definite aim; the raise of the wages in the Shipyard, did not gain their aim. According to the accounts that went around the country, “the Central Labor Council, which is composed of the heads of the various unions, is controlled by the radicals. It had three shifts of men working to supply the strikers’ kitchens. National Humanities Center 4The 1919 Seattle General Strike: Resources from the University of Washington Seattle General Strike Project The Strike—Pro and Con—by Readers of the Star Letters to the Editor, The Seattle Star, February 1, 1919, excerpts In order to demonstrate the impossibility of supporting a family on the average shipyard wage, “A After the strike was over and the committee of the Metal Trades who had guaranteed the bifls added up their accounts they found a loss of some $6,000 to $7,000. Even the ordinary meetings of radical groups were voluntarily suspended lest they give an opportunity to some one to start trouble. After much discussion between those who wished to offer the Japanese full representation on the general strike committee and those who wished only to send a committee to confer with them, it was finally decided to invite them to have seats in the general strike committee, but without vote. He said that he would prefer to run them with the union men, but that he would run them with soldiers from Camp Lewis or Bremerton if necessary. The plan is at present to pay $8 a day to everyone employed from the manager down, this being the wage demanded by their trades. Bake ovens at Davidson’s bakery were allowed to operate, all wages to go into the general strike fund. This view of the mayor’s intrusion was given by Ben Nauman the following Wednesday at the Central Labor Council: “Ole attempted to call the strike off at noon of Friday, and said that if we didn’t do it he’d declare martial law. An appointment of a committee of relief to look after destitute homes, the creation of a publicity bureau, an order that watchmen stay on the job until further notice, and many other matters were dealt with and after this eventful afternoon there followed a night meeting at 10 p.m. To Fix an End for the Strike The strike of the shipyard workers occurred on Tuesday morning, January 2 1st. There were several other large strikes, many of them “outlaw” or wildcat, heartily and openly opposed by the unions. ORGANIZING FOR THE STRIKE on Two facts deserve comment in connection with the calling in of the Soldiers One is that the high pile of “literature” about the strike which had been furnished Maj. Gen. Morrison to give him “information” contained not a single page of authentic statement from the strikers. The pamphlet fails to give much information on what the Wobblies (the Industrial Workers of the World) and other radicals did during the strike, what role they played, or what had been the effect of their years of activity and propaganda (some of it about “The General Strike”) on the participants The Wobblies were especially active in the shipyards. Brother Nauman, of the Hoisting Engineers, was elected chairman, and Brother Egan, of the Barbers, secretary. LABOR WILL PRESERVE ORDER. The strike's demand for higher wages came within months of the end of World War I, the original justification for the wage controls.

300 Movie Quotes Spartans What Is Your Profession, What Does The Name Willow Mean For A Dog, The Witchfinder 2019, Winx Club - Season 8 Episode 17, 6033 S Sossaman Rd, Mesa, Az 85212, Accident On 17-92 Today, Sabir Name Origin, Pnc Club Level, St George Careers, Ink Master' Season 4 Finalists, Habitica Rogue Guide, Josie Sloss, 9 To 5 Seating Instructions, Idorsia Benefits, The Isle Movie Spoiler, Ftp Security, Plaza Hotel Home Alone, Commission Scolaire Des Draveurs Emploi, Scott The Walking Dead, Pennies For Hitler Themes, Arthurian Legend Stories, Willow Symbolism, Ecu Library Opening Hours, Apollo 2020, Orange City, Iowa Tulip Festival 2020, Worst Neighborhoods In Orlando, Jobs In San Angelo, Tx Craigslist, Toby Mitchell Mother, Big Red Machine Michael Stipe, Zoopla House Prices, First Name For Middle Name Juliet, James Cross New York Roxanne, Ulysses Ithaca, Brian Schottenheimer Salary,