The Shipyard Strike
Hulet Wells recalls the Skinner and Eddy shipyard of 1919: “It was a wilderness of strange machines, whirling belts and belching fires. Ten thousand men went through their motions wordlessly… The human ant heap boiled with all the specialists that fit into the modern shipyard’s division of labor: loftsmen, fitters, welders, winchmen, pattern makers, anglesmiths, riggers, riveters, bolters-up, cranemen, lathemen, furnacemen, press and machine operators, boiler-makers, drillers and reamers and many more.”
After World War I, 35,000 workers in Seattle’s shipyards demanded a pay increase after years of wage controls enacted during the war by the federal government. The government refused and the unionized workers declared a strike on January 21, 1919 that shut down all production. The shipyard workers turned to the Seattle Central Labor Council for support and asked the council, and all the unions in the city, to endorse a sympathy walkout.
Hulet M. Wells papers. Accession no. 0422-004, Box 2/5. University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
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Asahel Curtis photograph collection. PH Coll 0482, Item 35880. University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
With federal funding, Seattle turned to shipbuilding to support war efforts, increasing the number of shipyards in Seattle from one in 1914 to twelve in 1918. This massive growth turned Seattle into a boomtown again.
Asahel Curtis photograph collection. PH Coll 0482, Item 37055. University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
Underpaid and overworked, shipyard workers demanded fairer pay from the Skinner and Eddy Corporation when they went on strike in January of 1919.
International Weekly (Seattle, WA). University of Washington Libraries Microforms & Newspapers.
Printed in the newspaper of the Socialist Party of Washington, this cartoon makes a radical statement about worker power.
Seattle Union Record (Seattle, WA). University of Washington Libraries Microforms & Newspapers.
This cartoon declares that all workers should stand in solidarity against unfair labor practices. But how long would this solidarity last?
Seattle Union Record (Seattle, WA). University of Washington Libraries Microforms & Newspapers.
The Macy Board was set up by the Navy Department, Emergency Fleet Corporation, and various union presidents to manage labor disputes during the war, and Seattle labor was dissatisfied with many of the board’s decisions.
Seattle Post Intelligencer (Seattle, WA). University of Washington Libraries Microforms & Newspapers.
The head of the Emergency Fleet Corporation implores workers to return to work. In response, the pro-union newspaper, the Seattle Union Record, prints an editorial claiming that it is the Macy Board and the Emergency Fleet Corporation’s fault that the wage dispute is unresolved.
Seattle Union Record (Seattle, WA). University of Washington Libraries Microforms & Newspapers.
The head of the Emergency Fleet Corporation implores workers to return to work. In response, the pro-union newspaper, the Seattle Union Record, prints an editorial claiming that it is the Macy Board and the Emergency Fleet Corporation’s fault that the wage dispute is unresolved.
Wesley Livsey Jones papers. Accession no. 0157-001, Box 99/4. University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
This collection of newspaper articles provides insight into how men obtained work in shipyards. Of particular interest is the debate about the immigrant status of labor agents. J. A. Hagen writes that he is “adverse [sic] to going to any labor agent, said agent probably being a foreigner.” A. A. Halliburton responds, “In answer I will say we are all of foreign descent. We are glad to have a foreigner who is enough 100 percent American to strike a blow for freedom and democracy that means the uplift of humanity.” Hagen was not alone in his xenophobic beliefs that the interests of native-born Americans should be protected against immigrants.
Industrial Workers of the World Seattle Joint Branches records. Accession no. 0544-001, Box 9. Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
This bulletin printed by the Industrial Workers of the World depicts solidarity between the radical IWW and the more conservative American Federation of Labor. The cartoon shows the head of the AF of L Samuel Gompers ducking out behind a fence. The departure of Gompers marks an end to conservative labor and the beginning of a union between a more militant AF of L and the IWW.