The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1913-02-07

pioneer organization in the timber in
dustry.
1t is an organization of trained
fighters, drilled in 25 years of strug-
Cling.
Statements to this effect have been
made in previous articles of this ser
les. In this they will be proved. 1t
will be shown here that years before
the spirit of organization began NOV
ing among the other timber workers,
shingle weavers began getting to-
gether to fight the encroachment of
the growing power of capital.
The First Attempt.
When other organized workers in
1886 began agitating for a general
eight-hour day, the shingle weayers
along the east shore of Lake Michi-
gan caught the spirit. In MuskegOn,
Mich, the first shingle weavers' local
was organized. Shortly after another
union was formed at Manistee, an
other big lumber center further north
on the lake.
The workday in shingle mills in
those days was 12 IL hours. Girls
and boys were working together. BY
organization female labor was abol-
ished and 10-hour day established
through a strike.
The organization lasted but few
years. 1t was crude. Manufacturers
were not organized and the training
developed during the decade just
passed, through the opposition of the
lacking in this early period of organi
zation.
Shingle manufacturing had already
begun moving west, thus making an
other factor in breaking up this first
attempt at organization among the
shingle weavers.
The West Caost Union.
About 1890 the shingle weavers on
the Sound began getting together.
The West Coast Shingle Weavers
Union was formed with locals in Bal
lard, Tacoma, Snohomish, Arlington,
Chehalis and Sedro-Woolley, Pros
perity reigned in the shingle industry.
Packers were receiving 10 cents
thousand, one cent more than the
union scale today.
In 1898 the manufacturers in Bal
lard had learned lesson from their
employees. They organized and an
nounced a reduction in wages. A
strike followed Three months later
the disastrous panic of '93 struck.
This was the death of the West Coast
Shingle Weavers' Union.
Following this second attempt at
getting together among the shingle
weavers, wages went lower than ever
before in the history of the shingle
industry. In Centralia packers were
working for as little as three cents
thousand. Knot sawyers wages went
down to below dollar day.
The Third Attempt.
For eight years the fighting spirit
of the shingle weavers seemed to be
broken. But it was not killed. In
1901 locals sprang up in different
towns around the Sound. Within
few months unions had been formed
in practically every shingle center
from -Woolley to Kelso in the
southern portion of the state of Wash
ington.
About the same time a new organi-
zation had been formed at the mouth
of Menominee river in the cities OF
Menominee, Mich, and Marinette,
Wis.
All of these locals were affiliated
directly with the American Fedora
ton of Labor The present Shingle
Weavers' Union is the result of this
third attempt at organization.
The organization started under aus
picious circumstances. Every local
but one, was formed in the face of
strike. The shingle weavers proved
their fighting capacity. An under
standing was had, according to which
mo local was permitted to organize un'
till the members had secured union
conditions and wages. In but one
place, Elma, did the manufacturers
agree to the conditions without a
strike. But in every other community
the strikes were won and locals were
organized.
These unions, affiliated with the A.
F. Of L., were loosely associated to-
gether, through what was termed a
"Grand Council"
The international Is Formed.
The growth of these local unions