PAGE 2 | August 21, 2020 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Highlights from
12 decades of
labor journalism
For 120 years, the Labor Press has
been chronicling the labor move-
ment.
1900: U.S. Industrial Commission declares
trade unions are good for democracy. 14 new
international unions chartered by the AFL,
734 federal and trade locals affiliate. 112,000
miners walk off the job in Pennsylvania, the
largest walkout in American history to that
time. The average life expectancy is 49, and
63 percent of men over 65 are still in the la-
bor force; pensions are extremely rare. There
are 8,000 registered automobiles in the
U.S. 1901: 58,000 Machinists strike for 9-hour
day. National Metal Trades Association an-
nounces “open shop” drive, establishes
strikebreaking service. 1902: G.Y. Harry of
Sheet Metal Workers Local 16 is president of
the Oregon Federation of Labor (OFL). Or-
ganized labor in Oregon has a political arm
that plays a role in winning direct legislation
(the initiative and referendum). 1903:
Women’s Trade Union League organizes to
aid unionization of women. AFL charters the
Teamsters Union, with Local 162 chartered
in Portland. C.H. Graham elected president
of OFL. Wright brothers fly their first airplane.
1904: AFL has membership of nearly 1.7 mil-
lion. 1905: Industrial Workers of the World
founded in Chicago. Supreme Court holds
that a maximum hour law for bakery workers
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
(International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X)
Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la-
bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the
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Portland trade unionists and other activists mass in the Park Blocks in 1912 in a sympathy demonstration for striking
textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Oregon Historical Society file photo.
is unconstitutional under the due process
clause of the 14th Amendment. 1906: Citi-
zens Alliance of Portland tries to “precipitate
a bloody clash between white American
workingmen and imported Asians,” which is
averted “through the tact and coolness of lo-
cal officers of the Longshoremen’s Union.”
Street Carmen strike Portland Street Railway
Light & Power Co. for better work conditions.
Estimated 30,000 attend Labor Day celebra-
tion at The Oaks. 1907: Willamette Iron
Works fires union men and hires strikebreak-
ers to force showdown on open shop propo-
sition. More than 5,000 union members walk
in biggest Labor Day Parade on record in
Portland. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports
2,077 strikes involving 176,337 workers, the
fewest since 1892. Enthusiastic gathering of
union men and sympathizers assemble to
ratify Labor Party’s platform. 5,000 unionists
demonstrate their sympathy for striking street
carmen.1908: Central Labor Council of Port-
land & Vicinity affiliation certified. Danbury
Hatters workers are prosecuted under Sher-
man Anti-Trust Act for strike-related actions;
after years in court, strikers are found guilty
of “conspiracy;” AFL runs national fundraiser
to pay off fine and save strikers’ homes from
being seized. AFL President Sam Gompers,
Vice President John Mitchell, and Secretary
Frank Morrison receive jail sentences (one
year, nine months and six months) for exer-
cising their rights of free speech in boycott of
Buck Stove and Range Co. Organized labor
wants convict labor removed in the manufac-
turing of stoves at the Salem, Ore., peniten-
tiary. Work on the new Bull Run pipe line and
the Madison Street Bridge starts. U.S.
Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of
Oregon’s 10-hour workday for women. Na-
tional Building Trades Department of the AFL
is established. Portland Building Trades
Council gets first charter. 1909: “Union en-
thusiasm running high in Portland” with new
Labor Temple on Alder Street. “Uprising of the
20,000” female shirtwaist makers in New York
strike against sweatshop conditions. Portland
Bartenders Union League rallies at its First
Street hall, focusing on prohibition of liquor.
Label Trades Section of Central Labor Coun-
cil adopts constitution. Meatcutters of Port-
land form the International Meat Cutters
Union. Building Trades Council passes a rule
prohibiting any single affiliated union from
An employee of Roberts Brothers—
a department store in downtown
Portland later known as Lipman’s—
pickets for the 8-hour day for work-
ing women in the early 1900s.
boycotting or striking without first getting the
consent of the council. 5,000 union members,
led by the Musicians Union’s brass band, pa-
rade through the streets of Portland to protest
the jailing of Gompers, Mitchell and Morrison.
Politics, strikes, boycotts and all other issues
make way for labor’s fight against tuberculo-
sis. Will Daly of Multnomah Typographical
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