Civil Rights & Labor History Consortium | Photo and Document Gallery | 1919 Seattle General Strike | General Strike photos | Labor Temple/ Seattle Central Labor Council

The Central Labor Council authorized the General Strike. The General Strike Committee used the Labor Temple as strike headquarters. The Seattle Central Labor Council (SCLC), an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), was founded May 1, 1905. Consisting of over 100 labor unions including the Seattle Waitress’ Union, Local 240, its labor base consisted primarily of craft unions and skilled middle class white men. After casting a vote of labor unions to join a General Strike in sympathy with the Metal Trades Council, the SCLC established a General Strike Committee to help organize and run the strike. Because the Committee was over 300 large, an Executive Committee of 15 members was established to replace the General Strike Committee. The job of the Executive Committee was to decide who would be exempt from the strike and to map out a strategy for the strike. Unfortunately the Committee was too busy to map out a successful plan and the strike ended 5 days after it began (February 6, 1919 – February 11, 1919). -Arkady DeRoest. Photo courtesy University of Washington Special Collections (Here is the site today).

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