May 1934

In Moscow, the Seventh Party Congress of the Communist International in Moscow endorses the Popular Front and encourages Communist organizations to build alliances with mainstream organizations to combat the rise of global Fascism. In the U.S., unions organized by the CPUSA begin developing strategies to work with and within the mainstream trade union movement.

May 9-July 31, 1934

Pacific Coast longshoremen go on strike.

March 14, 1935

At a special meeting in Seattle, NLWU delegates endorse a policy to unite all timber workers into a single union. James Murphy, secretary-treasurer of the NLWU and CPUSA member begins touring the Northwest to organize an amalgamated timber workers union.

March 23

At a special convention in Aberdeen, the STWU is placed under the jurisdiction of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners (UBCJ). Abe Muir, a member of the UBCJ executive board, is made president of the STWU. Fred Lumm (Vernonia, OR) is elected president of the STWU Northwest Council, Norman Lange (Tacoma, WA) is elected vice-president of the STWU Northwest Council, and Edgar Hall (Westport, OR) is elected secretary of the STWU Northwest Council.

In response to the NRA lumber code, delegates at the Aberdeen meeting endorse demands for a six hour day, five day work-week, 75 cents/hour minimum wage, seniority system, paid holidays, and that the STWU be the sole collective bargaining agent for timber workers. May 6 th is set as the strike deadline if these demands are not met.

April 11

At the Northwest Convention of the STWU, the demands and May 6 th strike deadline are made public.

April 15

The NLWU holds the National Unity Conference in Tacoma. The union’s leaders officially disband the NLWU and propose that the entire membership join the STWU.

April 26

Believing a settlement will not be reached by May 6 th, workers from Bellingham’s Bloedel-Donovan mill go out on strike.

April 27

The 4L recommends an across-the-board wage increase for all Northwestern timber workers in an effort, according to The Seattle Post-Intellegencer, to “take ‘the edge’ off” the STWU’s demands.

April 30

In Portland, the 4L Wage Board passes a wage increase.

May 1

Sawmill workers in Seattle start walking off the job in advance of the formal strike deadline.

May 2

Representatives from the Weyerhaeuser and Long-Bell lumber companies enter into negotiations with Muir in an attempt to reach a settlement before May 6. Muir goes on record as saying a strike will not be necessary.

Meanwhile, delegates at the Northwest Council STWU meeting reaffirm the May 6 th strike deadline and the Everett STWU begins a membership drive with a goal of 1,000 new members before May 6.

May 3

Over 400 workers from Olympia and 725 workers in the Portland area walk out on strike. Before the May 6 th strike deadline, over 1,100 timber workers are already on strike.

May 5

At a meeting of the Pacific Coast Maritime Federation, delegates representing seamen and longshoremen issue a resolution saying that they will not handle scab lumber in the event of a strike.

May 6

With their demands not men, 15,000-30,000 (depending on who you read) timber workers go out on strike.

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Tacoma News Tribune the strike situation is as follows:

• Seattle: 3 mills closed, 250 men out;
• Tacoma: 13 mills closed, 1,900 men out;
• Portland: 9 mills closed, 2,000 men out;
• Everett: 10 mills closed, 3,000 mill workers out, 3,000 loggers out;
• Bellingham: All mills closed, 1,200 men out, and all retail lumber yards surrounded by pickets.
• Olympia: 5 mills closed, 400 men out;
• Grays Harbor: All mills closed, 4,000 men out;
• Anacortes: 9 mills closed, 900 men out;
• Chehalis: 2 mills closed, 125 men out;
• Vancouver, WA: pulp mill closed; 250 men out;
• Astoria: 2 mills closed, 400 men out.
• Longview is the only major Northwestern sawmill town continuing to operate.

May 8

In Seattle, the strike expands to 11 of the city’s 12 sawmills. In Tacoma and Aberdeen the strike spreads to plywood factories and box factories.

At a mass meeting at the Longview YMCA, Muir tells STWU members to “stay on your jobs.”

May 9

Abe Muir negotiates a settlement that includes a 40 hour work-week, and 50 cents/hour minimum wage. Muir’s settlement does not include a seniority system, paid holidays, or union recognition. Workers in Longview are scheduled to vote on the proposal on May 11 th.

Workers at the Seattle Cedar Lumber Manufacturing Company go out on strike. Now, all 12 of Seattle’s mills are dormant.

May 10

A day before they’re scheduled to vote on Muir’s agreement, workers at the Weyerhaeuser mill in Longview and Long-Bell logging operations in Ryderwood go out on strike. The Long-Bell mill in Longview is now the only major mill operating in the Pacific Northwest.

May 11

Workers at Long-Bell’s Longview mill reject Muir’s settlement by an 8-1 margin and vote to strike. By the end of the first week of the conflict, the Seattle P-I estimates that 30,000 lumber workers are out on strike. The Voice of Action puts that number at 40,000.

Muir declares a deadlock and officially ends negotiations with lumber operators.

May 14

Pickets force the shut-down of two Seattle box factories, and 125 more workers join the strike. The Seattle P-I estimates that over 3,000 workers are now on strike in King County.

May 15

Members of STWU Local 2563, Humboldt County, CA, vote to join the strike.

In anticipation of the upcoming harvest season, Pierce County fruit growers begin purchasing boxes from B.C. lumber mills. Leaders of STWU Local 2560, Tacoma, wire Senators Homer T. Bone, Lewis B. Schwellenbach, Congressman Wesley Lloyd, and President Roosevelt, urging them to increase the tariff on B.C. lumber.

May 17

The West Coast Lumberman’s Association publishes a report showing that Douglas Fir production fell off 52%, or about 50,000,000 board feet, during the first week of the strike.

May 18

The Eureka Standard reports that Frank Sweasey, Eureka’s mayor, has established the “Committee of One-Thousand,” to “guarantee the safety of the citizens and property owners of Eureka and Humboldt County during the strike.”

May 19

The McCromick Lumber company agrees to recognize the STWU, a 50 cent/hour minimum, and 40 hour work-week at its Port Ludlow, Port Gamble, and St. Helens, OR operations. Workers at Port Ludlow and Port Gamble vote to accept the agreement. At St. Helens, a mass picket ordered by Norman Lange, president of the Tacoma STWU, prevents workers from voting.

Workers from a box factory in Puuallup, WA box factory accept the terms of the Longview settlement and agree to go back to work. This means there will be crates for the upcoming fruit harvests.

May 21

Muir expels Lange from the STWU for ordering the picket at St. Helens. In a wire sent to the executive board of the Tacoma local, Muir states, “Norman Lange is no longer a member of our brotherhood or of your local union and is not eligible to sit in any meeting or speak for any member or union of our brotherhood.”

May 22

Governor Charles H. Martin or Oregon sends state troopers to disperse pickets at the McCormick Lumber Company mill in St. Helens.

May 23

The first violence in the strike . Muir orders an end to the pickets at St. Helens. The Tacoma and Portland STWU locals defy his orders and send strikers to St. Helens to reinforce the picket lines. The strikers clash with the state troopers.

Gov. Martin of Oregon orders that the Oregon National Guard “be held in readiness” to proceed to the mill if more trouble emerges.

May 24

The West Coast Lumbermen’s Association releases a report that states the strike has caused “the lowest production for any six-day period in the history of the industry.”

May 25

In a letter reprinted in the Seattle PI, Seattle Mayor Charles L. Smith instructs W.B. Kirtley, Seattle Chief of Police, that members of the police force “will not take sides in industrial controversies between employers and employees, but they must see to it that the law is impartially enforced.”

May 27

The U.S. Supreme Court declares the NRA codes are unconstitutional.

June 3

Despite rejecting his settlement proposal in an earlier vote, Muir orders Longview’s workers to end their strike and return to work. Muir also orders the removal of communist union officials in the Grays Harbor STWU local. In a letter published in the Tacoma News Tribune, Muir declares that L.E. “Red” Johnson, Ernest Kozlowski, William Rayburn, and J.W. Wenzel have been expelled from the STWU for “interfering with orderly procedure and spreading dissent among our local unions.”

The Plywood and Veneer Workers Union at Hoquiam passes a resolution stating that they will no longer accept Muir as their negotiating agent.

June 5

STWU locals from Tacoma, Aberdeen, and Hoquiam vote to remove Muir as their mediator and order their strike committees to have no further dealings with Muir.

Picketers surround Longview’s mills and, after just two days back on the job, Longview workers renew their original demands and go back out on strike.

G.H. Mawson, a reprehensive of the UBCJ International, blames the decision of Longview’s workers on the influence of communists.

June 6

Delegates from seventeen STWU locals meet in Aberdeen and from the Northwest Joint Strike Committee to take control of the strike out of the hands of Muir.

June 11

In Mount Vernon, six men are arrested for second degree assault after attacking picketers. They are also found with guns and ammo in their cars. They say that they were hired by lumber operators to protect the mills.

June 12

The Tacoma and Aberdeen locals vote to seceded from the STWU, form the Lumber & Sawmill Workers’ Union, and reinstall Lange as their leader.

June 13

Muir sends a telegram to the Northwest Strike Committee which states that the UBCJ “completely repudiates your so-called strike committee…Local unions reporting to sustain you and your acts will be purged of all breeds of wreckers and your efforts to destroy unions will be met in any necessary manner by American citizens of this and other states.”

June 14

The Battle At Stimson . Under orders from the governor to protect all lumber shipments, the Oregon state patrol attacks fifty picketers at the Stimson lumber mill near Forest Grove.

June 18

Governor Clarence Martin orders the Washington State Patrol to Tacoma to guard the mills.

June 21

Strikers attacked in Tacoma . Under police protection, seven lumber and plywood mills open with scabs in Tacoma. Police teargas picketers at the St. Paul and Tacoma mill as, according to the Tacoma News Tribune, a “precautionary measure.”

The Holmes-Eureka Massacre . In a battle between picketers, scabs, police, and vigilantes, three lumber workers are killed outside the Holmes-Eureka lumber mill in Humboldt County, CA: William Kaarte, Paul Lampella, and Harold Edluand. Six more men are taken to the hospital and treated for serious injuries. By the evening of the 21 st, 114 strikers have been jailed.

June 23

National Guard called up in Tacoma. At the behest of mill owners and the mayors of Seattle and Tacoma, Gov. Clarence Martin calls up the National Guard. Brig. Gen. Maurice Thompson leads the 2 nd Batallion of the 161 st Infantry of the Washington National Guard into Tacoma.

June 24

Battle in Tacoma . The national guard attacks over 2,000 strikers in Tacoma and, according to a report in the Seattle PI, “pursued them with a gas barrage up Pacific Ave.” The union appeals to President Roosevelt to have the national guard withdrawn. The Tacoma Central Labor Council meets to discuss the possibility of calling a general strike.

June 25

Martial Law in Tacoma. Led by Gen. Carlos A. Penington, the 3 rd Battalion of the 161 st Infantry of the Washington National Guard arrives in Tacoma, bringing the total of troops in the city up to 700. The Seattle PI reports that Tacoma is “under virtual martial law.”

The National Guard breaks up a pro-strike demonstration sponsored by the Young Communist League in Tacoma’s Fawcett Park.

President Roosevelt and Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins appoint a federal mediation board to resolve the strike. In an official statement, Perkins state that the board will proceed with “justice, understanding and recognition of human values involved, and open dealing on both sides as public interest demands.” Mill owners formally protest the board, saying that Perkins is biased and federal mediation will only prolong the strike.

June 27

Gov. Martin of Washington issues a radio address, saying that the National Guard will stay in place until the strike is over.

June 30

William Cole of the Washington State Patrol dispatches troopers to Aberdeen and Longview.

July 1

Under police protection, mills in Aberdeen and Longview reopen with scabs.

July 2

The house of Frank L. Morgan, president of the Grays Harbor County Bar Association and council for a jailed striker, is bombed. (ILD? The ILD sent lawyers to Eureka after strikers jailed there.)

July 5

Picketers at Tacoma, Longview, and Grays Harbor are dispersed with tear gas.

July 6

For the second time in two days, strikers at Longview are attacked with tear gas.

July 7

Three hundred National Guard troops are sent from Tacoma to Aberdeen.

July 8

Protest march in Grays Harbor . Protesting the presence of the National Guard, over 10,000 strikers, sympathizers, and their families march in a mile-long procession in Aberdeen and Hoquiam.

Two Seattle strikers are arrested after a clash between picketers and scabs at the Aircraft Plywood Company.

July 10

Strikers from three mills in Portland vote to go back to work. They agree to a 50 cents/hour minimum, 40 hour work-week, but no union recognition.

At the Washington State Labor Convention, delegates pass a resolution calling for the removal of the state patrol and National Guard from strike zones. A resolution condemning Muir is held up in committee. A resolution proposed by the Bremerton machinists is defeated. In part, it reads: “While the National Guard does enable some soldiers and overstuffed armchair generals to swagger about in brass-buckled harnesses to gratify their native egoism by pushing about, clubbing, jabbing with bayonets and unjustly arresting the common producers of wealth, it does not contribute to the welfare of the majority of the citizens of the state to an extent that justifies its existence.”

July 12

The Battle of the Bridghead . While marching in a protest against the National Guard, strikers and sympathizers in Tacoma are gassed at the 11 th St. bridge. For three hours the strikers refuse to move and set a national guard truck on fire. The Seattle PI reports that Tacoma is in “a state of civil war.” Representatives from the Guard say that martial law will officially be declared on Monday.

Longshoremen in Aberdeen refuse to load ships in protest of National Guard.

July 14

Everett mills, the only mills in the Northwest not operating with scab labor, are scheduled to reopen with scabs and police protection.

July 15

After more rioting, and in an effort to avoid martial law, the Tacoma city council passes an emergency ordinance prohibiting unlawful street assemblies.

July 16

In Hoquiam, Superior Court Judge J.M. Phillips issues a temporary injunction restraining the National Guard and police from interfering with peaceful pickets.

July 17

Some mills in Seattle, Portland, Everett, Bellingham, and Anacortes reopen after workers vote to accept the Longview settlement.

William Green, president of the AFL, threatens to revoke the charter of the Longview-Kelso Central Labor Council unless it disassociates itself from the “outlaw” sawmill workers.

July 19

With the protection of the National Guard, many mills in Tacoma open. Shingle workers in Chehalis and Tacoma vote to end the strike and return to work. The Associated Press estimates that a third of the normally employed timber workers in the Northwest are back on the job.

July 20

Clashes between strikers, police, and the National Guard continue in Hoquiam. Workers in Portland agree to return to work.

Longshoreman in Everett and Longview are ordered by their international to begin loading lumber at mills affected by the strike.

July 24

Mill workers in Aberdeen vote to return to the mills with a 50 cent/hour minimum and union recognition.

Workers in Grays Harbor continue the strike. Five workers are shot in pickets.

July 25

Rioting continues in Hoquiam.

July 26

Workers in Olympia vote to return to work.

July 29

Workers in Portland vote to end the strike.

July 30

The National Guard begins leaving Tacoma. Workers there reject a settlement because it does not provide for the rehiring of strikers.

August 5

After language allowing for the rehiring of strikers is amended, workers in Tacoma agree to end the strike in a 1,291 to 97 vote. Only workers from Grays Harbor remain on strike.

August 13

Gov. Martin appoints National Guard Brig. Gen. Carlos Pennington to act as “mediator” in Grays Harbor.

August 15

The strike is ended in Aberdeen and Hoquiam.