Labor Events Yearbook: 1936

Multiple conflicts erupted throughout 1936 between unions and employers. Workers at Yakima Creamery and at Spokane Broadview Dairy struck in January. In February conflicts surfaced at Home Dairy and K&K Dairy of Port Orchard, and the union instituted a boycott of Centralia Creamery. In April, waitresses at the Hub Café struck, and in July, retail clerks in Auburn called a strike against chain stores, demanding fair pay and hours. In mid-June, unions in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho united in protest against Associated Oil and its employment of non-union truck drivers. Associated Oil began to feel real pressure when union truck drivers initiated a boycott of Associated Oil gas stations, compelling company acquiescence to union demands by late summer. In July, the management of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (PI) tangled with organized labor, when the paper fired two American Newspaper Guild members, one of whom was a union organizer. In August, Guild members called a strike in protest of the firings and members of sympathetic unions volunteered for picket duty. The strike was successful, and the PI was unable to compose, print, or circulate papers. In August, workers at Tacoma and Seattle furniture plants increased labor’s presence as they called their own respective strikes.

Early in 1936, the sawmill and timber industries were also sites of employer-worker conflicts. Only a week after Tacoma timber and sawmill workers adopted a contract, workers at Sultan-based Miller Logging Company went on strike to protest the use of Fisher [Flour] Mills products. Fisher Flour Mills employees were embattled in their own strike, and workers at Miller Logging struck for three weeks until all Fisher Mills products were removed from the company kitchen. On January 24 th, Fisher Mills workers ended the strike after the company conceded to some labor demands. The Eatonville lumber strike of late 1935 continued for three months into January of 1936 with no resolution in sight. In March, workers at Panhandle Lumber also struck. By May, much of the conflict in the lumber and sawmill industries settled as the Aberdeen plywood strike ended, as union demands were met in the Panhandle Lumber strike, and as Carlisle Lumber was forced to pay back wages to the 200 men involved in the strike.

In late May, the Auto Mechanics Union called a strike against the Seattle Automobile Dealers’ Association after a resolution could not be reached between the union and Wilson Motor Company of Ballard; employees at thirty-four companies participated. Within only a few weeks, the Auto Mechanics Union succeeded in organizing most Seattle auto workers to join the strike. Organized workers effectively prevented strike-breakers from crossing picket lines and crippled the industry. After three weeks on strike, the Seattle Central Council appointed a committee to support the striking Auto Mechanics Union. By mid-June, the employers conceded to a forty-hour week and a wage increase, but refused to budge on issues of union recognition and collective bargaining. A week later, eleven auto dealers agreed to union recognition.

1936 brought to light several instances of employer violence against unionized workers. In mid-January, Peter Marinoff and his accomplices were convicted of the 1935 killing of an unarmed picketer during the Marinoff Northwest Brewing Company strike. Marinoff received a 20-year sentence for his involvement, although in August, a judge granted Marinoff and his cohorts another trial on the grounds of a legal technicality. On February 7 th, the Von Herberg Company launched a violent physical attack on striking workers at the Liberty Theatre. Early in April, the Golden Rule Dairy, in the middle of a long labor conflict, hired a union-busting armed guard who had participated in the deadly 1935 Marinoff Northwest Brewing Company strike. In late April, J.F. Parker, the president of Northwest Metal Products, fired a shotgun from inside his building at unarmed and peacefully picketing longshoremen outside, fatally wounding one.

However, not all conflicts ended in violence; 1936 saw many conflicts peacefully settled favorably for employees. In early February, Bellingham laundry workers secured a one hundred per cent union shop with an 8-hour day and minimum wage. Tacoma printers won a $1 per day wage increase after arbitration and Seattle newsboys won a wage increase and support from the Central Council in their conflict with the Seattle Post- Intelligencer. In Kenworth, auto workers victoriously ended their strike against Kenworth Motor Truck Company with a wage increase and better working conditions. In late April, after a conflict dating back nearly a year, the Broom and Whisk Makers’ Union finally received recognition and union protections.

One of the most significant labor disputes of the year occurred when the notoriously anti-union Golden Rule Dairy finally conceded to Seattle unions after a long and arduous strike. In February, affiliated unions joined to prevent the transport and sale of Golden Rule products after calling a strike. The protest became violent in April as armed guards threatened picketers but sympathetic Seattle unions supported the Golden Rule picketers. In June, the strikers successfully ended their protest when Golden Rule agreed to “complete unionization.”

The year was certainly tumultuous for labor, with multiple battles waged across numerous occupations. Labor unions found success and solidarity in struggles against exploitative employers and their examples made an impact on future labor fights.