The Seattle local of the I.L.A., with its 900 members, refuses affiliation of 1200 dock truck drivers, because of craft unionism. Forming the insurgent United Dock Workers, the drivers strike, and the I.L.A. scabs.

‘Seattle Dockworkers Strike’ from Industrial Worker. (new) Vol. 1 No. 8. June 3, 1916.

Twelve hundred members of the Seattle United Dock Workers went out on strike just after midnight Tuesday for a raise of wages to 55 cents an hour for regular work and $1.00 for overtime. This strike has been developing for some months.

The Dock Workers in the written statement of their press committee say that only the future actions of the International Longshoremen’s Union of Seattle can jeopardize their chances of victory.

The U.D.W. was organized February of this year, and immediately on its organization sought affiliation with the I.L.A. For two months they were not given even the courtesy of a reply, by the I.L.A. job trust.

The officials said informally, at various times, that they had set out a table for themselves and no one else would get a seat at their board. It was as natural for the I.L.A. aristocrats to refuse to have anything to do with the 1,200 organized truckers, as it would be unnatural for the I.W.W. to refuse to organize any body of workers.

The representatives of the 1,200 during the I.L.A. convention waited patiently to be allowed to present their plea for federation, but were refused. The convention adjourned without acknowledging any of their communications with this so called union. The U.D.W. was told that the matter was left to the Seattle local of the I.L.A. which last Monday, just before the strike was called, gave the Dock Workers an emphatic No.

The I.L.A. has in this port a membership of 900 members, and thus refused the addition of 1,200 workers in the same industry.

Just before going to press the water front presented a curious sight. Practically all the work being done on the docks and on the ships was by union men, who did not even have the good taste to remove their union buttons before going on the docks. The good, I.L A union men are working on the ship, where the bosses are able to get scabs and passing up the freight to them. The Union teamsters are handling it from the scabs. Jitney busses are being used instead of trucks on some docks. These jitneys will either have to cut this or get licenses by joining the A.F. of L.

“Mosquito Fleet” Union Refused to Scab.

Members of the Pacific Coast Steamboatmen’s Union, now on strike, had been doing some of the extra work on the ships as while the I.L.A. has not enough men to do the work, the books of the union are practically closed, as they only admit one new member a month. The I.L.A. called on these; but the “Mosquito Fleet” Union decided that as long as the dockers were out on strike they would not unload cargo to be handled by the scabs, and help the bosses defeat the U.D.W.

The press committee and the strike committee are sending all coast locals of the I.W.W. stickers warning the unorganized not to scab, and asking the locals to have it announced by our speakers. The membership of the U.D.W. were assured that these stickers would be given every publicity by the I.W.W., organized to fight against the boss, instead of with the boss, against the workers.

A report–foundationless of course–was circulated that the I.L.A. was scabbing on the Dock Workers and while the editor of the Worker was at U.D.W. hall a member of the I.L.A. came there to refute this statement. He said that the members of the I.L.A. were not scabbing, that they were only all working on the ships. He spoke of solidarity in the hold and solidarity on the docks, but never mentioned the one kind of solidarity that is worth a damn to the working class, class-solidarity showing a united front to the industrially organized bosses. “The Solidarity (?) in the hold” is at present the strongest asset the owners of the docks in Seattle have. It is solidarity of the workers for the boss. If the members of the U.D.W. loose it will be this mongrel breed of solidarity that will defeat it. This solidarity is no closer to being the true solidarity than the I.L.A. is to being a real working-class union.

Some of the members of the I.L.A. know this and are refusing to do any work, while the U.D.W. is on strike. In fact so hot did the argument between the radical and conservative elements become in the I.L.A hall that the police were called.

The Industrial Union Bulletin, and the Industrial Worker were newspapers published by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) from 1907 until 1913. First printed in Joliet, Illinois, IUB incorporated The Voice of Labor, the newspaper of the American Labor Union which had joined the IWW, and another IWW affiliate, International Metal Worker.The Trautmann-DeLeon faction issued its weekly from March 1907. Soon after, De Leon would be expelled and Trautmann would continue IUB until March 1909. It was edited by A. S. Edwards. 1909, production moved to Spokane, Washington and became The Industrial Worker, “the voice of revolutionary industrial unionism.”

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