Editing Seattle General Strike (section)

==Strike==
[[File:Seattle General Strike 1919 Participants Leaving Shipyard.png|thumb|Seattle shipyard workers leave the shipyard after going on strike, 1919.]]
A few weeks after the [[Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)|November 1918 armistice]] ended [[World War I]], unions in Seattle's [[shipbuilding]] industry demanded a pay increase for unskilled workers. They formed the Seattle Metal Trades Council, made up of delegates from twenty-one different craft unions; there were seventeen at the time of the first strike vote. At the time of the General Strike, these separate unions no longer made separate agreements with the yard-owners; a single blanket-agreement was made at intervals by the Metal Trades Council for all the crafts comprising it. In August 1917, the workers had succeeded in establishing a uniform wage scale for one third of the metal tradesmen working in the city.{{sfn|History Committee|1919|p=8}} At the time of the general strike, James Taylor was president of the Council.{{sfn|History Committee|1919|p=11}}

In an attempt to divide the ranks of the union, the yard owners responded by offering a pay increase only to skilled workers. The union rejected that offer and Seattle's 35,000 shipyard workers went on strike on January 21, 1919.<ref name=":0">Foner, 65</ref>

Controversy erupted when [[Charles Piez]], head of the [[United States Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation|Emergency Fleet Corporation]] (EFC), an enterprise created by the federal government as a wartime measure and the largest employer in the industry, sent a [[telegram]] to the yard owners threatening to withdraw their contracts if any increase in wages were granted. The message intended for the Metal Trades Association, the owners, was accidentally delivered to the Metal Trades Council, the union. The shipyard workers responded with anger directed at both their employers and the federal government which, through the EFC, seemed to be siding with corporate interests.<ref name=":0" />

The workers immediately appealed to the [[Seattle Central Labor Council]] for a general strike of all workers in Seattle. Members of various unions were polled, with almost unanimous support in favor–even among traditionally conservative unions. As many as 110 locals officially supported the call for a general strike to begin on February 6, 1919, at 10:00 am.<ref name="Zinn368-9"/> Among the strikers were war veterans who wore their uniforms as they went on strike.<ref name="Hagedorn">{{cite book| last=Hagedorn| first=Ann| title=Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919| url=https://archive.org/details/savagepeacehopef00hage| url-access=registration| publisher=Simon & Schuster |place=New York |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-7432-4372-8}}</ref>{{rp|86–87}}