La Crosse Labor History, by Terry Hicks

Chapter One - Early La Crosse Work, and Workers, circa: 1863-1897  

Early La Crosse Working Class and American Labor Movement Conditions

Historians consider Nathan Myrick to be the founding father of the city of La Crosse.  This makes him quite an appropriate subject for a book that sets out to recount the history of work and workers.  The founding father of La Crosse was a worker (and owner) and someone who hired workers for either products or services.  For after settling here in 1841 on an island in the middle of the river Myrick established a trading post.   Nathan arranged to have one hundred cords of wood cut during the winter.  This he then sold to the steamboats plying the river in the spring of 1842.  Using the resources gained from this business, Myrick moved his trading post to the mainland and built a permanent fur trading business there.  Fur trading along with white pine lumbering quickly became a successful enterprise and spurred additional settlement and development of this area.  The existence of a deep, clear natural harbor, which was naturally scoured by the quick currents of the rivers, played a large role in the creation of La Crosse.  Situated as it was at the juncture of three rivers, with a large flat terrace of land that lent itself to development helped to convince other pioneers to make is location their home.  Trading with the local Native American Indians for furs, and exploiting the large stands of pines were the two factors that initiated the location of this city.  Importing supplies and manufactured goods for both the Native Americans and selling the same to the lumber workers, allowed early businessmen to flourish.   Sawmills were in operation by 1852; these sawmills were supplied by the Black River pineries that moved the logs down the rivers to La Crosse. ^[3]

The county of La Crosse was chartered in 1851; just three years after Wisconsin entered the union as a state (1848).  The village of La Crosse was incorporated as a city only five years late (in 1856).  A city-council/mayor form of government was adopted and still governs the city.  Plying the rivers with steamboats, settlers and supplies flowed into the area. By 1856, two hundred steamboats a month were entering the city.  Road building had commenced in 1845, with the first one being cut out of the woods as an ox and wagon trail out of Prairie du Chien up to La Crosse.  Railroads quickly followed suit, and by October 1858, the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad had laid a line into the city. ^[4]   Many on these early stage roads, railroad lines, and steam boat routes continued on into northern Wisconsin and with the use of local ferries into Minnesota.  This combination of transportation systems gave the city the nickname of Gateway City.  What were the working people like in this era?  Nearly all the men were bearded.  The women were generally dressed in long-sleeved, high-necked full-length dresses.   

The working class families wore homemade clothes, while the stovepipe men of higher incomes wore hats, and high collars with black frock coats of the era.   Those individuals living and trading within the city, walked on wooden sidewalks and across unpaved dirt streets.   The homes and businesses were constructed out the logs and plain sawed boards harvested from native stock. ^[5]

Early American natives wandered throughout the town, and were said to have a habit of peering into homes through open windows to ask for food.  Mail delivery was weekly, coming from Baraboo, Black River Falls, Lansing, Iowa, and St. Paul, Minnesota.   When winter set in isolation from the other communities was a frequent occurrence.   Occasional sleds arrived from other localities bringing welcomed communications from outside.  A school superintendent was chosen in 1856 and brick school buildings were constructed, the first being called the third ward school, currently the site of the Lincoln elementary school. ^[6]          

Where did these men and women work?  By the second year of the Civil War La Crosse had a population of about 4,000 citizens.  The city of La Crosse had incorporated in 1856 and by 1861, in the fifth year of its life it had the following businesses established; three bakeries, two banks, three book and stationery stores as well as one bookbinder.  There were seven blacksmith shops and five carpenter shops, one coppersmith and three gunsmiths in the town. To try to keep the men looking their best three barbershops, and eight clothing stores operated at this time.  Four milliners kept shops, along with six jewelry stores, four dressmakers, and two hat and cap makers cared for the fairer sex. All these concerns were constantly striving to keep the women of La Crosse in fashion with their wares or services. ^[7]   Men were employed at four foundries, ten lumber and shingle mills, and three plow factories and a sash and blind factory.  Many women were occupied in employment at four different soap and candle factories, a woolen factory, and two confectionery plants, along with fourteen hotels located throughout the city.   The three breweries along with three distilleries, which were busy supplying the twenty-one saloons in town, manufactured the workers’ need for beverages. Four wholesale liquor stores and two tobacconists operated their businesses during this period. ^[8]

          A dozen physicians practicing medicine provided health care.  If legal disputes arose over land or the affairs of life, a dozen law firms were ready to assist.  Publicity about news items occurring locally appeared in one of the three newspapers published at this time.   Citizens purchased them at any of the five newsstands in town. ^[9]   In addition to those industries and businesses mentioned above, the following industries and businesses also existed in La Crosse at this time.  A broom making factory, a cracker factory, a match factory, a stoneware pottery factory, a steamboat building factory, a brick making manufacturer and a stone quarry and marble cutting industry. ^[10]

Boots and shoes,  Boxcars and rails, Boxes of smokes, Bricks and stones, Boards for the sawmills, Boats and horseshoes for freight, Beds for the sick, Beer and Barrels, Boilers and Air Conditioners: The forces of industry in the La Crosse area that defined the workforce, then and now!

Boots and shoes, the Last Workers Were First!

All research that currently exists (or that is known to exist at this time, and is held in public archives) indicates that the first unified employees’ action by a group of workers in the city of La Crosse occurred in 1863.  The city of La Crosse was a bare seven years old at this time.  Those employed in the steamboat industry or lumbering industry may have contemplated unified action even earlier but that movement remains to be uncovered, however. 

The many boot and shoemakers of the city undertook this seminal labor action while employed in the Civil War era.  As this was so early in the development of the city, the union movement itself had not yet coalesced into any kind of a significant force.  All work then was extremely labor intensive and still required craftsmen to produce the products or services on a one by one basis to a large degree.  A mix of thirteen firms employing boot and shoemakers manufactured, repaired and provided footwear for the city and area.  These craftsmen supplied footwear for the men, women, and children (no child-labor laws at this time) working in all La Crosse businesses as well as in the industries and farming community.   Needless to say, lumberjacks, coopers, bartenders, farmers, or any other worker could not earn a living for long without replacement footwear.  Shoes and boots were quickly worn out in these manual-labor jobs. ^[11]

Inflation caused by the Civil War was the factor that resulted in the first major wage action.  Inflation had depreciated the dollars’ purchasing power to just sixty cents of its’ prewar buying power.  Local wages had remained the same.  Prices of all local goods had risen by forty percent due to this wartime inflation.  This, coupled with the owner/employers’ practice of not paying workers weekly or even paying them always in full (or with legal tender), resulted in ever increasing financial hardships for the workers of the city.  Banding together, the boot and shoemakers notified their employers of the necessity of increasing their daily wages from current rates of from one dollar and twelve cents to one dollar and seventy-five cents up to two dollars for the manufacture of a pair of boots or shoes. 

When these journeymen cobblers demanded this raise they met with two differing opinions in the local press. The editor of the republican paper took the side of the employers, while the democratic paper supported the workers viewpoint. ^[12]   An editorial stated that the workers would price themselves out of competition if their wages exceeded those of the eastern manufacturers.  Continuing with these public statements, he assured the buying public that these manufacturers could (at the old prices) continue to supply shoes and boots. ^[13] The opposing viewpoint as stated by the editor of the other paper completely supported the contentions of the journeymen shoemakers.   Citing the existing policy of one of the cities’ employers, the firm of Vogle and Hohl, to pay its workers the wage rate of two dollars a pair, he noted that several other firms seemed ready to agree.  

“When men are properly paid we notice they are generally contented.”   Apparently he was an astute observer of local labor, for the very next day, the short-lived strike was settled.  The entire article follows.  “ It is well- the shoe makers of this city have with little trouble, succeeded in their demands for an increase of wages, and resume work, with brisk fingers and cheerful hearts.  This is right.  Every man who labors for a livelihood, is deserving of wages sufficient to live on respectfully, and should than the content.  All such increase of wages comes from the public, who will not expect men to labor in 1863 for the same per diem as in 1860, when the cost of living was not for half what it now is. We congratulate the journeymen shoemakers of this city on their increase of wages, and the quiet, orderly way.  They went to work to obtain what they wanted.” ^[14]   The same editor ^[15] followed up this defense of the right of workers to demand and receive increased wages with an article the next day under the heading, Mechanics, and Their Wages. During this era the term mechanics was liberally applied to any craft or trade that required a length of time to acquire and perfect the skills of that occupation. Illustrating his point he referred to those that laid stone, made wagons, clothes, set type, plastered walls, printed newspapers or made watches. 

The Daily Democrat editor chastised the employers that made their mechanics partial wages and paid them tardily. These quotes give the gist of his arguments, “ If an employer is good, he can pay.  If he cannot pay promptly, he is not a fit man to work for safely,” and “The laborer is worthy of his wages, and he is a foolish man to work if he does not receive them- not in cats, dogs, old wagon tires, and watermelon rinds, but in cash or its full equivalent- is foolish to work and live from week to week on promises made to the ear but broken to the heart.”  In closing he advised them to not spend their hard earned wages at whiskey shops and saloons.   He poignantly stated that this resulted in ragged clothes, dirty children and an empty larder and a half starved wife. ^[16] Apparently workers and employers were both still evolving good social and moral attitudes towards employment and citizenship.  This labor dispute was not a lesson soon lost on this group of workers because just a few years later they were to form a state and then national organization for craftsmen of their trade. 

Knights of Saint Crispin First National Union in La Crosse (Chartered in Milwaukee)

The Knights of Saint Crispin were the first La Crosse union with a successful National Union to support them.   This first successful organized union in La Crosse was that of the custom boot and shoemakers.  It existed in La Crosse in the era of 1867-1868.  Cobblers, leather workers and boot and shoemakers were organized in La Crosse and formed a local lodge of the national labor organization known as the Knights of Saint Crispin.  Using leather working tools, such as awls, punches and lasts (the wooden or metal forms, boots and shoes are molded over) to ply their trade; these workers were the first successfully organized group of tradesmen in La Crosse.  Called the Knights of Saint Crispin, this organization was founded on March 1, 1867 by Newell Daniels and six associates who were working in the trade in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.    Other Local Lodges were formed rapidly and by the first International convention held in Rochester, New York they numbered some 87, with membership of around fifty thousand craftsmen and 250 lodges by 1871.  There were ten lodges established in Wisconsin, one of these being the workers in La Crosse. 

The decline of this union began in 1871 and due to the defeat of a strike of the Lynn lodges of Massachusetts in 1872, quickly accelerated.  By 1874, the union was hanging on only in the mill town of Lynn, Massachusetts and was totally defunct by about 1878.  The Knights of Saint Crispin derived their name from two Roman noblemen, Crispin and Crispinian of Soissons, Italy.  Preaching the gospel by day these brothers were employed as shoemakers at night.  By order of the Roman Emperor Maximian they were beheaded circa 287 A.D.  They are the patron Saints of shoemakers, cobblers and leather workers and their feast day is October 25. ^[17]

     What were wages like during the years that the shoemakers agitated first as a small local union, then on a national scale?  In the period of 1860 through 1864, bricklayers were earning $1.53 a day in 1860 and up to $2.31 a day by 1864.  Carpenters and joiners during the same period earned $1.65 a day up to $2.05, both trades working a 60-hour workweek.  Stationary Engineers earned $1.63, ending up at $2.04 in 1894, working 60 hours a week in but increased to 73 hours a week in 1864.  Stationary Engineers being the term used to describe workers who maintained and operated steam engines used in either transportation or the steam boilers and steam machines used in heating and manufacturing processes. 

     How were our nations’ farmers faring during this era?  Not too great, farm labor earned just 88 cents a day in 1860 for a 66 hour a week shift, and had bumped it up to just $1.50 a day for the same 66 hour week by 1864.  The most successful craftsmen during this period were the plumbers, glassblowers and painters.  Plumbers did the best during this era, due to some extent to the increase in city living and therefore increased demand for indoor plumbing.  Their wages rose from a level of $1.88 a day for a 60-hour workweek in 1860 to $3.50 a day for the same workweek in 1864.  Glassblowers, answering the market for soft drinks and distilled beverages, along with home medicines, went from a daily wage of $2.59 to one of $2.95.  Lastly, painters saw their wages rise from $1.97 a day to $2.93 for a 60-hour week.  By 1864 the purchasing power of a dollar was down to 91.3 cents. ^[18]

National Labor Organizations

A brief explanation of the early National Organizations of Labor will help to explain the emergence of unionism and organizational efforts in La Crosse.  America unions began as individual unions specializing in their own peculiar craft or trade, not unlike the Knights of St. Crispin of Milwaukee and Wisconsin.   The craftsmen of colonial America formed unions or guilds, among the printers, cabinetmakers, carpenters, cord-wainers and cobblers in many cities.  By 1794 the first strike had occurred in New York, where the printers struck for their wages and shorter hours.  Next were the cabinetmakers of that city in 1796.   The city of Philadelphia saw strikes by the carpenters in 1797 and then by the cord-wainers in 1799. ^[19]   By 1834 many of these unions had sought to form a national association.   

The National Trades’ Union was established in five cities among the craftsmen.  This group was short-lived because of a financial panic of 1839, which caused it to perish.  The next national attempt to create an association occurred in 1866, unions sent delegates to Baltimore, Maryland and they formed The National Labor Union. Once again a financial depression in 1973, ended this attempt at a nationwide labor body during the same year as the panic. ^[20]

 

Knights of Labor

This set the scene for the next attempt at national organizing and this time it was successful!  Onto the scene came a garment cutter named Uriah Stephans of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.   Stephans was the father of the Knights of Labor!  The history of the Knights of Labor begins in 1871, but it existed as a secret organization until 1878.   

In Philadelphia Stephans and seven others formed Assembly number 1.  Later, when an organizer appeared in La Crosse the group already numbered nationally 80,000 members.  The American Federation of Labor, or A.F.L. as it is commonly known, was founded by Samuel Gompers and Peter Mc Guire, after the death of the National Labor Union and was competing for members along with the Knights of Labor for several years, both nationally and locally.  Samuel Gompers was elected President of the AFL at the founding convention in Columbus, Ohio on December 8, 1886.  Peter Mc Guire was elected Secretary. 

Gompers was of the Cigar-makers Union and Mc Guire was from the Carpenters Union.  An early statement from the founders of the AFL states their mission.  “The various trades have been affected by the introduction of machinery, the subdivision of labor, the use of women’s and children’s labor and the lack of an apprentice system-so that the skilled trades were rapidly sinking to the level of pauper labor.  To protect the skilled labor of America form being reduced to beggary and to sustain the standard of American workmanship and skill, the trades unions of America have been established.”  Early in the AFL’s history women’s rights were addressed.  In the convention of 1894 the AFL adopted a resolution that stated, “women should be organized into trade unions to the end that they may scientifically and permanently abolish the terrible evils accompanying their weakened, unorganized state; and we demand that they receive equal compensation with men for equal services provided.”

When it was established in 1886, the AFL was comprised of 25 International Unions with a membership of 300,00 workers.  President Gompers would lead the AFL for the next several decades and would face the challenges of the Homestead Strike in 1892 and the Pullman Strike in 1894.  

Boxcars and rails, Railroad Unions Were The First Long-lasting Labor Associations In City

The honor of forming the first successful union organization in La Crosse to succeed in organizing and representing workers that proved to be a long-term success, goes to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Division 13 ^[21] .  This union was chartered in October of 1878.  Sam H. Reed an engineer of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was the first President of Division 13. ^[22]   Other Railroad unions formed about this time as well, but information on actual dates has not been forthcoming.  However what is known is that by the time of the publishing of the 1884 La Crosse City Directory, at least two additional Brotherhoods of railroad workers were extant in La Crosse.  The Order Of Railroad Conductors, La Crosse Division No. 61 was noted as meeting every Sunday at 500 North 3^rd Street, lead by W.D. Jones, Willis Wade and Jerry Mullen.  The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Guardrail No. 168 was listed and was meeting in the Railroad Hall, located at 1200 Caledonia Street.  Union officials at that time for this union were F. Stirneman, E.W. Rang, Willis Hawley and John Conway.  The Locomotive Engineers union at this time was lead by A.R. Carver, William Hart, Robert Stanley, James McMahon, Charles Whiting, P. McMahon and James McLinden.  They shared the Hall at 1200 Caledonia Street.

By the year 1895 several additional Railroad Unions had been formed in La Crosse, including a women’s auxiliary.  This was a group of women whose husbands, sons, brothers, or uncles were members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Division Number 13.  By 1893 this union had purchased a lot and built their very own union hall.  It was constructed on the north side of La Crosse on Caledonia Street at 1203 Caledonia and was known as the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Hall.  Both the men and women used this hall for social and union meetings.  It still stands today at the same location.  The Auxiliary was lead by Mrs. E. H. Colton as the President along with Mrs. William Hart as the Vice President.  Switchmen’s union, Gateway City Lodge Number 22 existed in 1895 and was officered by Henry Brinckman as the Master of the lodge.  F.E. DeMell served as Vice Master, J.E. Wilson was the Chaplin, William Miller kept the books as treasurer, while Carl Deerkop was the guard and M.J. Foley acted as Conductor. 

This union held its union meeting at the Knights of Phthias ^[23] Hall at 715 Rose Street.  The Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen Gateway City Lodge Number 76 also was chartered at this time and was meeting at the BLE Hall.   J.J.C. Moore was the Master, with P.A. Hendrick serving as Secretary and W.F. Bennett the Financier.  Also joining their union brothers in meeting at the BLE Hall were the men of Railroad Carmen’s Union Division Number 5.  Charles Bauch was the Chief Carman and Nick Zimmer was the Secretary, with L. Hober serving as the Treasurer.

Boxes of cigars; First Successful AFL Affiliated Union in La Crosse

La Crosse’s first AFL affiliated union to succeed in forming a local union was that of the Cigar-workers Local 61.  These unionists developed a union body   that worked towards the goals of an organized labor in the city and would send many labor activists to lead the labor community over a course of many years.  This union was chartered on May 31, 1884.  It chartered with the Knights of Labor early on and carried joint affiliations with both the Knights and the AFL for a number of years until forbidden by the Knights of Labor to do so.   Cigar makers Local Union No. 61, was comprised of the many cigar makers that worked throughout the city.   One of the major employers of the Cigar makers was the firm of Pamperin Company ^[24] on Second Street.  The firm tried to resist the formation of this union but the workers stood firm in their resolve and eventually after a dispute of several months the employer came to terms and recognized the workers.  The union’s first president was William F. Key and the first vice-president was Joseph Padesky.  Fred Bennett was the first recording secretary and Joseph Voves the first corresponding secretary.  Peter Pfieffer served the local as its’ first financial secretary and Frank Schneider as the first treasurer.  Other charter members were, Alis F. Spettel, John A. Westergard, Jake Kubal, Charles Horn, Edward Pfieffer and William J, Hegenbarth. ^[25]   By 1890, Cigar-makers Union No. 61 was meeting in Union Hall, 206 South Fourth Street, and La Crosse.  Albert Major was serving as President, William J. Hegenbarth was Vice President, Leonard Stallman was the Secretary, R.H. Major was Recording Secretary and John Bitzer was the Treasurer.  In 1891 A. Schoemheinz served as President, Frank Schneider was the Vice President, Leonard Stallman still retained the post of Secretary and John Bitzer continued as the union’s Treasurer.

Perhaps it is only fair and quite proper that the cities’ first successful union should be one from the Cigar makers.  After all the premier unionist of the country in the days of the creation the AFL was another cigar maker, Samuel Gompers.  The Cigar makers only earned this honor due to the circumstances that delayed the permanent establishment of the tailors’ union in La Crosse.  This union was temporarily begun in either 1876 or 1877 but it did not exist too long in its first attempt at organization of local tailors.  It was dissolved as the Journeymen’s National Union (representing tailors) was not yet established and the local union needed the national support of allied tradesmen of the same craft to survive. ^[26]

During the year of 1884 the average wages for brick layers were around $2.71 a day for a 60 hour workweek, while carpenters and joiners were being paid an average of $2.53 a day for the same shift.  Glassblowers were at the top of the pay scale earning a days’ salary of $4.08 and a shorter workweek of 51 hours.  Farm labor was now being paid $1.25 a day for a 63-hour workweek.  An 1884-dollar purchased 81.5 cents worth of goods. ^[27]

Boots and clothes, the Creation of La Crosse’ Second AFL Union

The tailor’s union was close to winning the honors for being the first union to succeed in the La Crosse area.  It did come into being and establish its’ self as a viable union just four years after the Cigar makers.  Receiving a charter from the National organization in June of 1888, the tailors of this city formed Tailor’s Union Local No. 66 in June 1888.  This union began with thirty members and had grown rapidly until by January of 1889, it had organized and affiliated every tailor in town.  1889 also saw the first bill of prices presented by the tailors to their employers as a contract demand.  After a short, two day strike, the employers agreed to the wage scale and the dispute was settled with a raise of ten percent being gained by the men.  Wage demands of ten percent were asked again in 1903, 1910 and 1913, and additionally a five percent wage increase was gained in 1905.  This resulted in the tailors increasing their wages

Since their founding by forty-five percent by the year 1917. ^[28]   In 1890 the Tailor’s Union was meeting in Union Hall, 206 South 4^th Street and Ole Rasmussen was the President, with Frank Mathias serving as Secretary.  By 1891 Frank Mathias was the President, Joseph Merlik was the Secretary and Andrew Euglestad was the Treasurer.

 

Bricklayers Formed

Early in 1889, the Bricklayers of La Crosse formed a union for their trade.  On April 29, local craftsmen received a charter from the International and formed Bricklayers and Masons Local No. 1.  The first President was John Kicky, Financial Secretary John Weyers, Vice President Louise Bishop, Corresponding Secretary H.E. Warsaw and Treasurer Joseph Kokta.  By 1890 the union was meeting with the other aforementioned city unions at Union Hall and the officers at this time were, H.E. Warsaw the President, Henry Klick the Vice President, Joseph Kokta the Financial Secretary, Frank Techmer, Treasurer, John McGrath Deputy and B. Jansky was the Sergeant At Arms.  In 1891 the City Directory showed a few changes of leadership in the union, Albert Novak was now President, David Wallace was the Vice President, James Hilden was the Deputy and John Orden was the Sergeant At Arms.  These craftsmen built many of the buildings that formed the downtown district of this city as well as many of the private homes of this area.  The allied craft of plumbing and steam fitting formed a union shortly after the bricklayers.

Boards for the sawmills, other Early La Crosse Unions and Strikes

By the time the La Crosse City Directory of 1890 was published, several additional unions had formed in La Crosse.  Carpenter’s Local 378 was probably made up of workers employed in the many lumber mills of the city.  Also representing workers was the union, which was comprised of the men who ran the steam engines at many industries and pubic buildings throughout the area.  This was the National Association of Stationary Engineers Local 8, which was chartered on October 5, 1882, and was therefore one of the earliest unions in town.  The stationary description in the union title referred to the fact that they operated and maintained machinery that was not installed in either trains or steam boats, but rather was used to drive machinery or move water, or heat buildings. 

The La Crosse City Directory of 1893 mentioned many more unions.  Carpenter’s and Joiner’s Local 335 was listed.  Two organizations existed for the City’s horse-shoers in 1893, the Master Horse-shoer’s Union and the International Horse-shoer’s Branch 52.  Both held their meetings at Union Hall.  Branch 52’s President was P.H Moran and E.W. Moodie was the organization’s Secretary.  Branch 52 did not survive in this first attempt to unionize this craft, as they would later re-charter under the same number early in the next century.  The Master Horse Shoer’s formed a union early in May and elected their officers at that time.  Florence Sullivan, President, Frank Stuesser, Vice President, Neil Gavin, Secretary, Henry Ritter, Treasurer.  Twelve of the city’s blacksmith shops were organized.  Voight and Ritter, E.R. Savage, Fred Beckmann, Frank Stuesser, Dennis Mercier, William Stentz, Neil Gavin, Earnest Nimocks, E.M. Lockman, J.H. Bristow, Florence Sullivan and Phillip Pliger.  Only one city shop remained outside of the unionized shops.  A uniform pricing guide was agreed upon.   New hand shoes were to cost fifty cents and machine shoes would run forty cents.  Resetting shoes would cost twenty cents.  The union complained about the hardware merchants selling shoes to farmers and others at the same prices they were selling them to horse-shoers. ^[29]

Other unions that sprang into being about this time were the Journeymen Barbers International Union Local No. 91, which held it’s meetings in the International Order of Odd Fellows Temple on the corner of Rose and St. Paul Streets on the city’s north side.  T.T. Giles was President, H. Taggert was the Vice President, George Klipple, Corresponding Secretary, G. Houska, Financial Secretary and Bert Larson was the Treasurer.  The workers involved in painting and wallpapering had a union at this time, Painter’s and Decorator’s Union Local No. 226.  They meet at Solberg’s Hall at the corner of 3^rd and Pearl.  Local 226 would be short-lived, as it would re-charter later in the next century.  Teamsters Local 560 and Coopers Local 39 along with Brewers Local 81 all held meetings in Union Hall in 1893.  Local Union No. 472, a carpenters’ union, was noted as meeting in Wannebo’s Hall. 

On May 1, the Tanners of La Crosse went out on strike.  Fifty men walked out of the La Crosse Tannery demanding a wage hike and the end of the practice of hiring nonunion men in the trade.  Several of the union Tanners were formerly employed in Milwaukee and were familiar with wages and conditions throughout the industry and advised the local men of the same.  The Company refused to accede to the demands. ^[30] The owner of the Tannery had to scramble to save the semi-processed hides during the early days of the strike because of the threat of rainy weather.  The Journeymen Tinners choose to demand a wage increase as well. ^[31]   As negotiations with Edwards continued, other workmen took action.  The Stone Mason’s Helpers went out on strike demanding a wage boost and the use of union help only in their craft.  The Tanners accepted a wage raise and conceded the issue of the right of their employer to hire nonunion workmen along with union workmen.  ^[32]

Quickly joining the striking Stone Masons’ Helpers, the Hod-carriers struck for a wage increase the day following the Stone workers strike.  The Hod-carriers asked for a raise from $1.80 a day for a ten-hour days’ work to that of $2.00 a day for a nine-hour day.  The Tinners now struck for a nine-hour day and a wage rate of 25 cents an hour.  The Carpenters of the city entered into talks with their employers and asked to be paid at the rate of 22.5 cents an hour starting rate.  The existing rate being paid the workers of only 20 cents an hour to start and rising up to only 25 cents an hour for the top rate.  As for the streetcar issue, the Grand Labor Council voted to ask Mayor Powell to intercede. ^[33]

The employers’ of the cities’ Tinsmiths took a hard stand and publicly stated their intent to never yield to their union workers demands, even if it meant that not a dollars’ worth of tin was used in La Crosse in 1893.  The Carpenters of the city took an equally strong stand when they published a statement that read, Members of Carpenters’ Union of La Crosse would not work on the same job with non-union men after May 15^th, 1893.  By order, The Carpenters’ Union.  The Hod-carriers won their demands and got the wages they had asked for, the issue of non-union men was ignored at this time by both sides.   A notice from the Order of Railway Conductors Division No. 61 was printed in the paper giving thanks to the Wisconsin legislature for the enactment of a law regarding Railway employees.  This union having come into being sometime prior to this notice ^[34]

These strikes continued for some time in the summer of 1893 and met with varying degrees of success.  The Printers of the Morning Chronicle were among those that struck during this time.  Mr. Usher the publisher had been paying the men eight dollars in cash each Monday and the balance was given at the end of each month.  Most of the workers being married men, they walked out demanding a minimum of ten dollars in cash be paid each Monday, as they could not live on the previous amount, while waiting for the balance owed them.  It was a rather common practice at this time to pay workers partial wages while making them wait for the rest owed them, by giving script or notes of demand. ^[35]

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