Alice Lord
...uld have worked for an 8-hour day for themselves; they had been successful in obtaining other concessions, as was seen earlier. But these ladies decided instead that “not until every working woman in our state should enjoy the same conditions would we cease fighting, but stand together and put on our Statute books an eight hour day for all.” For eight years, the waitresses fought for the eight-hour law. Prodding the Washington State Federation into supporting their efforts, garnering support from women’s clubs, the waitresses and their supporters lobbied, lobbied, and lobbied some more. On March 4, 1911, victory crowned their efforts and Washington became one of the first four states to pass an eight-hour law for its women workers. This is significant when you consider that Congress passed the eight-hour law 27 years later, in 1938! Throughout the years that followed, Waitresses Union Local 240 was to participate in many other, often successful, efforts to better conditions for themselves, and for working women in general. A rest home for waitresses, a minimum wage law for women, a woman deputy labor commissioner are examples. But the 8-hour day law, for which they had blazed a trail – was their crowning glory. Protective hours legislation is the foundation upon which most other protective labor legislation rests. But Washington’s eight-hour law was by no means perfect, (it excluded the many woman workers engaged in canning fish, harvesting, processing fruits and vegetables and switchboard operations). However it served as a precedent for extending the eight-hour law to most workers and for minimum wage statutes. A large share of the responsibility for the essential law goes to one woman, Alice M Lord, whose spectacular lobbying efforts were recognized as instrumental. Her name became synonymous with that of the Waitresses’ Union. Her life story is likewise inseparable from the story of the union. She was 23 when she came to Seattle in 1899. She was born in Lordsville, NY, a small town north of New York City, August 2, 1876. Lured by the Gold Rush to the West Coast, it was her initial intent to purchase supplies and a boat ticket to Alaska to become a prospector. Her finances forced her to take a waitress job to save for her trip. Shortly after her arrival in Seattle, she was involved in the organization of the Waitresses Union. In those days, according to Labor news “it required courage and stamina to proclaim oneself a trade unionist”. A senior member of the Waitresses’ Union recalls Lord reminiscing about those early days. When speaking on her soapbox, she risked jail, for attempting to interest unorganized workers in joining the union. Once the union was established, it was stated that Alice Lord’s “determination, enterprise, excessive ability and strong sense of fairness have been the backbone of the union,” Throughout her forty years membership, Lord served her union in these capacities: secretary – treasurer, business agent, manager and president. Besides being instrumental in the passage of the eight-hour law, Alice Lord played an important part in getting a state minimum wage law for women passed in 1913. When her opponents questions the necessity of such a law on the basis that Washington’s working conditions were so far superior to those ‘back east’ she retorted that, granted that “we citizens of the state of Washington are advancing. We do not want sweatshops or tenement districts. Now is the time to make laws to prevent such conditions, not wait until conditions exist and then bring about reform.” However it was not enough to be a good lobbyist and executive, a really effective union leader had to be able to work effectively with other unions, and the general labor movement was skeptical of, and even sometimes hostile to women’s unions. A fact that Lord was confronted personally – “ A good many people thought an organization run by girls would not last long” she said in 1941. “But you see the girls belong to a race whose forefathers fought for the liberty of humanity in 1861-1865 and they are fighters too. This time for the liberty of the wage earner”. In spite of the prejudice against female trade unionists, Lord was also active in the affairs of the general labor movement and what is more, she was well-known and respected. Locally, she served as a delegate to the Joint Board of Culinary Crafts, and as a delegate to and committee member of the influential Seattle Central Labor Council. Beginning in 1905 she was a delegate to the annual convention of the Washington State Federation of Labor and continued to serve at many succeeding conventions that organization. At her funeral a friend reminisced, ”I remember the first time I met Sister Lord. I was…a young man employed in the mines of Cle Elum…elected to my first convention, which was held in the Seattle Labor Temple. Among the speakers asked to address the convention was Alice Lord. In those days Cle Elum was a long ways from Seattle, but the name of Alice Lord was well know there”. Said Labor News “Alice Lord …became a leader in the labor movement not only of Seattle but of the Northwest …was one of the outstanding women in the labor movement of the country”. Elsewhere is said that, “Her counsel and advice were sought by leaders throughout organized labor.” Alice Lord and her campaign to better the conditions of women workers are the stuff of which legends are made. It is said that Alice Lord walked to Olympia from Seattle (over 60 miles) to lobby, when times were hard and union funds were low. Of how she told legislators, when arguing for a six-day week, “you give even your horses one day’s rest in seven”. Over forty years after passage of the eight-hour law, the Washinton State Federation of Labor remembered: “The stories of her spectacular lobbying efforts in obtaining the eight hour day for women and other labor legislation during sessions of the legislature and before fact-finding committees have inspired and entertained union leaders long after her death and would fill a small volume if they were collected. She was intense and dramatic and self-sacrificing in her efforts. What about Alice Lord the woman? It is hardly surprising to find her described as having an “aggressive nature and in indomitable spirit”, but she was also a person who loved life. She relished many a social Saturday get together with th...