1933 Yakima Valley strike

It is notable as the most serious and highly publicized agricultural labor disturbance in Washington history and as a brief revitalization of the Industrial Workers of the World in the region.

Since 1916, the Yakima Valley had felt the presence of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or Wobblies), which positioned itself in conflict with local authorities and business interests.

The meeting hall opened by the IWW in Yakima during the fall of that year was promptly raided by local police, who arrested its inhabitants, closed the building, and denied Wobblies the right to hold the street meetings which they regarded as essential to their organizational effort among the harvest workers flooding into the valley.

The demands of the hop pickers were not of anything uncommon during the 1930s, with striking for regular eight-hour work days, the end of child labor in the yards, and a minimum wage of 35 cents per hour for men and women alike.

The strike had fizzled out with little success when matched against the hop growers, sheriffs, and state patrolmen, especially with the Yakima Chamber of Commerce giving the law enforcement and business owners' their support.

After the men were laid off due to being transient workers, they became provoked to strike in regards to the lack of work offered, in which farmers responded by creating vigilante bands around the orchards.

Seeing as the farmers were well-organized and prepared for strikes, along with having the county sheriffs and state patrolmen coming to their aid, the protests of 15 and 16 August were a complete failure.

In the early morning hours of August 24, about twenty picketers gathered at the Selah ranch and sixty at another, but local farmers and sheriffs patrolled the area in order to keep the pear harvest in operation.

At about 11:00 am, a group of sixty to one hundred picketers gathered at the large Congdon Orchards ranch, three miles west of Yakima, where pears were being picked.

[3] The strike was broken up on the night of August 24 due to the Washington National Guard breaking up a protest meeting with tear gas.