Ethnicity and Labor in the Puget Sound Fishing Industry, 1880-1935

Abstract

To say that the subject of ethnicity has received considerable attention in recent years is to state the obvious. As Nash (1989:126-27) points out, the amount of literature on ethnicity is so vast that he wonders what be said that is fresh, novel, significant, and possibly of reasonable validity? . . . Despite this discouraging observation, this essay should show that there still are significant things that can be said about ethnicity. Most of the recent publications are attempts to account for the persistence of ethnic identity in the modem social context (e.g., Alba 1990; Waters 1990) and much less has been written about the role of ethnicity in determining socioeconomic status and economic opportunity. This article explores the role of five ethnic groups in the first 50 years of the commercial salmon fishery of Puget Sound. Although significant numbers of these groups were integral in the development of the fishing industry, by the 1930s the participation of all but those of European origin was negligible.(1) The early history of the development of the commercial fishing industry of Puget Sound is a complex set of relationships involving these different ethnic groups. The labor force of the industry can be separated into the procurement sector and the processing sector. These were the two areas where considerable numbers of workers were employed and where the different ethnic groups were involved. The development of the commercial fishing industry of Puget Sound involved the subsumption of various worker classes. Their main division was ethnicity. Various ethnicities were consciously recruited for specific tasks because of particular skills and advantages that they brought. Nonetheless, as the industry became increasingly capitalized through technological innovation and consolidation of investment, these labor groups were marginalized. Once labor was marginal it was expendable. Those groups that were able to remain viable in the fishing industry were those that were able to either invest in the means of production or were favored by the cannery owners for other reasons. Ultimately those of non-European heritage were pushed to the periphery. An analysis of the involvement of different ethnic groups in the early history of the Puget Sound fishing industry allows employing the concept of an ethnic theory of labor; i.e., that certain identifiable ethnic groups might be considered best suited to certain types of labor activities and should access to that particular segment of the labor force be curtailed, as for example through a change in technology or through political intervention, it then becomes difficult or impossible for that labor force to move into other segments of the industry. The key to understanding this relationship is not that particular ethnic groups are necessarily better suited for certain types of work but that those who control capital perceive them to be. This concept allows us to account for the historical reality of the involvement of particular ethnic labor groups in certain occupations and the subsequent exclusion of those groups when changes in the industry occurred. Since the minority ethnic groups generally provided the labor power but did not have access to capital, their ability to penetrate the industry was prohibited.(2) It is not unusual to characterize certain groups of people as better suited to certain occupations. Suitability, as a concept, is one of the classic rationales of racism (Thompson 1989:16). It is the way in which society legitimizes a social process and it has been used to justify exploiting indigenous labor to extract and process resources with which they may already have had working familiarity. The concept can help to explore the importance of ethnicity in how labor is recruited to perform specific tasks, and in understanding the movement of certain ethnic labor groups into specific niches created by industrial development. Some recent analyses have focussed on the perception of ethnic suitability (e. …