Local canneries employ immigrant labor but workers are confined to company property.

***

In the 1890s, fishing canneries open in and around Fairhaven, including Pacific American Fisheries, which becomes the largest in the world.

Immigrants are willing to work for low wages that white laborers will not accept, and the cannery industry becomes dependent on immigrant labor for many years.

Chinese cannery laborers are only allowed in town during the canning season and they are confined to company property. The company provides segregated housing for Chinese workers (some Japanese workers were also employed and housed by the cannery, but less is known about them).

Chinese labor at Pacific American Fisheries was eventually replaced by mechanization, but the racism directed toward the Chinese workers lived on even in the name of the salmon butchering machine: “the iron Chink.”

Ongoing expressions of racism against Chinese immigrants can also be seen in resolutions passed at various meetings in the area during this time. For instance, the following resolution was passed by a meeting of “The Workingmen of New Whatcom” on 30 June 1891:

Whereas, the citizens of Whatcom county, ever watchful of the interests of the county, and the moral and financial welfare of its citizens, have, heretofore, not allowed Chinamen to get a foothold among us, therefore, be it resolved:

1st. – That we raise our solemn protest against the introduction of Chinamen into our county.

2nd. – That we hold the introducers of Chinamen into our county responsible for their introduction.

3rd. – The Chinamen, even in small numbers, will not be tolerated in our county, at whatever cost.

(Roeder, 1926, p.399)

The city of Bellingham later issued an apology for the mistreatment of Chinese immigrants during this period, and set up a permanent plaque in the old cannery district as a memorial.

See:

Radke, August C. & Barbara S. Radke (2002) Pacific American Fisheries, Inc.: History of a Washington State Salmon Packing Company, 1890-1966,  p.63

Roth, Lottie Roeder (1926) History of Whatcom County, Vol 1. Seattle: Pioneer Historical Publishing Co.

Friday, C. (1994). Organizing Asian American labor : The Pacific Coast canned-salmon industry, 1870-1942. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.