In the summer of 1917, the IWW’s Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union led a massive strike across the logging camps and sawmills of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Loggers labored ten- and twelve-hour days in dangerous camps with filthy bunkhouses; their central demand was the eight-hour day, along with clean bedding and better food.
With lumber essential to wartime production — especially spruce for aircraft — the strike drew a fierce response, including the army’s creation of the company-friendly Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen. Rather than continue a losing walkout, the Wobblies shifted to "striking on the job" — slowdowns and quitting at the eight-hour mark. The tactic worked: by 1918 the eight-hour day had become standard in the Northwest woods, one of the IWW’s most durable wartime achievements.