1934 West Coast waterfront strike

Labor strike by longshoremen in California, Oregon, and Washington June 2020 1934 West Coast waterfront strike Confrontation between a policeman wielding a night stick and a striker during the San Francisco General Strike, 1934 - NARA - 541926.jpg 240px   Confrontation between a policeman wielding a night    stick and a striker during the San Francisco General Strike, 1934 Everett, Washington; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California May 9 – July 31, 1934 (84 days)https://books.google.com/books?id=XipsuAAACAAJ Labor's giant step: twenty years of the CIO Preis Art 1974 Pathfinder Press 31–33 9780873480246 en Strikes, protest, demonstrations International Longshore and Warehouse Union California National Guard Harry Bridges; Paddy Morris; Jack Bjorklund; Joseph P. Ryan Frank Merriam; Angelo Rossi; Julius Meier Deaths: 9,Injuries:>1000, Arrests: >500.https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft6d5nb46p;brand=ucpress Reds or Rackets?: The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront Kimeldorf Howard 1988 University of California Press 9780520912779 101 en Deaths: Injuries: Arrests, etc The 1934 West Coast waterfront strike (also known as the 1934 West Coast longshoremen's strike, as well as a number of variations on these names) began on May 9, 1934, when longshoremen in every U.S. West Coast port walked out. It lasted 83 days. Organized by the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), the strike peaked with the death of two workers on "Bloody Thursday" and the subsequent San Francisco General Strike, which stopped all work in the major port city for four days, and led ultimately to the settlement of the West Coast Longshoremen's Strike.David F. Selvin, A terrible anger: The 1934 waterfront and general strikes in San Francisco (Wayne State University Press, 1996). The result of the strike was the unionization of all of the West Coast ports of the United States. The San Francisco General Strike of 1934, along with the Toledo Auto-Lite Strike of 1934 led by the American Workers Party and the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 led by the Communist League of America, were catalysts for the rise of industrial unionism in the 1930s, much of which was organized through the Congress of Industrial Organizations.https://books.google.com/books?id=XipsuAAACAAJ Labor's giant step: twenty years of the CIO Preis Art 1974 Pathfinder Press 31–33 9780873480246 en Background The 1916 West Coast waterfront strike was the first instance of coastwide organizational unity among West Coast longshore workers. The strike resulted in a massive defeat for the ILA, and employers launched an effort to eliminate the ILA's presence on the waterfront entirely.International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 19 (Seattle) records - Archives West https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv677529 2024-03-06 archiveswest.orbiscascade.org In the years immediately after World War I, when the shipping companies and stevedoring firms had imposed the open shop after a series of failed strikes, longshoremen on the West Coast ports were unorganized or represented by company unions.https://books.google.com/books?id=7GvgN0y7yI4C Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California Starr Kevin 1997 Oxford University Press 9780195118025 85–86 en Longshoremen in San Francisco, then the major port on the coast, were required to go through a hiring hall operated by a company union, known as the "blue book" system for the color of the membership book.https://books.google.com/books?id=yj0lDQAAQBAJ From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement Glass Fred 2016 Univ of California Press 9780520288409 231 en The Industrial Workers of the World, nicknamed "Wobblies," had attempted to organize longshoremen, sailors and fishermen in the 1920s through their Marine Transport Workers Union.Nelson, 1990, pp.58-60. Their largest strike, the 1923 San Pedro Maritime Strike, stalled shipping in that harbor but was crushed by a combination of injunctions, mass arrests and vigilantism by the American Legion. Other Wobbly-led strikes occurred in Seattle in 1919 and Portland in 1922. While the IWW was a spent force after that strike, syndicalist thinking remained popular on the docks.https://archive.org/details/workersonwaterfr0000nels_z8x8 registration Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s Nelson Bruce 1990 University of Illinois Press 9780252061448 61–62 en Longshoremen and sailors on the West Coast also had contacts with an Australian syndicalist movement that called itself the "One Big Union" formed after the defeat of a general strike there in 1917.https://archive.org/details/workersonwaterfr0000nels_z8x8 registration Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s Nelson Bruce 1990 University of Illinois Press 9780252061448 64–65 en thumb|left|upright=0.8|Harry Bridges, one of the leaders of the strike, July 9, 1934 The Communist Party had also been active in the area in the late 1920s, seeking to organize all categories of maritime workers into a single union, the Marine Workers Industrial Union (MWIU), as part of the drive during the Third Period to create revolutionary unions.Quin, 1949, p.39https://archive.org/details/workersonwaterfr0000nels_z8x8 registration Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s Nelson Bruce 1990 University of Illinois Press 9780252061448 79 en The MWIU never made much headway on the West Coast, but it did attract a number of former IWW members and foreign-born militants.https://archive.org/details/workersonwaterfr0000nels_z8x8 registration Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s Nelson Bruce 1990 University of Illinois Press 9780252061448 62 en Harry Bridges, an Australian-born sailor who became a longshoreman after coming to the United States and played an instrumental role in organizing the 1934 strike, was often alleged to be an active member of the Communist party.https://depts.washington.edu/dock/Harry_Bridges_intro.shtml Harry Bridges: Life and Legacyhttps://books.google.com/books?id=7GvgN0y7yI4C Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California Starr Kevin 1997 Oxford University Press 9780195118025 93 en Militants published a newspaper, The Waterfront Worker, which focused on longshoremen's most pressing demands: more men on each gang, lighter loads and an independent union.https://books.google.com/books?id=yj0lDQAAQBAJ From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement Glass Fred 2016 Univ of California Press 9780520288409 232 enhttps://books.google.com/books?id=7GvgN0y7yI4C Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California Starr Kevin 1997 Oxford University Press 9780195118025 90 en While a number of the individuals in this group were Communist Party members, the group as a whole was independent of the party: although it criticized the International Seamen's Union (ISU) as weak and the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), which had its base on the East Coast, as corrupt, it was not wholly loyal to the MWIU, but emphasized the creation of small groups of activists at each port to serve as the first step in a slow, careful movement to unionize the industry. Grassroots reform of the ILA locals would gradually marginalize the MWIU. Just as the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act had led to a spontaneous significant rise in union membership among coal miners in 1933, thousands of longshoremen now joined the fledgling ILA locals that reappeared on the West Coast. The MWIU declined as Communist Party activists were absorbed into the ILA.Quin, 1949, p 40 These newly emboldened workers first went after the "blue book" union, refusing to pay dues to it and tearing up their membership books. The militants who had published "The Waterfront Worker", now known as the "Albion Hall group" after their usual meeting place, continued organizing dock committees that soon began launching slowdowns and other types of job actions in order to win better working conditions. While the official leadership of the ILA remained in the hands of conservatives sent to the West Coast by President Joseph P. Ryan of the ILA, the Albion Hall group started in March, 1934 to press demands for a coastwide contract, a union-run hiring hall and an industry wide waterfront federation.https://books.google.com/books?id=7GvgN0y7yI4C Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California Starr Kevin 1997 Oxford University Press 9780195118025 94–95 en When the conservative ILA leadership negotiated a weak "gentlemen's agreement" with the employers that had been brokered by the mediation board created by the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bridges led the membership in rejecting it.Quin, 1949, pp 42–44 Disputes revolved around the issue of recognition: the union demanded a closed shop, a coastwide contract and a union hiring hall. The employers offered to arbitrate the dispute, but insisted that the union agree to an open shop as a condition of any agreement to arbitrate. The longshoremen rejected the proposal to arbitrate.Quin, 1949, pp 41–42 The Big Strike thumb|right|An engraved billy club commemorates police activity in the Battle of Smith Cove in Seattle The strike began on May 9, 1934, as longshoremen in every West Coast port walked out; sailors joined them several days later.https://books.google.com/books?id=7GvgN0y7yI4C Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California Starr Kevin 1997 Oxford University Press 9780195118025 90–91 en The employers recruited strikebreakers, housing them on moored ships or in walled compounds and bringing them to and from work under police protection.https://books.google.com/books?id=7GvgN0y7yI4C Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California Starr Kevin 1997 Oxford University Press 9780195118025 91 en Strikers attacked the stockade housing strikebreakers in San Pedro on May 15; police fired into the strikers, killing two and injuring many.March 2021 The killing of Dick Parker created resentment up and down the coast.Quin, 1949, p .50 Daily similar smaller clashes broke out in San Francisco and Oakland, California, Portland, Oregon,Munk Michael West coast waterfront strike of 1934 https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/west_coast_waterfront_strike_of_1934/#.WPKqW0Xyvcs Oregon Encyclopedia 15 April 2017 and Seattle, Washington. Strikers also succeeded in slowing down or stopping the movement of goods by rail out of the ports.Quin, 1949, pp 49–50 The Roosevelt administration tried again to broker a deal to end the strike, but the membership twice rejected the agreements their leadership brought to them and continued the strike.https://books.google.com/books?id=7GvgN0y7yI4C Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California Starr Kevin 1997 Oxford University Press 9780195118025 100–101 en The employers then decided to make a show of force to reopen the port in San Francisco.Quin, 1949, p 102 On Tuesday, July 3, fights broke out along the Embarcadero in San Francisco between police and strikers while a handful of trucks driven by young businessmen made it through the picket line.Quin, 1949, pp 103–105 Some Teamsters supported the strikers by refusing to handle "hot cargo"goods which had been unloaded by strikebreakersalthough the Teamsters' leadership was not as supportive.Quin, 1949, pp 48–49 By the end of May, Dave Beck, president of the Seattle Teamsters, and Mike Casey, president of those in San Francisco, thought the maritime strike had lasted too long.Quin, 1949, p 80 They encouraged the strikers to take what they could get from the employers and threatened to use Teamsters as strikebreakers if the ILA did not return to work.Longshoreman's Strike of 1934 – ILWU Shipping companies, government officials, some union leaders and the press began to raise fears that the strike was the result of communist agitation.https://books.google.com/books?id=agwaAwAAQBAJ Depression-Era Murals of the Bay Area Arcadia Publishing 2014 9781467131445 As the strike raged along the waterfront at the base of Telegraph Hill, many claimed that the labor unrest was influenced by members of the Communist Party. Simultaneously, the PWAP took notice of blatant communist references in the Coit Tower murals painted by Victor Arnautoff, John Langley Howard, Clifford Wight, and Bernhard Zakheim.https://www.sfchronicle.com/chronicle_vault/article/How-Coit-Tower-s-murals-became-a-target-for-11273933.php How Coit Tower's murals became a target for anticommunist forces Kamiya Gary 2017-07-08 www.sfchronicle.com en-US 2019-02-04 This "red scare" also helped ignite a controversy about the New Deal Public Works of Art Project murals that were at the time being completed in San Francisco's Coit Tower (on Telegraph Hill, close to the location of the strike in San Francisco), leading to the postponing of the tower's July 7 opening, and later to the removal of communist symbols from two of the American Social Realism style murals. DateLocationWorkers killedNotesMay 15, 1934San Pedro, CA2When 500 strikers attacked and tried to set fire to a ship housing strikebreakers in San Pedro, police unsuccessfully tried to stop them with tear gas, then shot into the crowd, killing strikers Dick Parker and John Knudsen.Selvin David F. A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco 1996 Wayne State University Press 236 https://books.google.com/books?id=bOJKfeRxPsMC&pg=PA236 22 April 2017 0814326102Police Fire Into Ranks of Strikers https://newspaperarchive.com/us/indiana/hammond/hammond-times/1934/05-15/page-2?tag=houston+longshoremen+killed+1934&rtserp=tags/houston-longshoremen-killed-1934?psb=relavance 22 April 2017 Hammond (Ind) Times 15 May 1934June 30, 1934Seattle, WA1Upon hearing that replacement crews were about to take two oil tankers out of the port, union members went to the dock. When the longshoremen tried to get past the dock's gates, they were ambushed by guards. Worker Shelvy Daffron was shot in the back and later died.July 5, 1934San Francisco, CA2When striking longshoremen surrounded a San Francisco police car and tried to tip it over, the police shot into the air, and then fired into the crowd, killing Nick Bordoise (originally named Nick Counderakis) and Howard Sperry.July 19, 1934Seattle, WA11934 West Coast Waterfront Strike: Olaf Helland was a Sailor on strike supporting Seattle Longshoremen, During the Battle of Smith cove a Police Officer shot an unexploded tear gas cannister into the back of Olaf Helland's Head. Olaf Helland Died a few hours later at a hospital. Seattle Labor history Walking Tour https://lib.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/specialcollections_laws_documents_SeattleLaborhistoryWalkingTour.pdfAugust 20, 1934Portland, OR1James Connor, a 22-year-old college student and newlywed working as a replacement worker on his vacation, was shot and killed in an altercation with striking longshoremen. This was one of a string of violent incidents, including visiting Senator Robert F. Wagner coming under fire. A second replacement worker named R.A. Griffin was also wounded in the head. "Bloody Thursday" vertical 200 Record of Death for Howard Sperry.jpg San Francisco Coroner's Record of Death for Howard Sperry Record of death for Nicolas Bordoise.jpg San Francisco Coroner's Record of Death for Nicolas Bordoise San Francisco Coroner's Records of Death for Howard Sperry and Nicolas Bordoise After a quiet Fourth of July, the employers' organization, the Industrial Association, tried to open the port of San Francisco even further on Thursday, July 5.Quin, 1949, p.110 As spectators watched from Rincon Hill, the police shot tear gas canisters into the crowd, then followed with a charge by mounted policeQuin, 1949, p.111 Picketers threw the canisters and rocks back at the police, who charged again, sending the picketers into retreat.Quin, 1949, p.112 Each side then refortified and took stock.https://books.google.com/books?id=yj0lDQAAQBAJ From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement Glass Fred 2016 Univ of California Press 9780520288409 239–40 en The events took an even more violent turn that afternoon, as hostilities resumed outside of the ILA strike kitchen.Quin, 1949, p.113 Eyewitness accounts differ on the exact events that transpired next. According to some witnesses, a group of strikers first surrounded a police car and attempted to tip it over, prompting the police to fire shotguns in the air, and then revolvers at the crowd. Other eyewitness accounts claim that police officers started shooting in the direction of the strikers, provoking strikers to defend themselves. Policemen fired a shotgun into the crowd, striking three men in intersection of Steuart and Mission streets. One of the men, Howard Sperry, a striking longshoreman, later died of his wounds. Another man, Charles Olsen, was also shot but later recovered from his wounds. A third man, Nick Bordoise – a Greek by birth (originally named Nick Counderakis) who was an out of work member of the cook's union volunteering at the ILA strike kitchen – was shot but managed to make his way around the corner onto Spear Street, where he was found several hours later. Like Sperry, he died at the hospital.https://books.google.com/books?id=7GvgN0y7yI4C Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California Starr Kevin 1997 Oxford University Press 9780195118025 107–8 en Strikers immediately cordoned off the area where the two picketers had been shot, laying flowers and wreaths around it. Police arrived to remove the flowers and drive off the picketers minutes later. Once the police left, the strikers returned, replaced the flowers and stood guard over the spot. Though Sperry and Bordoise had been shot several blocks apart, this spot became synonymous with the memory of the two slain men and "Bloody Thursday".Quin, 1949, p.119 As strikers carried wounded picketers into the ILA union hall police fired on the hall and lobbed tear gas canisters at nearby hotels. At this point someone reportedly called the union hall to ask "Are you willing to arbitrate now?". Under orders from California Governor Frank Merriam, the California National Guard moved in that evening to patrol the waterfront.https://books.google.com/books?id=7GvgN0y7yI4C Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California Starr Kevin 1997 Oxford University Press 9780195118025 108 en Similarly, federal soldiers of the United States Army stationed at the Presidio were placed on alert. The picketers pulled back, unwilling to take on armed soldiers in an uneven fight, and trucks and trains began moving without interference. Bridges asked the San Francisco Labor Council to meet that Saturday, July 7, to authorize a general strike.Quin, 1949, p.122 The Alameda County Central Labor Council in Oakland considered the same action. Teamsters in both San Francisco and Oakland voted to strike, over the objections of their leaders, on Sunday, July 8.Quin, 1949, p.123 Funerals and general strike thumb|"Protecting The Dollar Line,"Daily Worker; July 21, 1934|199x199px The following day, several thousand strikers, families and sympathizers took part in a funeral procession down Market Street, stretching more than a mile and a half, for Nicholas Bordoise and Howard Sperry, the two persons killed on "Bloody Thursday".https://books.google.com/books?id=yj0lDQAAQBAJ From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement Glass Fred 2016 Univ of California Press 9780520288409 240 en The police were wholly absent from the scene. The march made an enormous impact on San Franciscans, making a general strike, which had formerly been "the visionary dream of a small group of the most radical workers, became ... a practical and realizable objective."words of Paul Eliel, Waterfront and General Strikes p. 128, quoted in Bruce Nelson Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s 1990 University of Illinois Press 303 https://books.google.com/books?id=jTwUeGYCcD8C&pg=PA303 15 April 2017 9780252061448 After dozens of Bay Area unions voted for a general strike over the next few days, the San Francisco Labor Council voted on July 14 to call a general strike.Quin, 1949, pp.138, 141 The Teamsters had already been out for two days by that point.Quin, 1949, p.133 San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi declared a state of emergency.https://books.google.com/books?id=4dpWCgAAQBAJ Politics of US Labor Milton David 1982 NYU Press 9780853455707 50 en Some federal officials, particularly Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, were more skeptical.Quin, 1949, p.142 Roosevelt later recalled that some persons were urging him to steer the USS Houston, which was carrying him to Hawaii, "into San Francisco Bay, all flags flying and guns double-shotted, and end the strike." Roosevelt rejected the suggestion.https://books.google.com/books?id=4dpWCgAAQBAJ Politics of US Labor Milton David 1982 NYU Press 9780853455707 49 en The general strike began on the 16th, involving some 150,000 workers.Chretien Todd June 2012 The Communist Party, the unions, and the San Francisco General Strike https://isreview.org/issue/84/communist-party-unions-and-san-francisco-general-strike International Socialist Review 84 On the 17th the police arrested more than 300 "radicals, subversives, and communists" while systematically smashing furniture and equipment of organizations related to the strike; the same day, General Hugh S. Johnson as head of the National Recovery Administration spoke at UC Berkeley to denounce the general strike as "a menace to the government".Carlsson Chris The General Strike of 1934 http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_General_Strike_of_1934 Found SF 15 April 2017 The strike lasted four days. Non-union truck drivers joined the first day; the movie theaters and night clubs closed down. While food deliveries continued with the permission of the strike committee, many small businesses closed, posting signs in support of the strikers.Quin, 1949, p.151 Reports that unions in Portland and Seattle would also begin general strikes picked up currency.Quin, 1949, p.173 End of the strike thumb|right|Clipping from the Madera Tribune, published July 21, 1934, featuring Edward D. Vandeleur (left) and George G. Kidwell, who brought the strike to an end The calling of a general strike had an unexpected result: it gave the General Strike Committee, whose makeup was far less militant than the longshoremen's strike committee, effective control over the maritime strike itself.Quin, 1949, p.156–157 Its leaders were George G. Kidwell of the Bakery Wagon Drivers' Union, Michael Casey of the Teamsters, and Edward D. Vandeleur of the San Francisco Labor Council, all of whom opposed the calls by Bridges for a general strike.Starr Kevin Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California 1996 Oxford University Press New York 111 https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195118025/page/111/mode/1up 22 April 2025 They used their positions on the committee to defuse class divisions and guide both sides toward arbitration. After four days, the Labor Council voted to end the strike.Cornford Daniel Working People of California 1995 University of California Press Berkeley 252 https://archive.org/details/workingpeopleofc0000unse/page/252/mode/1up 22 April 2025 When it did so, it also recommended that the unions accept arbitration of all disputed issues.Quin, 1949, p.176 When the National Longshore Board put the employer's proposal to arbitrate to a vote of striking longshoremen, it passed in every port except Everett, Washington.July 2019 That, however, left the striking seamen in the lurch: the employers had refused to arbitrate with the ISU unless it first won elections on the fleets on strike. While Bridges, who had preached solidarity among all maritime workers and scorned arbitration, apologized to the seamen for the longshoremen's vote, the President of the ISU urged them to hold out and to burn their "fink books", the membership records of the company union to which they had been forced to pay dues.https://books.google.com/books?id=yj0lDQAAQBAJ From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement Glass Fred 2016 Univ of California Press 9780520288409 244 en On July 17, 1934, the California National Guard blocked both ends of Jackson Street from Drumm to Front with machine gun mounted trucks to assist vigilante raids, protected by SFPD, on the headquarters of the Marine Workers' Industrial Union and the ILA soup kitchen at 84 Embarcadero. Moving on, the Workers' Ex-Servicemen's League's headquarters on Howard between Third and Fourth was raided, leading to 150 arrests and the complete destruction of the facilities. The employer's group, the Industrial Association, had agents riding with the police.Quin, 1949, p.160 Further raids were carried out at the Workers' Open Forum at 1223 Fillmore street and the Western Worker building opposite City Hall that contained a bookstore and the main offices of the Communist Party, which was thoroughly destroyed.Quin, 1949, p.161 Attacks were also perpetrated on the 121 Haight Street Workers' School and the Mission Workers' Neighborhood House at 741 Valencia Street.Quin, 1949, p.162 A police spokesperson suggested that "maybe the Communists staged the raids themselves for publicity".https://books.google.com/books?id=bOJKfeRxPsMC A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco Selvin David F. 1996 Wayne State University Press 0814326102 200 en General Hugh S. Johnson, then head of the National Recovery Administration, gave a speech urging responsible labor leaders to "run these subversive influences out from its ranks like rats".https://books.google.com/books?id=yj0lDQAAQBAJ From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement Glass Fred 2016 Univ of California Press 9780520288409 243 en A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union was kidnapped and beaten, while vigilantes seized thirteen radicals in San Jose and turned them over to the sheriff of an adjoining county, who transported them to another county.Quin, 1949, p.167 In Hayward in Alameda County someone erected a scaffold in front of the city hall with a noose and a sign stating "Reds beware"Quin, 1949, p.166 In Piedmont, an upscale community surrounded by Oakland on all sides, the chief of police prepared for a reported attack by strikers on the homes of wealthy ship-owners.An Exercise in Hysteria: San Francisco's Red Raids of 1934 – David F. Selvin – The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 58, No. 3 (Aug., 1989), pp. 361–374 Aftermath While some of the most powerful people in San Francisco considered the strike's denouement to be a victory for the employers, many longshoremen and seamen did not. Spontaneous strikes over grievances and workplace conditions broke out as strikers returned to their jobs, with longshoremen and teamsters supporting their demands.https://archive.org/details/workersonwaterfr0000nels_z8x8 registration Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s Nelson Bruce 1990 University of Illinois Press 9780252061448 156–157 en Employers conceded many of these battles, giving workers even more confidence in demanding that employers lighten unbearably heavy loads.https://archive.org/details/workersonwaterfr0000nels_z8x8 registration Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s Nelson Bruce 1990 University of Illinois Press 9780252061448 158 en Longshoremen also began dictating other terms, fining members who worked more than the ceiling of 120 hours per month, filing charges against a gang boss for "slandering colored brothers" and forcing employers to fire strikebreakers.https://books.google.com/books?id=yj0lDQAAQBAJ From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement Glass Fred 2016 Univ of California Press 9780520288409 244–45 en Other unions went further: the Marine Firemen proposed to punish any member who bought a Hearst newspaper.https://archive.org/details/workersonwaterfr0000nels_z8x8 registration Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s Nelson Bruce 1990 University of Illinois Press 9780252061448 160 en The arbitration award issued on October 12, 1934, cemented the ILA's power.https://books.google.com/books?id=yj0lDQAAQBAJ From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement Glass Fred 2016 Univ of California Press 9780520288409 245 en While the award put the operation of the hall in the hands of a committee of union and employer representatives, the union was given the power to select the dispatcher. Since longshoremen were prepared to walk out if an employer did not hire a worker dispatched from the hall, the ILA soon controlled hiring on the docks. The employers complained that the union wanted to "sovietize" the waterfront.https://archive.org/details/workersonwaterfr0000nels_z8x8 registration Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s Nelson Bruce 1990 University of Illinois Press 9780252061448 162–163 en Workers complained that the employers were exploiting them for cheap labor and forcing them to work in unsafe conditions without reasonable safety measures.July 2019 The union soon utilized the "quickie strike" tactic to force many concessions from employers such as safer working conditions and better pay.Kimeldorf Howard https://books.google.com/books?id=pZMW4nqxwDAC Reds or Rackets?: The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront 1988 University of California Press 9780520912779 en Similarly, even though an arbitrator held that the 1935 Agreement prohibited sympathy strikes, the union's members nonetheless refused to cross other unions' picket lines. Longshoremen also refused to handle "hot cargo" destined for non-union warehouses that the union was attempting to organize.https://books.google.com/books?id=pZMW4nqxwDAC Reds or Rackets?: The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront Kimeldorf Howard 1988 University of California Press 9780520912779 114 en The ISU acquired similar authority over hiring, despite the philosophical objection of the union's own officers to hiring halls. The ISU used this power to drive strikebreakers out of the industry.https://archive.org/details/workersonwaterfr0000nels_z8x8 registration Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s Nelson Bruce 1990 University of Illinois Press 9780252061448 164–166 en Before the strike, Black workers had managed to gain some leadership positions in the ILA's Seattle local. Afterward, credit for the strike's success was shared between Black and white longshoremen, and Black members gained further leadership positions. This contributed to Black longshoremen becoming some of the most powerful advocates for civil rights in the Western U.S.Seattle's Civil Rights Organizations https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/organizations.htm#northwest-enterprise 2026-02-03 University of Washington: Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project The rift between the seamen's and longshoremen's unions deepened and became more complex in the succeeding years, as Bridges continually fought with the Sailors' Union of the Pacific over labor and political issues, many of which came to the forefront in the 1936 Pacific Coast Maritime Strike two years later. The West Coast district of the ILA broke off from the International in 1937 to form the International Longshoremen's Union, later renamed the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union after the union's "march inland" to organize warehouse workers, then renamed the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in recognition of the number of women members.July 2019 The arbitration award also gave longshoremen a raise to ninety-five cents ($US 0.95 1934 c in US dollars) an hour for straight time work, just shy of the dollar an hour it demanded during the strike. It was also awarded a contract that applied up and down the West Coast. The strike also prompted union organizer Carmen Lucia to organize the Department Store Workers Union and the Retail Clerks Association in San Francisco.https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780813522692 registration Rocking the Boat: Union Women's Voices, 1915–1975 O'Farrell Brigid Rutgers University Press 1996 9780813522692 New Brunswick, NJ 40 Internet Archive Legacy thumb|left|Plaque in front of the San Pedro Municipal Building, commemorating Bloody Thursday. The ILWU continues to recognize "Bloody Thursday" by shutting down all West Coast ports every July 5 and honoring Nick Bordoise, Howard Sperry and all of the other workers killed by police during the strike.https://books.google.com/books?id=yj0lDQAAQBAJ From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement Glass Fred 2016 Univ of California Press 9780520288409 246 en The ILWU has frequently stopped work for political protests against, among other things, Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, fascist intervention in the Spanish Civil War, South Africa's system of apartheid and the Iraq War. Sam Kagel, the last surviving member of the original union steering committee, died on May 21, 2007, at the age of 98.Nolte Carl Sam Kagel – arbitrator in major labor disputes (obit) http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Sam-Kagel-arbitrator-in-major-labor-disputes-2573764.php 15 April 2017 SF Gate 27 May 2007 Bloody Thursday, a documentary film that told the story of the strike, was broadcast on PBS stations across the nation and was awarded a Los Angeles Area Emmy for best historical film in 2010.Coker Matt August 27, 2010 KOCE Snags an LA Emmy for Bloody Thursday – OC Weekly https://www.ocweekly.com/koce-snags-an-la-emmy-for-bloody-thursday-6485178/ 2023-01-01 www.ocweekly.com See also San Francisco Bay Area Organized labour US Textile Workers' Strike of 1934 Strikes in the United States in the 1930s Harry Bridges History of the west coast of North America List of worker deaths in United States labor disputes List of US strikes by size References Sources * https://archive.org/details/workersonwaterfr0000nels_z8x8 registration Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s Nelson Bruce 1990 University of Illinois Press 9780252061448 nelson1990 The Big Strike 1949 Mike Quin Olema, Calif., Olema Pub. Co https://archive.org/details/bigstrike00quinrich quin49 Further reading Workers on the Waterfront, Seamen, Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s, by Bruce Nelson, 0252061446 Cherny, Robert W. "The making of a labor radical: Harry Bridges, 1901–1934." Pacific Historical Review 64.3 (1995): 363–388 online. A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco, by David F. Selvin. Wayne State University Press (1996). 0814326102. Dock Strike: History of the 1934 Waterfront Strike in Portland, Oregon, by Roger Buchanan Reds or Rackets, The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront, by Howard Kimeldorf, 0520078861 Harry Bridges, The Rise and Fall of Radical Labor in the U.S., by Charles Larrowe, 0882080016 Agitate, Educate, Organize: Portland, 1934, by William Bigelow & Norman Diamond, Oregon Historical Quarterly, Spring 1988 west_coast_waterfront_strike_of_1934 1934: The Great Strike, a multimedia section of the Waterfront Workers History Project, including film and photographs of the strike, a day-by-day account of the strike and digitized copies of newspaper articles and worker newsletters. Archives Anne Rand Library, International Longshore and Warehouse Union. https://web.archive.org/web/20160114224840/http://archive.ilwu.org/ January 14, 2016 contains digitized materials related to the history of the ILWU, including 1934 strike bulletins. San Francisco General Strike of 1934 photographic collections https://web.archive.org/web/20080719232323/http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/browse/keyword/general+strike+1934 July 19, 2008 , via Calisphere, California Digital Library Finding aids (no online content) for the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union Local 1 Records. 1933–1988. 4.58 cubic ft. (5 boxes). At the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections. Jake Arnautoff Papers. 1935–1991. .28 cubic ft. and 1 vertical file. Albert H. Farmer Papers. 1926–1981. .84 cubic ft. (2 boxes). Wayne "Waino" Moisio papers. 1938–1962. 0.21 cubic ft. (1 box). External links West Coast Waterfront West Coast Waterfront West Coast Waterfront West Coast Waterfront West Coast Waterfront Category:May 1934 in the United States Category:June 1934 in the United States Category:July 1934 in the United States West Coast Waterfront strike, 1934 Category:Anti-union violence in the United States Category:Maritime labor disputes in the United States Category:Labor disputes led by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union West Coast Waterfront strike, 1934 West Coast Waterfront strike, 1934 Category:History of the West Coast of the United States Category:Riots and civil disorder in the United States Category:Police brutality in the United States Category:Vigilantism in the United States Category:Protest-related deaths in the United States Category:Labor disputes in Washington (state) West Coast Waterfront strike, 1934 Category:Police riots