Archives West Finding Aid

Matthew Meehan (1896-1977) was born in Rhode Island, working in textile factories before going to work as a sailor at the age of 14. Meehan worked as a merchant seaman until 1928, when he came ashore in Portland, Oregon to become a longshore worker. Meehan was the head of the International Longshoremen's Association, Local 38–78 (Portland; later International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 8), before and after the 1934 Pacific Coast Maritime Strike. In 1936, Meehan became the editor of the ILA Pacific Coast's newspaper, The Pacific Coast Longshoreman. In 1937, Meehan was elected the first Secretary-Treasurer of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, the international union that formed when the Pacific Coast District of the ILA split from the rest of the ILA and joined the Congress of Industrial Organizations. In 1944, Meehan went to the Hawai'ian Islands to scout its prospects of potential organizing by the ILWU, laying the groundwork for what would become a transformational union drive and ILWU Local 142. In 1957, Meehan was appointed an arbitrator between the ILWU and its employer association, the Pacific Maritime Association. Meehan died at the age of 80 near Mount Hood, Oregon.