Labor organization.
The Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific was originally organized as the Ferryboatmen's Union of California in San Francisco in 1918. The union's early strength was among workers on railroad-owned ferries in San Francisco Bay, where it organized unlicensed workers, including deckhands, watchmen, bargemen, oilers, firemen, cooks and waitresses. The union began organizing workers on river freighters and tugs, and in 1931 expanded into the Pacific Northwest to organize ferry and tug workers on the Columbia River and Puget Sound. Its name was changed to Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific in 1936 to reflect this change in scope. Early bargaining successes included achieving an 8-hour day for ferry workers, and a guarantee of a "dismissal wage," (severance pay) for ferry workers to be displaced by the construction of bridges in San Francisco Bay. By the late 1930s the union had local organizations in Puget Sound, the Columbia River, San Francisco Bay, Long Beach, and San Diego. Since the 1960s, the IBU has had considerable membership in Alaska as well. Affiliated with the International Seamen's Union from 1919 to 1937, the IBU became the first West Coast affiliate of the CIO in 1937, and was affiliated with the Maritime Federation of the Pacific in the 1930s. Leaving the CIO in 1948, the IBU was affiliated with the Seafarers' International Union of North America until 1979. Since October 31, 1980 the IBU has been the Marine Division of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union.
List of IBU Presidents 1919-1931
Organized into 21 accessions.
Correspondence, historical and organizational materials, minutes, agreements, negotiations, grievances, reports, conference proceedings, financial records, membership applications and records, collective barganing records, and other records, relating to the union's operations in Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Hawaii, and British Columbia. Major correspondents are Merle Adlum and Larry Miner. Includes records of the national union office, the Alaska division, the Hawaii division, the Puget Sound division, and the Inland Boatmen's Union, San Francisco Division.
Open to all users, but access to portions of the collection is restricted. Contact Special Collections for details.
Some material stored offsite; advance notice required for use.
Creator's literary rights transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.
acc1574-015 processed by Ernie Dornfeld, 2024. Accession was rehoused and arranged by intellectual series by format and topic. Some detailed payroll records were discarded during processing.
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific records, Coll #-Accession #, box number, folder number
Inlandboatmen's Union, August 06, 1975
Files include general correspondence of the Gray's Harbor Tug Boat Workers Union (with variant titles), 1940-1973.
The entire accession is San Francisco Division files. Bulk is records of union negotiations and agreements with various tugboat and shipping companies.
Records stored offsite; advance notice required for use.
Records stored offsite; advance notice required for use.
Records stored offsite; advance notice required for use.
Internal union records include membership and permit records, meeting attendance logs, meeting minutes, and correspondence between the IBU national union and IBU regional organizations, as well as materials related to Pension and Welfare Trusts accumulated by IBU officers in their role as trustees. Notable in these records are materials about a jurisdictional dispute between the Seafarers International Union (SIU) and the IBU in Southern California which resulted in the IBU's disaffiliation with the SIU in 1979. Related records document the affiliation of the IBU with the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) in 1980. Personnel and recruitment records from Washington State Ferries in the early 1980s as well as referrals from job training programs illustrate changes in the maritime workforce.
Records stored offsite; advance notice required for use.
Subjects include organizing efforts of United Mine Workers District 50 in attempting raids on IBU-organized industries in the Puget Sound region, dissident IBU member organizations in Puget Sound and the San Francisco Bay area, and affiliation of the IBU with the Seafarers' International Union of North America and disaffiliation with the CIO. These files were among papers in Merle Adlum's home at the time of his death
Minutes include those of Puget Sound Region Executive Board and membership meetings, 1948-1976; and Grays Harbor Tugboat Workers Union, 1936-1969.
Records Subgroup A: National Union, 1975-2015
Records Subgroup B: Inlandboatmen’s Union of The Pacific Alaska Division, 1951-2013
Records Subgroup C: Inlandboatmen’s Union of The Pacific Hawaii Division, 1967-2010
Records Subgroup D: Inlandboatmen’s Union of The Pacific Puget Sound Division, 1995-2014