The first longshore union in Seattle was founded on June 12, 1886 as the Stevedores, Longshoremen and Riggers Union. In 1900, Seattle longshore workers formed the Seattle Longshoremen Mutual Benefit Association which was affiliated with the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the American Federation of Labor. This local became ILA, Local 163. In 1903, James Madsen organized another union representing Seattle longshoremen, Seattle International Longshoremen, Marine and Transport Workers' Association, Local 486. This union failed to gain substantial members, and veteran longshoremen created another union representing Seattle longshoremen, the ILMTA Local 552. The WCLU and the AFL tried to amalgamate these two unions but the conflict between the parties continued. Between 1904 and 1907, Seattle longshore workers were split into these two competing unions, ILA Local 552 and Local 1 of the Pacific Coast Federation of Longshoremen of the Pacific. The two groups reunited in 1909 as local 38-12 of the ILA. In 1915, the West Coast Employers’ Association established the Federation of Waterfront Employers’ Unions to drive workers away from the ILA. During this time, the ILA also came into competition with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and worked to drive out radicalism from its ranks.
In 1916, members of the ILA went on strike to demand high wages and an end to the open shop system. This was the first coast-wide longshore strike on the West Coast, as thousands of longshore workers from Bellingham to San Diego walked off the job. A tentative agreement was reached that was approved by ILA locals in California but rejected by Seattle and Tacoma. Despite not having coast-wide agreement, longshore workers in San Francisco returned to work, causing the strike to crumble. The 1916 strike became a major defeat for the ILA, as the union lost control of hiring halls and waterfront employers began a campaign to drive out the union’s remaining presence.
In the aftermath of the 1916 strike, Waterfront Employers Association (WEA) under the leadership of Frank Foisie created their own hiring halls, known as “fink halls,” that discriminated against union members and Black workers. The use of Black workers as scabs during the 1916 strike, who were subsequently fired, led ILA 38-12 to become the first integrated longshore local on the Pacific coast. During this time, the IWW grew in popularity on the waterfront and gradually took control of the ILA. The shortage of workers on the waterfront caused by World War I allowed the ILA to retake control of the hiring hall. After the war, workers in local 38-12 took part in the 1919 Seattle General Strike and refused to load weapons to be sent to the Russian White Army against the Bolsheviks. The failure of the Seattle General Strike, however, caused the IWW to decline amidst increased repression, and the WEA was able to reinstitute fink halls after another failed strike in Seattle in 1920. The ILA’s presence on the waterfront entered a decade-long decline, so that by 1929 there were only 24 members left in local 38-12.
As the ILA declined in the 1920’s, the US Communist Party (CPUSA)
began an intervention into waterfront labor organizing. CPUSA originally sought
to unite all waterfront workers into a “red union,” the Maritime Workers
Industrial Union (MWIU) but pivoted in 1933 towards a strategy of rebuilding
the ILA. CPUSA and former MWIU members, including Harry Bridges, joined the ILA
and formed the Albion Hall Group in San Francisco whose mouthpiece, the
Pressure from the Albion Hall Group caused conservative ILA leadership to adopt bolder demands, including control over hiring halls, higher wages, and coast-wide bargaining. After being rejected by employers, ILA members on the West Coast voted to strike in February 1934. The strike was delayed following the creation of a government mediation board by Franklin Roosevelt, but the strike commenced on May 9, 1934. In Seattle, longshore workers were able to win the support of other unions on the waterfront, including the Teamsters, in spite of the opposition from then local 566 president Dave Beck. Violence broke out between striking workers and scabs and their police escorts, who attempted to open the ports by force. In San Francisco, the murder of two longshore workers by police during an attempt to open the port by force became known as “Bloody Thursday.” The strike came to an end after both employers and the ILA agreed to allow government arbitration in contract negotiations. Roosevelt’s mediation board’s main concession gave the union control of hiring halls, ending the fink hall system. Longshore workers returned to work on July 31.
Following the 1934 strike, longshore locals on the west coast became the Pacific Coast District of the ILA and frequently clashed with conservative ILA leadership on the East Coast. Under the leadership of Harry Bridges, who had been elected president of the Pacific Coast District in 1936, the Pacific Coast District broke with the ILA and craft unionist American Federation of Labor (AFL) and became the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in 1937. The new ILWU quickly affiliated with the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO).
Under Bridges’ leadership, the ILWU went on strike again in 1948 following the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act and employer attempts to reestablish the fink hall system. Bridges also negotiated the Mechanization and Modernization Agreement of 1960 that created three classes of longshore workers amidst lowering employment rates due to new technologies at ports. Following Nixon’s announcement of wage freezes, the ILWU went on strike again in 1971, shutting down all 56 West Coast ports from Canada to San Diego for 130 days, the longest strike in the union’s history. This strike was successful in winning higher wages and a lower retirement age.
A major blow to Local 19 came in 1982 when Sea-Land decided not to renew its contract in Seattle and instead signed a contract with the Port of Tacoma. This has been a continued trend, with commerce at the Port of Seattle continuing to decline, while the Port of Tacoma has experienced increased commercial development.
Sources: ILWU Local 19 website https://www.ilwu19.com/history/100years.htm?
Seattle Waterfront Workers History Project https://depts.washington.edu/dock/timeline.shtml
Organized into 2 accessions.
This collection contains membership meeting minutes, roll book, correspondence, notes, a scrapbook from 1948 Longshore Strike, materials from Waterfront Employer Association president Frank Foisie, records from the International Longshore Benevolent Association, and a photograph of the casket of Gordon J. Kelly Longshoremen’s Association of Vancouver (ILA Local 38-52).
Access to portions of the collection is restricted. Contact University of Washington Libraries Special Collections for details.
Restrictions may exist on copying, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details. ILWU Local 19 grants UW Libraries nonexclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable license to exercise and to allow others to exercise all rights under copyright.
Forms part of the Labor Archives of Washington.