February 4 Solidarity on the Coast

On this day in labor history, the year was 1937.

That was the day victorious West Coast Maritime Workers ended their 99-day strike.

40,000 members of the Maritime Federation of the Pacific reasserted control of hiring halls, and won greater union recognition and wage increases.

The Federation was a short-lived coalition to unite longshoremen and seamen that anticipated the rise of the ILWU.

Since the 1934 strike, ship owners aimed to break the authority of union leader, Harry Bridges.

They engaged in relentless red baiting and deportation drives against Bridges.

In the weeks leading up to the strike, the ship owners looked to smash the solidarity among seamen and longshoremen through a planned lockout the previous September.

They stockpiled their warehouses, built up additional funds and promoted anti-union hysteria up and down the coast.

They entered into talks with the Federation during the summer of 1936, hoping to renegotiate terms originally set by arbitration awards soon to expire.

Three main West Coast shipping companies, Matson, Dollar and American-Hawaiian wanted to reverse earlier agreements regarding control of the hiring halls.

The unions stood strong against this attack on what was a cornerstone of union power.

They voted overwhelmingly to strike and walked out October 30.

As in 1934, the unions fought to defend its right to control the hiring hall.

This kind of control was the only mechanism that could prevent favoritism, discrimination, corruption and pay-offs in hiring.

In Irving Bernstein’s Turbulent Years, he notes that in addition to retention of control of hiring halls, the federation gained coast-wide uniformity in working conditions, in load limits and standardized rates.

The Federation may have been short-lived, but the roots of lasting ILWU power were firmly established.