Waterfront strikes

Waterfront strikes are confrontations between unions and management for control of the workplace in ports.

West Coast 1934

In May 1934, dock workers and longshoremen along the West Coast went on strike for better hours and pay, a union hiring hall and a coast-wide contract. Communists were in control of the union, the the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), led by Harry Bridges. The unions rebuffed mediation efforts by the Roosevelt Administration. The key union demand was a "closed shop," meaning that only union members could be hired.

Bloody confrontations broke out up in major ports. On "Bloody Thursday", July 5, 1934, San Francisco was swept by the bloodiest rioting in three quarters of a century. Striking maritime workers, pitting themselves against police, terrorized half of the waterfront and the warehouse area of the city. Fires were set. Windows were smashed. Traffic was tied up. Trucks were overturned. For an hour, police and strikers and their sympathizers fought with fists, clubs and finally riot guns, revolvers, tear-gas and at last a vicious, nausea-creating gas recently introduced into police work. At least 34 people were shot, two killed and hundreds injured by the San Francisco police in the fights between the city's police force and strikers. The governor finally sent in the California National Guard to quiet the violence. The union responded by calling a "general strike"; it lasted four days, during which numerous unions not connected with the waterfront strike refused to work.

The West Coast Waterfront Strike lasted 83 days with longshoremen returning to work on July 31. Arbitrartion was agreed to and it resulted in a victory for the strikers. and the unionization of all West Coast ports in the United States.