1934 West Coast waterfront strike

1934 West Coast waterfront strike
  Confrontation between a policeman wielding a night    stick and a striker during the San Francisco General Strike, 1934
DateMay 9 – July 31, 1934 (84 days)[1]
Location
Everett, Washington;
Portland, Oregon;
San Francisco, California;
Seattle, Washington;
Los Angeles, California
MethodsStrikes, protest, demonstrations
Parties
Lead figures

Harry Bridges;
Paddy Morris;
Jack Bjorklund;
Joseph P. Ryan

Casualties and losses
Deaths: 9,
Injuries:>1000,
Arrests: >500.[2]
Deaths:
Injuries:

The 1934 West Coast waterfront strike (also known as the 1934 West Coast longshoremen's strike, as well as a number of variations on these names) lasted 83 days, and began on May 9, 1934, when longshoremen in every US West Coast port walked out. Organized by the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), the strike peaked with the death of two workers on "Bloody Thursday" and the subsequent San Francisco General Strike, which stopped all work in the major port city for four days and led ultimately to the settlement of the West Coast Longshoremen's Strike.[3]

The result of the strike was the unionization of all of the West Coast ports of the United States. The San Francisco General Strike of 1934, along with the Toledo Auto-Lite Strike of 1934 led by the American Workers Party and the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 led by the Communist League of America, were catalysts for the rise of industrial unionism in the 1930s, much of which was organized through the Congress of Industrial Organizations.[1]

  1. ^ a b Preis, Art (1974). Labor's giant step: twenty years of the CIO. Pathfinder Press. pp. 31–33. ISBN 9780873480246.
  2. ^ Kimeldorf, Howard (1988). Reds or Rackets?: The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront. University of California Press. p. 101. ISBN 9780520912779.
  3. ^ David F. Selvin, A terrible anger: The 1934 waterfront and general strikes in San Francisco (Wayne State University Press, 1996).