Portland Longshoremans Benevolent Society

PLSBS
Portland Longshoremans Benevolent Society
Merged intoInternational Longshoremen's Association, 1914
Founded1880
Location
Members
425-866

The Portland Longshoremans Benevolent Society was a trade union and benevolent society in Portland, Maine, United States. It existed as an independent organization from its founding in 1880 until it affiliated with the International Longshoremen's Association in 1914.[1][2] Incorporated in 1880, it was composed of primarily Irish and Irish-American dockworkers who loaded and unloaded ships in the Portland waterfront.[3] The early peak of PLSBS membership occurred in 1899 when the union had 868 members. By 1910, declines in the amount of Canadian grain exported through the port meant decreased membership, which hit 425. Having been defeated in two major strikes, the PLSBS affiliated with the International Longshoremen's Association in early 1914. Similar independent unions had recently joined the ILA in Boston and elsewhere.[4]

  1. ^ Connolly, Michael C. (17 April 2011). Seated by the Sea: The Maritime History of Portland, Maine, and Its Irish Longshoremen. University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-4175-9.
  2. ^ "Longshoremen's Benevolent Society, Portland, ca. 1894". Maine Memory Network.
  3. ^ "Portland Longshoremans Benevolent Society bylaws, 1881". Maine Memory Network.
  4. ^ Connolly, Michael C.. "To ‘Make This Port Union All Over’: Longshore Militancy in Portland, 1911-1913." Maine History 41, 1 (2002): 41-59. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal/vol41/iss1/4