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55-558: The union, which still uses hiring halls , has a single labor contract with the Pacific Maritime Association which covers all 29 seaports on the west coast of the US, from Bellingham, Washington , to San Diego ; its 15,000 dockworkers were paid an average of $ 171,000 in 2019. The union has been described as "the aristocrat of the working class " and their members "lords of the docks" for their high pay and power over

110-421: A closed shop because employees must join the union before they can be hired. Arguments in favor of the institution include that the presence of a hiring hall places the responsibility on the union to ensure that its members are suitably qualified and responsible individuals before assigning them to an employer. The union will often enforce a basic code of conduct among its members to ensure smooth operation of

165-534: A choke point of the global economy. Longshoremen on the West Coast ports had either been unorganized or represented by company unions since the years immediately after World War I, when the shipping companies and stevedoring firms had imposed the open shop after a series of failed strikes. Longshoremen in San Francisco, then the major port on the coast, were required to go through a hiring hall operated by

220-646: A company union, known as the "blue book" system for the color of the union's membership book. The Industrial Workers of the World had attempted to organize longshoremen, sailors and fishermen in the 1920s. A number of former IWW members and other militants, such as Harry Bridges , an Australian-born sailor who became a longshoreman after coming to the United States, soon joined the International Longshoremen's Association , when passage of

275-540: A crowd of picketers and onlookers. This incident is known as Bloody Thursday and is commemorated every year by ILWU members. When the National Guard moved in to patrol the waterfront, the picketers pulled back. The San Francisco and Alameda County Central Labor Councils voted to call a general strike in support of the longshoremen, shutting down much of San Francisco and the Bay Area for four days, ending with

330-465: A former SIU president, Paul Hall. The school opened in 1967 and has trained more than 100,000 mariners. Highly active in the political arena, the SIU states that its primary focus is to maintain safe working environments for men and women working aboard vessels, and to ensure very high standards of training among its membership. The Seafarers International Union's founding on October 14, 1938, came during

385-467: A key source of jobs for seafarers. MSC operates some 110 noncombat ships that support U.S. forces around the world. SIU membership includes eligibility for access to healthcare, retirement, and education benefits. Educational facilities include the union's Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education at Piney Point, Maryland. The training center started in Brooklyn, New York, and is named after

440-718: A long-running power struggle between Lundeberg and Hall. Heir-apparent Hall subsequently was named SIU president and, later that year president of the AFL–CIO Maritime Trades Department . When Hall took over the Maritime Trades Department, it was a struggling organization made up of only six small unions. He built it into an active and effective political force in the trade union movement. At his death, Maritime Trades Department comprised 43 national and international unions representing nearly 8 million American workers. In 1967, Hall established

495-464: A terminal operations company, International Container Terminal Services Oregon, won a $ 94 million jury trial verdict against ILWU for unlawful labor practices including "work stoppages, slowdowns, ‘safety gimmicks’ and other coercive actions" which occurred between August 2013 and March 2017 at the Port of Portland (Oregon) terminal, and resulted in all shippers ceasing to use the terminal. In March 2020,

550-599: A thug, a real heavy-duty gangster from Brooklyn ( Hal C. Banks ), to smash our union and bring in the Seafarers' International Union ... which was no different from the Teamsters at its worst and no different from the longshoremen 's association at its best. ... They came on our ships with baseball bats and bicycle chains. That's how they introduced their union to Canada." According to its 2005 report at The Department of Labor , total membership of all 13 affiliated unions

605-410: Is called a closed-shop . While corruption was reduced, it still allowed for union corruption, for example dispelling dissidents or dual-union members . The Taft-Hartley Act intended to reduce union influence or discrimination here to non-union members, effectively curbing closed-shop practices while permitting union hiring halls to continue to exist. In building and construction trade , due to

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660-481: Is the division of the union that represents (as of 2024) more than 20,000 dockworkers along the West Coast, formed in 1952 as the ILWU was expanding from longshoring to other industries. The ILWU was accused of engaging in a slowdown of work on docks in 2002, as an alternative to a strike, to support its contract demands in negotiations with the Pacific Maritime Association . The union has documented that productivity

715-749: Is the largest maritime labor organization in the United States. Organizers founded the union on October 14, 1938. The Seafarers International Union arose from a charter issued to the Sailors Union of the Pacific by the American Federation of Labor as a foil against loss of jobs to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and its Communist Party-aligned faction. Today the SIU represents mariners and boatmen who sail aboard U.S.-flagged vessels and Canadian- flagged vessels in deep sea,

770-582: Is under provincial jurisdiction. The situation in Europe also varies from country to country. Seafarers International Union of North America The Seafarers International Union or SIU is an organization of 12 autonomous labor unions of mariners , fishermen and boatmen working aboard vessels flagged in the United States or Canada . Michael Sacco was its president from 1988 until 2023. The organization has an estimated 35,498 members and

825-517: The American Federation of Labor (AFL). SIU's origin is portrayed by the union as an outcome of the "wreckage" of ISU. The breakup saw ISU membership plummet from more than 100,000 after World War I to less than 3,000 by the mid-1930s. The revocation of ISU's charter and the loss of 30,000 seamen in July 1937 to the Congress of Industrial Organizations ' newly formed National Maritime Union (NMU) signaled ISU's death knell. Leadership of AFL, one of

880-624: The Gaza Strip participated. The AROC claimed to have been supported by ILWU dockworkers who refused to unload the ship's cargo, stating that "Workers honored our picket and stood on the side of justice." However, the union denied this saying it had taken no position on the conflict in Gaza "but in cases when unsafe circumstances arise ... the union must protect the safety of its members in the workplace." An ILWU spokesman said workers were not prepared to become involved because of safety issues related to

935-466: The Great Lakes , and inland waterways. Membership includes workers in the deck , steward , and engine departments . SIU members are represented aboard a wide variety of vessels, including: military support, commercial trade , tugboats , passenger ships , barges , and gaming vessels . Military support vessels operated by the U.S. Department of Defense 's Military Sealift Command (MSC) provide

990-608: The National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933 led to an explosion in union membership in the ILA among West Coast longshoremen. Those activists, known as the "Albion Hall group" after their usual meeting place in San Francisco , made contacts with like-minded activists at other ports. They pressed demands for a coastwide contract, a union-run hiring hall and an industrywide waterfront federation and led

1045-599: The Railway Labor Act , which would effectively prevent longshore workers from striking. (This is a long-time goal of the PMA and other companies whose workers the ILWU represents.) The Longshore Contract that resulted from 2002 negotiations expired on July 1, 2008. The ILWU and the PMA reached a tentative agreement for a new six-year Longshore Contract in July 2008. In the following weeks, the ILWU membership voted to approve

1100-703: The Seafarers Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship in Piney Point, Maryland, to give young people the chance for a career at sea. Since then, the school has become one of the finest maritime training schools in the country. Thousands of SIU members have advanced their skills at the school. Moreover, the Harry Lundeberg School has also presented opportunities for generations of young people from deprived backgrounds to gain employment. The 1970s saw further strengthening of

1155-544: The Seafarers International Union of North America , merged with the ILWU in 1980. The ILWU rejoined the AFL–CIO in 1988, and disaffiliated with it in 2013. The ILWU disaffiliated from the AFL–CIO on August 30, 2013, accusing the AFL–CIO of unwillingness to punish other unions when their members crossed ILWU picket lines and over federal legislative policy issues. The ILWU Coast Longshore Division (CLD)

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1210-708: The Seattle Times found that in 2013 "longshore employees" earned an average of $ 85,000 in Seattle and $ 114,000 in Tacoma , while "clerks" earned an average of $ 153,000 in Seattle and $ 159,000 in Tacoma, and "foremen" in Seattle and Tacoma averaged $ 204,000. The union stated that this average pay does not include "casual" (part-time) workers, who are not union members and earn a minimum of $ 26 per hour. In November 2019,

1265-642: The AFL–CIO had done nothing to stop it. The ILWU also cited the AFL–CIO's willingness to compromise on key policies such as labor law reform, immigration reform, and health care reform. The longshoremen's union said it would become an independent union. In August 2014, the Israeli-owned ZIM Piraeus was the subject of a major demonstration at the Port of Oakland instigated by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC). Approximately 500 protesters opposed to Israeli military actions in

1320-752: The Baltimore federal district court and that court ruled in favor of the EEOC and ordered back payments in the range of $ 2 million to over 180 plaintiffs and further ordered that they and all future applicants to the Paul Hall maritime school be admitted regardless of age. In testimony before the Parliament of Canada in 1996, David Broadfoot of the Canadian Merchant Navy Association recalled that in 1946, "Our government imported

1375-650: The National Maritime Union during World War II. Then Paul Hall started organizing seamen on the East Coast and the Gulf. By 1948, the surge in new membership propelled Hall to the post of SIU vice president. This consolidation helped the SIU edge out the NMU whose earlier purging of Communist Party members or those suspected of CP association had left it weakened. Moreover, Lundeberg's death in 1957 ended

1430-530: The Pacific Maritime Association were characterized by backups in West Coast ports and mutual accusations of a slowdown . Base pay was about $ 35 an hour. In Southern California, the lockout slowdown caused more than twenty-five cargo ships to idle off the coast, affecting over 700 mariners , primarily Overseas Filipinos . In 2014, when the Pacific Maritime Association reported that the nationwide average ILWU union member earned $ 147,000,

1485-470: The SIU not only countered the threat of loss of seafaring jobs to the NMU but also served as a political block against the increasing Communist influence in the rival Congress of Industrial Organizations . NMU, a product of the economic struggles and waterfront strikes of the times, became a longtime nemesis of SIU. The two unions fiercely competed for seafaring jobs until they merged in 2001. The Seafarers International Union membership lagged behind that of

1540-658: The SIU with acquisition through merger of the National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards (NUMCS). After an eight-month battle with cancer, Hall died in 1980. In 2005, SIU and the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education were sued for age discrimination by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission . The SIU was restricting applicants based on age rather than ability, rejecting any apprentice applicants over

1595-464: The US defense industry. However, "black union members were a minuscule group within the ILWU [leadership] hierarchy", with the few exceptions concentrated in the Oakland locale, which had an even larger black membership than San Francisco. Also, by the own admission of Richard Lynden, the San Francisco locale's president, the ILWU failed to work on the upgrading (promotion) of its black members. Still, in

1650-478: The age of 35. In the opinion on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals , "throughout this appeal, and in the proceedings before the district court, the center and the union ... maintained that age-barriers to entry are a hallmark of apprenticeships and complained that the EEOC's regulation effectively guts that employment practice by erasing its defining characteristic." In 2006 the case remanded back to

1705-424: The early 1900s hiring practices in the precarious maritime industry varied, ranging from outright criminal corruption, to favoritism and employer hiring agencies . With the passage of the 1935 Wagner Act , union hiring halls replaced previous hiring procedures. It shifted power towards unions, including a preference for union membership. In cases where union-membership was a legal prerequisite for being hired, this

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1760-486: The employers' private guards shot and killed two strikers. Similar battles broke out in San Francisco and Oakland, California , Portland, Oregon , and Seattle, Washington . When the employers made a show of force in order to reopen the port in San Francisco, a pitched battle broke out on the Embarcadero in San Francisco between police and strikers. Two strikers were killed on July 5 by a policeman's shotgun blast into

1815-460: The end of World War II due to a boost in wartime production and a successful campaign to organize warehouse workers away from the ports. Expulsion had no real effect, however, on either the ILWU or Bridges' power within it. The organization continued to negotiate agreements, with less strife than in the 1930s and 1940s, and Bridges continued to be reelected without serious opposition. The International Fishermen and Allied Workers of America joined with

1870-483: The fact that many of the "B-men" were black. The additional longshore work produced by the Vietnam War allowed Bridges to meet the challenge by opening up more jobs and making determined efforts to recruit black applicants. The ILWU later faced similar challenges from women, who found it even harder to enter the industry and the union. Bridges had difficulty giving up his position in the ILWU, even though he explored

1925-586: The first federations of labor unions, understood that the ISU was near collapse. The AFL subsequently moved to replace it by issuing a charter to the Sailors Union of the Pacific (SUP) to organize the new Seafarers International Union. Harry Lundeberg , a SUP officer and seaman who was originally from Norway , became the Seafarers International Union's first president. The SUP remained autonomous for years within SIU. The AFL's action to form

1980-409: The hiring hall (to prevent members from double-booking, for example). If a hiring hall is reputable, the relationship between the union and the employer can be relatively harmonious. There are arguments that this actually benefits contractors who hire employees for the duration of a specific job. This is primarily due to the union handling qualifications and other eligibility requirements. Additionally,

2035-410: The judge reduced the amount to $ 19 million. ICTS declined the reduced award, and opted to continue litigating its claims of $ 42 - $ 142 million in a trial scheduled for February 2024. ILWU members stood by in memorial for 8 min 46 seconds on June 9 to protest the murder of George Floyd and for 8 hours on Juneteenth at all 29 of the U.S.'s Pacific Coast ports in solidarity with the protests sweeping

2090-412: The judgement of historian Albert S. Broussard, "as far as blacks were concerned, the ILWU stood head and shoulders above other Bay Area locals in virtually every respect" during World War II. As the union extended membership to more and more workers during the war, it would experience incredible growth. Counting roughly 25,000 dues paying members at its inception, the union's rolls expanded to over 65,000 at

2145-461: The mechanism of hiring halls . Union members also engaged in a number of sympathy strikes in support of other maritime unions' demands. The ILWU admitted African Americans in the 1930s, and during World War II its San Francisco section alone had an estimated 800 black members, at a time when most San Francisco unions excluded black workers and resisted implementation of President Roosevelt's Executive Order 8802 (1941) against racial discrimination in

2200-511: The membership in rejecting the weak "gentlemen's agreement" that the conservative ILA leadership had negotiated with the employers. When the employers offered to arbitrate, but only on the condition that the union agree to the open shop , the union struck every West Coast port on May 9, 1934. The strike was a violent one: When strikers attacked the stockade in which the employers were housing strikebreakers in San Pedro, California , on May 15,

2255-480: The movement of billions of dollars worth of cargo at Canada's busiest ports. The union rejected a number of offers before voting to ratify the new deal in August. The union priorities were to address inflation and wages, job automation and port automation and contracting out work. Federal labour minister Seamus O'Regan stated all options were available, leaving the possibility for back-to-work legislation , but it

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2310-566: The nation. In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , ILWU said that their members will not load or unload any Russian cargo in 29 ports across the United States. The president said that "With this action in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, we send a message that we unequivocally condemn the Russian invasion." The ILWU was part of the global industrial boycott of port and maritime workers against Russian-flagged ships and cargo. From July 1 to July 13, workers went on strike freezing

2365-491: The new contract. In protest of the Iraq War , the ILWU encouraged longshore workers to "shut down all West Coast ports" by walking off the job on May 1, 2008, to "make May Day a 'No Peace, No Work' holiday." On May 1, more than 10,000 ILWU members from all 29 West Coast ports voluntarily stopped work, with some attending rallies held by the ILWU where the union called for working-class people to withhold their labor to protest

2420-481: The possibility of merging it with the ILA or the Teamsters in the early 1970s. He finally retired in 1977, but only after ensuring that Louis Goldblatt, the long-time Secretary-Treasurer of the union and his logical successor, was denied the opportunity to replace him. The Inlandboatmen's Union, whose members operate tugs, barges, passenger ferries and other vessels on the West Coast, and who had formerly been part of

2475-439: The responsibility of furnishing new recruits for employers who have a collective bargaining agreement with the union. It may also refer to a physical union hall , the office from which the union may conduct its activities. The employer's use of the hiring hall may be voluntary, or it may be compulsory by the terms of the employer's collective agreement with a union. Exclusive use of a hiring hall effectively turns employers into

2530-623: The scattered nature of workplaces and bidding projects, both the employees and employers have a symbiotic need for steady employment and skilled labor respectively, which are facilitated in the various craft union controlled hiring halls. Employment in the film industry in the 1950s became more differentiated, due to anti-trust rulings, e.g United States v. Paramount Pictures which divested studios from exclusive contracts with specific theaters. Film production itself became heavily distributed, with post-production, editing being fulfilled by different contracts rather than centrally. Recruiting talent

2585-575: The size of the demonstration and the heavy police presence. However, several news reports and blogs claimed that some members from ILWU Locals 34 and 10 openly supported the protesters. On August 21, the Piraeus docked at a different terminal, where two dozen longshoremen unloaded the cargo overnight. After expiration of its contract with the Pacific Maritime Association July 1, 2014, months-long contract negotiations with

2640-688: The turbulent times of the Great Depression , a worldwide economic slowdown, and the international rise of communism . SIU's roots, however, reach back to 1892, when delegates representing unions of the West Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes gathered at a seamen’s convention in Chicago. The convention eventually gave rise to a federation of maritime unions known as the International Seamen's Union (ISU) chartered by

2695-503: The union in the 1950s. The union negotiated a groundbreaking agreement in 1960 that permitted the extensive mechanization of the docks, significantly reducing the number of longshore workers in return for generous job guarantees and benefits for those displaced by the changes. The agreement, however, highlighted the lesser status that less senior members, known as "B-men", enjoyed. Bridges reacted uncharacteristically defensively to these workers' complaints, which were given additional sting by

2750-462: The union will also maintain employment records on the individual, meaning that behavior issues from other employers can be documented and reacted to. Thus there is a strong incentive to maintain good conduct to keep union membership. Workers benefit from having a more stable source of benefits such as insurance and pension plans. Contractors are still responsible for paying into these plans, but union members are more protected from lapses in coverage. In

2805-399: The union's agreement to arbitrate the remaining issues in dispute. The union won most of its demands in that arbitration proceeding. Those it did not win outright it gained through hundreds of job actions after the strikers returned to work, as the union gradually wrested control over the pace of work and the employer's power to hire and fire from the shipping and stevedoring companies through

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2860-681: The war. The employer, the Pacific Maritime Association , filed a complaint against the Union for conducting what it saw as an illegal work stoppage. The court agreed with the PMA and determined that the ILWU had conducted a "secondary boycott" against the PMA, which is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. In August 2013, the ILWU disaffiliated from the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). The ILWU said that members of other AFL–CIO unions were crossing its picket lines, and

2915-494: Was in fact stable at that time, while the employer claims to have contradictory data. The employers responded to the slowdown with a lockout , disallowing the workers to do their jobs. The Bush administration sought a national emergency injunction under the Taft–Hartley Act against both the employers and the union, and threatened to move longshore workers from coverage under the National Labor Relations Act to coverage under

2970-544: Was no longer based on employment in a single firm, but through a roster that measured seniority within the industry. These rosters were maintained by talent guilds and unions such as IATSE , SAG-AFTRA, Actors' Equity Association . Uber has been described as a for-profit hiring hall, to the benefit of Uber, rather than the drivers. The prevalence of compulsory hiring hall arrangements in Canada varies from trade to trade and from province to province, since labor law there

3025-472: Was ultimately not needed to resolve the dispute. On October 1, 2023, the ILWU filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy , stating it can no longer afford to keep fighting claims by ICTSI concerning the amount of its liability for its 2012 illegal work stoppages at the Port of Portland. Hiring hall In organized labor , a hiring hall is an organization, usually under the auspices of a labor union , which has

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