Longshoremen take a day to remember

‘An injury to one is an injury to all,” proclaims a sign at the headquarters of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 12 near the North Bend waterfront.

Local 12’s members act on that principle in many ways. They’ve given dollars and hours to many charitable causes. The 33 current members of the local donate thousands of dollars a year to Oregon Coast Community Action.

And they demonstrated the principle Tuesday, when 220 current and retired members and their families gathered at Simpson Park in North Bend for their annual picnic in remembrance of ‘Bloody Thursday.”

Tragedy led to organizing

ILWU members traditionally take off July 5, or a day close to it, in honor of the deaths of two San Francisco strikers during the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association. The violence inspired a four-day general strike in the San Francisco Bay area. The strike was subsequently settled by arbitration, to the benefit of the longshoremen, and the ILA reached out to warehouse workers along the coast and gained control over the hiring hall and the pace of work.

By 1937, the ILWU had split from the ILA, which continues to represent East Coast and Great Lakes longshore workers. In later years it organized warehouse workers nationwide and agricultural workers in Hawaii. The ILWU currently represents 42,000 workers on the West Coast and in Hawaii and Alaska, plus another 3,500 members of the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific, who operate tugs, barges and ferries.

Changing jobs, changing times

At Tuesday’s picnic, Doyle Williams, a union retiree who worked on the waterfront for 43 years, said he remembered a sign saying ‘Largest Lumber Shipping Port in the World” at the offices of the Port of Coos Bay.

When he started as a hold man, building up layers of logs in the holds of ships, it took 30 days to load a log ship, and the local had 400 members.

Changes in technology have reduced loading time to six days. And for many reasons, the ships are much fewer.

But the recent demand for logs in China has brought work to the union, and eight new members are in training. To improve the area’s long-term economic prospects, the union would like to see the Port of Coos Bay build its own container shipping terminal on the North Spit.

Important in community

Marvin Caldera, Local 12’s president, spent much of Tuesday’s picnic frying fish for the crowd.

In a lull between batches, he said, ‘The longshoremen support all working-class and middle-class people, whether they’re organized labor or not,” he said.

That was the theme of Peter Hansen’s speech at the picnic. Hansen described how his father, longshoreman Henry Hansen, and Local 12 were a driving force behind the creation of Southwestern Oregon Community College in the late ’50s and early ’60s.

They gathered signature petitions and financed legal battles to get creation and funding of the college onto the ballot.

In recognition, as it marks its 50th anniversary, SWOCC has named its grassy quadrangle Henry Hansen Union Square.

Today, although the union is much smaller, it’s still active.

‘It’s a very special union,” Caldera said.

‘The members are very dedicated. We have a very wonderful women’s auxiliary that is our right hand as far as getting the word out to our senators and representatives.”

‘We do take very good care of our members.”

Nationally, the union has supported various causes. In 2008, 10,000 members voluntarily gave up a day’s pay to demonstrate support for an end to the war in Iraq.

Closer to home, businesses in North Bend know how essential longshoremen still are to our economy. Caldera said that before the picnic, he’d stopped at a North Bend convenience store for ice, and mentioned that it was for the longshoremen’s picnic.

‘You’re a longshoreman?” the manager asked.

‘The next load of ice is on me.”

Reporter Gail Elber can be reached at 541-269-1222, ext. 234, or at gelber@theworldlink.com.