Waterfront History
Waterfront History
The 71' ILWU Strike Vote!
By Dan Imbagliazzo
YES - 9,317
NO - 343
The ballots have been counted. We’re going on strike. Those damned Employers have been screwing us around for months. If they don’t want to negotiate, we’ll show ‘em we mean business. We have to. We’ve given ‘em enough. Harry sez if they don’t come around by expiration time, we hit the bricks.
This was the buzz everyday in the months leading up to June 1971. No matter where you were, in the hall, on the job or with friends, the talk was strike or not. Fact and fiction boiled constantly in the rumor pot. One thing was clear; talks with the Employers were going nowhere. After two five-year Mechanization and Modernization contracts, the first from 1961 to 1966 and the other from1966 to 1971, the union was at a crossroads.
Work opportunity had plummeted and union membership was falling rapidly. Our future appeared very uncertain. Manning on new container operations was bare bones. The union, anxious for a fair settlement, had begun negotiations in November 1970. After many months little had been achieved. Frustration with the tough Employer position had grown and grown. Negotiations with the PMA were recessed on June 7, 1971.
Bridges called the caucus back into session in San Francisco and it was decided that strike ballots had to be mailed. Our Negotiating Committee needed the membership to send the Employers a strong message - either start negotiating or we strike. On June 25, 1971, when the ballots were tallied, the unity that was shown was solid. 96% of the membership voted to strike – yes 9317, no 343. The message was clear but the Employers still didn’t budge. Negotiations resumed on June 28th and lasted until June 30th.
On July 1st 1971 we hit the bricks. This is the 30th anniversary of that strike and a period when a lot of good men stuck together and fought hard and long for what they believed in. This is a look back at some of the issues that we felt were so important. The ink on my book wasn’t yet dry. I became a “B” man, with sponsorship, in June of 1966 and my book in 1968.
Proudly following our leader Harry Bridges, I went out on strike with a lot of guys that had a lot more seniority than I had. Each of us has our stories and memories of that period. One of the things I remember is that my wife was nine months pregnant with our first child. Every so often I hear of one of these guys or see a photo of a dock or ship and my memory is jogged back to that time.
We were assigned to picket docks by gang. There were over a hundred gangs then. If there were particular guys you wanted to picket with, you quickly joined a gang. Roy Wilson (dock board) who, if I remember correctly, picketed with Dave Castro (retired) and John Nizitich (deceased), signed a bunch of us up in gang 51. Each group of three picketed one 6-hour shift every three days.
There were four rotating shifts 12 to 6 and 6 to 12 a.m. and p.m. My first shift, midnight to 6 a.m., was in front of the tin warehouse where Evergreen is now, Berth 232D, with Erv Pelica (deceased) and Richard Contreras (hold board). Each group held that picket assignment for four months.A strike is a very serious matter. There are only three strikes in our history. The ’34 strike was our struggle for recognition.
In 1948 the Employers, trying to take advantage of the fact that Republicans had gained control of Congress and had conveniently changed the labor laws for their big ship owner friends, were determined to finish us off once and for all. That effort backfired (I will write about that one another time). What caused us in ‘71 to go as far as we did?The ’61 and ’66 M&M contracts were brought about by a desire of the Employers to increase production and decrease manning. Remember, in ’61 there were no container ships as we know them; everything was break bulk.
The Contract contained restrictive load limits of 2100 pounds. This meant that only one load of pipe or one coil at a time went over the rail. In ’61 these sling limits were eliminated.
When a teamster brought a load to the docks he had to take it off his board, place the cargo on the warehouse floor and then dockmen would re-palletize it so it could be loaded aboard ship. This double handling by longshoremen meant a lot of man-hours.
This work was abolished. Manning was severely reduced again in 1966. When forklifts were brought into a hatch, instead of bringing in additional longshoremen to drive that lift, “holdmen capable of driving a lift” was agreed to. We now call them “key” holdmen. Another new category invented in that contract was the “swingman”. For the first time a longshoreman could be required to “swing” from the ship to the dock.
Previously men worked on the ship or the dock, never both. Cage gangs with reduced manning were introduced and front men were eliminated. In 1971 there were about four container yards in LA-LB. The union could see containers, with 20 tons of cargo in each box, as the final deathblow to this union.What was done with a ship and dock gang using up to 20 men and taking 5 hours could be done in one lift of one large box.
During the 10 M&M years production rose an astounding 139% while labor costs per ton dropped 30%. Meanwhile man-hours plummeted from 26.7 million in 1966 to 19.7 in 1970. Seven million man-hours lost in just four years! 1960 had seen the union agree to Section 9.43 wherein skilled men could be hired on a steady basis. In San Francisco that Section went haywire. Men were going steady driving winches, jitneys and forklifts.
The rest of the Coast looked at that and was scared to death it might grow to even the smallest port. In exchange for all these innovations the union got large wage increases and something called the M&M fund. This $34 million fund gave each longshoreman a retirement bonus of about a year’s wages. For those of us that had to keep working and suffer the affects of automation it seemed like we might not have a job let alone collect a pension.
Those that retired got the benefits of M&M but none of the consequences of the lost work opportunity. Meanwhile in ’69 the ILA won a pension of $300 at age 62 with 25 years. For the first time the ILA had moved ahead of our pension of $235 per month at age 63 after 25 years and our pension agreement still had another 5 years to run, until June 30, 1976.
They also had 13 paid holidays. We had zero! The ILA pay guarantee with the New York Shippers Assn., originally negotiated in 1964, was radically improved in ’69 to provide a guarantee of 2080 hours of work or pay.
That’s forty hours a week for 52 weeks. And, they kept their manning. On the West Coast the ILWU had NO guarantee and we had given away our manning. The sentiment in ’71 was that the automation and lost man-hours indicated that we were a dying breed of workers and we needed to make some changes. These were our strike demands;
· Jurisdiction on containers.
· A pay guarantee plan of 40 hours straight time for “A” men and 32 for “B” men.
· A two year contract with wage increases of .85 cents the first year and .75 the second.
· Pension of $500 at age 62 with 25 years of service.
· Welfare benefits – add dental care and prescription drug benefits. For those who do not qualify for pensions a life insurance benefit of $20,000 with $20,000 additional for accidental death and dismemberment.
· Manning – more local input on new ship operations.
· Five paid holidays in the first year and five more in the second
year.
When we hit the bricks on July 1st Harry told us that we could expect a long fight. We walked the picket lines through July and almost all of August without any talks. Harry said the Employers know what we want and when they’re ready to give it we’ll have something to talk about. Trying to sway the public, an Employer media blitz began in all the newspapers claiming that we wouldn’t even negotiate.
Editorials rang out that the ILWU should talk. We held fast. Negotiations resumed August 25th. When we first went out the harbor was deserted. By late September there were 70 ships waiting at anchor. Outer Harbor was a ship parking lot that at night transformed into a beautifully lit city. We were kicking their butts so, they did the same thing they did it 1948, they called on their Republican friends to save them.
President Nixon, who was controlled by business interests, did exactly as the Employers requested.The government slammed us with an 80 day Taft-Hartley injunction. Talks broke off October 4th and on October 9th we were forced back to work. Every man knew that as soon as that injunction expired we were going out again. We didn’t have to be told. In 1948 big business, with the Republican Party’s help, got a strike breaker amendment passed to the National Labor Relations Act.
This amendment bypasses Union leadership and forces workers to vote on an Employer’s last contract offer. On December 14th & 15th the NLRB conducted a vote. Local #13 voted at the old Catalina dock at the foot of Avalon Boulevard . We really didn’t need to count ballots. We’re the ILWU; a forced vote wasn’t going to split our negotiators and us. The unity was still solid. 93.1% voted NO. Hoping to reach settlement before the December 26th expiration of the injunction, talks had resumed on December 20th.
Little progress was made. Nixon couldn’t beat us with his injunction so he reached down into his bag for his next dirty trick. He proposed to Congress compulsory arbitration and it placed a huge weight on our Negotiating Committee. Nixon intended to use the full force of the Federal Government to break our strike and force an agreement down our throats. Harry testified against the legislation in Washington before the House and Senate labor committees.
It was no surprise that the guy who was getting his butt kicked, PMA President Ed Flynn, testified in favor of passage. Despite all this pressure, and it was tremendous, on January 17, 1972 we walked out again! Negotiations still went nowhere. Finally, on February 2nd the parties agreed to have Coast Arbitrator Sam Kagel act as a mediator. Sam had been appointed in 1948 and was trusted by both sides. Agreement was reached on February 8, 1972, 134 days from the time we first left our jobs. Our gang got the word while we were on duty at our 2nd picket assignment, a new container dock, berth 245 in Long Beach, PCT.
As I looked back while writing this bulletin our strike demands seem so much less significant than they were in 1971. But to those of us who hit the bricks, everything was on the line. It seemed to many of us that our future as longshoreman was insecure. I wondered how I would be able to provide a life for my family. Our union’s survival appeared uncertain and the fight for our existence very important.
Wages went up to a whole $5.00 per hour! .72 cents was a big raise then. We won the first prescription drug plan and dental for adults, pensions were increased to $350 plus a $150 bridge until Social Security kicked in, mandatory retirement age was reduced from age 68 to age 65, except for full shipper’s loads all container jurisdiction within a 50 mile zone was longshore work.
We also won the security issue, a Pay Guarantee Plan. PGP seemed like the assurance that we had some future. After all those days on the lines we didn’t win one paid holiday. Holidays weren’t the imperative issue. Our future was, for those 134 days, important enough to fight the Employers and struggle against the might of the entire Federal Government.
Nixon did have a last dirty trick for us in his bag. To combat high inflation he had formed something called the Wage and Price Boards. These “Boards” were supposed to regulate the prices a business could charge and the wages workers were allowed to earn. Surprise, surprise not one business was ever denied a price increase but the government Wage Board cut our .72 cent wage increase by .32 cents!
The Employers and the government couldn’t beat us back to work or shove an agreement down our throats so they cheated us out of part of our wage victory. This “Pay Board” was later found to be unconstitutional. Nixon left office in disgrace, as did the Senator who carried his compulsory arbitration law in the Senate, Bob Packwood (R.Ore). But, we are still here. The ILWU is stronger than ever.
Happy Anniversary Strike of 1971.
I would like to thank Gene Vrana, ILWU Education Director and Librarian, for his help in preparing this bulletin for the membership.
Brother Dan Imbagliazzo
ILWU Local 13
