Ed Flynn. Dispatcher file photo.
by Tom Price
The maritime industry lost one of its old-style cooperation-over-conflict employer representatives Jan. 11 when Edmund Flynn died at the age of 89. In life he earned the respect of two antagonistic entities, the Pacific Maritime Assn., of which he was president, and the ILWU under Harry Bridges.
Born of poor Irish immigrant parents, Flynn grew up in New York City and Long Island. He won a scholarship to Indiana University, where he met and married his first wife, Jean. They would be together for 50 more years until she died in 1992.
Flynn’s education was interrupted by WWII and service in the Army Air Force. After the war he earned a law degree from Harvard in 1946 and went to work in the National Labor Relations Board.
Flynn worked as an attorney on both the labor and management sides and was president of the PMA from 1969 to 1981, coming on in time for the 134-day strike of 1971-1972.
While Bridges would be the first to characterize the long strike as a battle between labor and capital, it was also a battle of two titans, Bridges vs. Flynn.
Funny thing was, Bridges, the Australian immigrant seafarer who rose through the ranks and was baptized by the blood of the 1934 strike, became close friends with Harvard man Flynn as they steered their organizations through stormy but productive years.
"We didn’t go to bed with the employer. It was a relationship we respected and we knew the rules—they were employers, we were workers. We understood the two never did meet, but we had to get along to survive," former longshore Local 10 President Cleophas Williams said.
"The union wanted jurisdiction of Container Freight Stations and the employer said, ‘No,’" former Coast Committeeman Bill Ward said of the 1971-1972 strike. Other issues included wages and the role of steady workers. Ward remembers a typical bargaining session.
"Flynn would say ‘When are you guys going to vote yourselves back to work?’ and Harry would say, ‘As soon as you meet our demands,’" Ward recalled.
The union also took on the federal government in October 1971 when President Nixon invoked the Taft-Hartley Act to force striking dockers back to work. After the 80-day "cooling off period" the workers struck again Jan. 17, 1972. Then Nixon tried to ram compulsory arbitration bills through Congress. Bridges testified before the House and Senate Labor Committees in early February 1972.
"We have these blokes [the PMA] on the ropes," Bridges said. "We’re going to whip them, and they’re depending on you to save them."
Coast Committeeman Bill Ward, ILWU International President Harry Bridges, and PMA President Ed Flynn announced the settlement of the 1971 longshore strike. Dispatcher file photo.
Bridges and Flynn led marathon negotiations over a long weekend, with Coast Arbitrator Sam Kagel sitting in as mediator. The strike ended after workers accepted an agreement reached Feb. 8, 1972. The deal raised wages by 10 to 15 percent the first year, increased pensions, and improved shift differentials and pay guarantees for those who lost work due to automation.
But Nixon had instituted wage and price controls by executive order, and, not surprisingly, his Cost of Living Council claimed the settlement gave the workers too much. Rather than take the windfall for the employers, Flynn supported the increases before the Pay Board.
"Nixon’s Council took 30 cents an hour away from us," former International Vice President Rudy Rubio said. "Harry said to Flynn, ‘You still owe us that 30 cents.’ I firmly believe that Ed and Harry kept that in mind, because it was right after that we got those $1.25 an hour wage increases."
Rubio was president of Local 13 at that time and in that role bargained with Bridges across the table from Flynn.
"We kept bargaining for retiree dental, and Flynn kept saying no," Rubio said. "In 1975 we got one of our best pay raises. Well, it was three o’clock in the morning on July 1, we had gone all night and the contract expired, and still—no dental. Harry took Bill Ward and me to see Flynn. Flynn said, as we were walking out, ‘Harry, I gave you too much money, I need a nickel an hour back.’ And Harry says, ‘You can’t have it.’ Flynn says, ‘You give back a nickel and you’ve got your pensioners’ dental.’ We did."
One of the things Flynn did was use his executive power to help set up the ILWU-PMA Alcohol and Drug Recovery Program (ADRP).
"Here was a man who was really compassionate about recovery," former ADRP Coast Director George Cobbs said. "A lot of things he did were without the approval of the [PMA] steering committee. He just did it because he believed this could help people."
Cobbs remembers Flynn as a tough negotiator for PMA.
"He would kick your ass when you got down to labor relations, or try to," Cobbs said. "But when it came to dealing with people, he had a lot of compassion."
Flynn helped Cobbs become a representative of the ADRP.
"My wife and I went to his house for a no-agenda dinner, he was just inviting people over," Cobbs said. "He really wanted to get to know me, and give me a chance to know him. He really believed that people could get sober."
Flynn stayed involved with the program even after he retired.
Flynn surprised nearly everyone by marrying Harry’s widow Nikki on May Day, 1994. She had lost Harry in 1990, he lost Jean in 1992. Noriko "Nikki" Sawada Bridges Flynn died Feb. 7, 2003.
"He taught me some pointers in golf that I still haven’t mastered," Ward said. "Every time I go play I think of him. I used to take him salmon fishing on my boat and we had more fun than a barrel of monkeys. He said, ‘I always got seasick until I went fishing with you.’ He would throw a big barbeque, and if you knew Flynn you were invited."
Ed Flynn is survived by his daughters Kathy, Jennifer and Laura, sons Steven and Frank, four grandchildren and five great grandchildren. The family suggests any memorial contributions be sent to the San Francisco State Univ. Labor Archives and Research Center, 480 Winston Dr., San Francisco, CA 94132.
