The ILWU Local 10 Drill Team presents the colors in front of the flower-strewn outlines of the two San Francisco Bloody Thursday martyrs outside of the Local 10 hall.  Photo by Tom Price.

by Tom Price

Every July 5 ILWU members honor their fallen brothers and remember that day in 1934 when two of them fell to police bullets in San Francisco. That spring and summer, cops and scabs killed six workers and injured hundreds more during what would be known as the Big Strike.
 Longshore and other maritime workers struck along the West Coast May 9, 1934. The longshore workers main goals were the recognition of the union, a coastwise contract and a union-run hiring hall to replace the hated “shape-up” system, a hiring process in which the boss would pick men from a crowd, often shaking them down for a bribe for a day’s work.

In San Pedro workers marched May 14 on a scab encampment and were fired upon. Dickie Parker died in the arms of his brothers while John Knudsen died later from his wounds.

In Seattle workers fought with scabs almost daily for more than a month. Late in the night of June 30 strike delegate Shelvy Daffron was gunned down, and 19 days later striking sailor Olaf Helland was hit in the head by a gas grenade and killed.

In Portland police fired into the picket lines, but workers stood firm. The cops were so out of control they fired on Senator Wagner’s (D-NY) car, the same senator who would push the Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act) through Congress a year later. President Roosevelt signed the bill July 5, 1935. That “Bill of Rights for labor” set up a federal board to hear labor law issues, and it recognized workers’ rights to organize and strike.

In San Francisco some 800 cops, with National Guard backup, attacked 2,000 strikers Thursday, July 5 in an attempt to reopen the port. The battle raged on for most of the morning, though nearly everyone stopped for lunch. Workers gathered quietly in front of the union hall on Steuart Street. Then cops pulled up and started firing into the crowd. Longshoreman Howard Sperry was hit in the back. Nick Bordoise from the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union went down. Both men died. At least 32 others were wounded by gunfire—none of them cops—and hundreds more injured.

But the ports stayed closed. Workers paid their last respects to Sperry and Bordoise July 9 when 40,000 marched silently in a funeral procession on San Francisco’s streets. The rest of the city shut down July 16 in a general strike. By the end of the month the strike was over. Longshore workers had the hiring hall under union control. A Coastwise agreement would be hammered out covering most of the ports, with one employer bargaining agent.

San Francisco—The fog had lifted onto a sunny day July 5 as Indian Joe Morris blew “Taps” and segued into “Amazing Grace” to begin longshore Local 10’s remembrance of Bloody Thursday.

The ILWU Drill Team marched in front of the stage and stood at crisp attention, facing silhouettes of the fallen men, Speery and Bordoise, painted in the pavement below them. Behind them Frances Worsham-Lige, Local 10 Dispatcher, sang a spirited “Star Spangled Banner” to start Local 10’s memorial to the fallen.

Pensioner Cleophas Williams spoke of the need to educate the younger members and the children in the ways of the union.

“It’s a joy to see all of you here this morning. It’s especially a joy to see the children, because before you know it they’ll be just as bald as I am, and regrettably, just as crippled,” Williams said. “We haven’t taught our children enough about the union. In many cases they know nothing. We bring the check home and they get on the computer and play games. What do they know about us?”

Local 10 President David Gonzales continued the themes of learning and remembering.

“It’s time to remember the ultimate sacrifice made by six men up and down the Coast,” Gonzalez said. “Without them and the thousands of others, we would not have decent wages, conditions and benefits, we might still be stuck in the shape-up, not the hiring hall. We all know, if we forget the past, we are condemned to repeat it.”

Inside the hall Bay Area Long-shoremen’s Memorial Assn. Treasurer Mike Villeggiante showed a DVD he helped produce of the history of the ILWU with additional footage showing the attack on pensions and retiree healthcare many workers endure. He had discussed the idea with the Coast Education Committee and went to a labor-friendly video producer to put it together.

“It’s so quick to update it, it would also be a good tool for organizing,” Villeggiante said. “Sometimes it’s difficult to get into somebody’s home, but that DVD can play real easily with their families.”



ILWU-endorsed Congressional candidate Jerry McNerney throws out the ceremonial first pitch at the baseball game where Stockton Local 52 commemorated Bloody Thursday.

Stockton—When the Stockton Ports of baseball’s California league took the field July 5, Congressional candidate Jerry McNerney was on the mound. The Democratic candidate delivered the ceremonial first pitch right over the plate, and was promptly relieved by ILWU International Secretary-Treasurer William Adams, who whipped the next pitch over as well. That began the remembrance of Bloody Thursday by longshore Local 54.

The Ports played the Modesto Nuts while the ILWU family and friends held a barbeque. The occasion was both solemn and joyous as the gathering remembered the past and prepared for the future.

“The Public address announcer reads from our history between innings, how the ILWU was founded and how we came together,” Local 54 Secretary-Treasurer Gene Davenport said.

McNerney carries labor’s hopes in unseating right-wing Republican Richard Pombo in the 11th Congressional District that includes Stockton. Pombo has advocated privatization of public lands and taken money from convicted sleaze peddlers like Jack Abramoff. In fact, Pombo received the most money in California from Abramoff. Pombo also used his influence to block labor reforms in the U.S. colony of the Northern Mariana Islands

“McNerney came to support the ILWU and the community,” Adams said. “Jerry McNerney shares our dreams, our aspirations and the values of the ILWU. He believes in healthcare, he believes that people should have pensions and benefits. He’s also very strong on the environment. He wants to go to Washington and make some changes.”

Portland—ILWU longshore Local 8 members rowed a boat into the middle of the Willamette River and laid a wreath in remembrance of those who fought for and died for the union, as 16-year old Aaron O’Neil, nephew of clerks’ Local 40’s George O’Neil, blew taps. 

As many as 1,000 people gathered in Oaks Park, outside of Portland, to remember Bloody Thursday together. Marvin Ricks, a veteran of the 1934 strike, spoke to the crowd.

“Ricks talked about solidarity, how we need to educate our young people on what the old timers went through, why we have our health insurance and benefits, how we have to stand up for ourselves, how we have to treat each other with respect,” Local 8 Secretary-Treasurer Bruce Holte said. “He told a few stories about the 1934 strike.”

After the speeches, the old timers were fed first at a major barbeque. The kids played games, the adults talked in the shade while the old timers spread the wealth of their years of experience to the younger members.

Seattle—As many as 1,500 members of the extended ILWU family attended the Bloody Thursday picnic at Vasa Park, on the shores of Lake Sammamish. The event remembered the battles of 1934 and builds for the future by having the oldest and youngest mingle and tell stories of the union’s past and present.

The events began with a blessing led by Charlie Hubbard, Executive Director of the Mission to Seafarers, and Reverend Pat Taylor, according to event chair Scott Martinez. Ron Magden, retired University of Washington historian, spoke on the importance Seattle’s role in the 1934 strike. Local 19 member Leith Kahl sang labor songs and presented an ILWU history quiz prepared by the education committee.

“He made it really entertaining and people had a lot of fun,” Martinez said.

The band Retrofit played for a couple hours while children played games, swam and rode the merry-go-rounds or maneuvered through a blow-up obstacle course.

“It was all about getting together in solidarity and seeing new people and people you haven’t seen in a long time,” longshore Local 19 member Curt Cunningham said.
“Dutch Schultz was there. He’s 98 years old, and he was there during the battle. He’s an amazing guy to talk to.”

Curt’s wife Leona, President of Federated Auxiliary 3 out of Seattle, auctioned off a quilt she had made and donated the proceeds to children’s charities.

Even though it was mainly social event, education was not far from the minds of ILWU veterans.

“We need to educate the younger numbers,” Curt said. “We have an influx of people who have no ties to the industry and need to be educated to our culture.”

Southern California—ILWU families in the Los Angeles Harbor Area enjoyed an ocean breeze, food and fun at San Pedro’s Point Fermin Park, as workers celebrated the 72nd anniversary of Bloody Thursday on July 5. Point Fermin is the western tip of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and home to one of the oldest lighthouses—built in 1874—on the West Coast. As younger workers and the influx of casuals change the face of the waterfront, Bloody Thursday becomes even more critical to connect dockworkers to the struggle of forming the union.

“July 5 was a time to remember our fallen workers and we shall never forget them,” foreman’s Local 94 President Danny Miranda said. Locals 13, 63 and 94 provided burgers, hot dogs, chips and sodas and bounce houses and a play area for kids while politicians filed up to the stage to swear solidarity to the union in between sets from three local bands.