Women on the line--the Powell's Books Story. Photo by Bette Lee. Women’s History Month has deep roots in the labor movement, and this should not be a surprise to working families. Since the first woman went into labor in the birth of the first man, women have worked. And since humans first learned to gather plants, fish hunt and make clothes, women have worked.
In the labor movement women were often the first out the door when strike time came. They formed cooperatives and unions, and before they had the right to vote, they formed political parties. But they were often the last to be recognized.
Women also faced discrimination, harassment and assault on the job and in their unions. Their efforts have often been marginalized, even in the labor movement, which they co-founded. Labor must remember that women fought against slavery when they were little more than chattel in their own homes.
Labor must remember women like Frances Perkins, President Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor and the first woman cabinet member. She had witnessed the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory fire in 1911, where a quarter of the 600 women garment workers had died, and she made a life-long commitment to labor rights. Women’s History Month was founded in part to remember that tragedy. As Secretary Perkins would administer the National Labor Relations Act, a New Deal bill that legalized workers’ rights to form unions and, if necessary, to strike. Under her leadership, the National Longshore Arbitration Board ruled the ILWU had a right to coastwise bargaining with maritime employers. That was because the employers acted as a group and it was only fair the workers should have the same rights. The coastwise longshore contract is that legacy.
She crossed paths with the ILWU again in 1939 when she refused to deport Harry Bridges. The Labor Dept. ran the immigration service then, and right wing Congressmen threatened Perkins with impeachment for her refusal. She stuck to her guns and Bridges won. While the New Deal reforms might have blunted the militancy of workers, it also provided many gains. Every time a worker cashes a Social Security check she can thank Perkins, who helped write the Social Security legislation.
This month The Dispatcher remembers the founding of warehouse, retail and allied Local 5 through the words of its former president, Mary Winzig. While this is only one example of women in the ILWU, it shows women will carry the union’s banner into the 21st Century.
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives, honored the Harry Bridges building with her presence in San Francisco in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. She warmly greeted Local 6 retiree Leroy King, co-chair of her first congressional campaign. See Marcy Rein’s story on page 3.
—Tom Price
