by Tom Price

Kate Thornton began working for the ILWU-PMA Benefits Plan in the summer of 1965, on a temporary basis, while she was still a student. In 1967 she signed on full time, back when the office was in the basement of 150 Golden Gate in San Francisco and Harry Bridges was president.

Now its forty years later Kate is retiring. In a very personal sense, she has always worked for the ILWU family.
“My father Frederick ‘Blackie’ Myers and my husband Lonnie Thornton worked out of Local 34,” she said. “My son Matt Thornton is a Local 34 member, my daughter-in-law Eileen also worked out of Local 34 and her father, Tom Wallace, was a Local 34 member. And my Daughter Liz was in Local 34 for a while.”

Before working out of Local 34, Blackie Myers was a veteran activist among seafarers who were persecuted during the anti-Communist witch-hunts of the McCarthy era, and he was a leader of the National Maritime Union and the Maritime Workers Industrial Union.

Kate spent most of her time administering the welfare benefits, making sure people got things like hearing aids, dental care and supplemental disability—making real the benefits the longshore contract provides ILWU families. Member service has always been the goal.

“We have had several systems over the years, from a hand operation to a modern, sophisticated system,” she said. “I’ve worked under all of them and they have changed a lot, but the thing that hasn’t changed is attention to the members. We get back to them, when they call they get a person, that has always been something we have maintained.

“The best thing about the job is the people I work with, and the members I talk to,” she said. “The members are appreciative of the good benefits they have, and it’s good to know it means something to them. There’s something satisfying about working with these people, I work hard and I like it.”

Kate worked with many special women who contributed to the union. She mentioned quite a few for Women’s History Month, including Carol (Schwartz) Cuenod, who became ILWU Librarian, Elaine Black Yoneda, who organized legal defense for longshore workers during the Big Strike in 1934, and Linda Kuhn, who is now office manager for the International Union.

With 40 years of service behind her, Kate is ready to move on.
“What I’m going to do now is go to Boston in April and run the Boston Marathon,” she said. “I’ve been a runner for years and this is the pinnacle of my running. I’m about two-thirds done with the training.”

Kate also has a granddaughter and she hopes to spend a lot of time with her. “This has been a very good job for me, I’ve been here a long time and it has been a very good place for me to work. I like it that I am retiring after 40 years, I like doing it when I’m feeling good, I’m happy and healthy and I have energy for other things to come,” she said. “Forty years represents completion, it’s a good time to say goodbye.”