Battle to Reopen the Port: July 3, 1934

Joseph P. Ryan, the national ILA President, was called to the west coast to broker a settlement between the union locals and employer associations. It was late May 1934, and the strike that had begun with the longshoremen’s organization had spread to all maritime trades, grinding harbor activities to a halt. Skirmishes between picketers, strikebreakers, and police had broken out sporadically at ports up and down the west coast. Ideas proffered by Roosevelt’s Mediation Board were met with icy reactions from both parties. Joe Ryan was confident he could resolve the situation quickly.

On May 26th, Ryan told the press that arbitration was easily making progress, and the men would be satisfied with union recognition. However, that same morning at a local ILA meeting, Harry Bridges had stated, “Settlement for mere recognition may mean a lot to national heads of the International Longshoremen’s Association who get fat salaries; but the workers are going to hold out for nothing less than a closed shop” (Quinn 57). Ryan’s proposal was voted down unanimously. A second proposal on June 16th was dismissed out of hand as a “betrayal of solidarity that had become one of the strike’s most powerful weapons” (Nelson 143). This time, the ILA severed ties with Joe Ryan and formed a Joint Maritime Strike Committee to directly engage in talks themselves (Johnson 91). These actions came too late.

Frustrated by previous efforts, employers refused to continue negotiations after the rejection of the Saturday Agreement of June 16th. The Industrial Association of San Francisco, which represented the shipowners’ interests, and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce took to the press to portray themselves as the exasperated party, trying desperately to end the strike fairly, when in fact they had not been open to the demands of their working men from the outset. Instead, they painted the strikers as “alien radicals” and stubborn, intractable communists. Rank and file leaders like Harry Bridges were urging various unions from unrelated industries to join their cause, and they were making headway. Bookbinders, waiters, garment workers called meetings to vote on a general city-wide strike (Quin 87). Battle lines were being drawn.

On July 3rd, in an attempt to reopen the port, trucks rolled out of Pier 38 at about 1:30 p.m., and the “Embarcadero became a vast tangle of fighting men. Bricks flew and clubs battered skulls. The police opened fire with revolvers and riot guns. Clouds of tear gas swept the picket lines and sent the men choking in retreat. Mounted police were dragged from their saddles and beaten to the pavement” (Quinn 104). The chaotic fighting continued for four hours, pushing up Rincon Hill and into surrounding areas. Tear gas drifted into nearby restaurants choking diners, and a bank teller was grazed by a stray bullet while working inside. By the end of the day, at least 25, including 9 policemen were hospitalized. The IA announced that they would not move freight on the holiday, and the respite of the Fourth of July proved to be the calm before the storm (Quinn 104-107).

Johnson, Victoria. How Many Machine Guns Does It Take to Cook One Meal? : The Seattle and San Francisco General Strikes. University of Washington Press, 2008.

Nelson, Bruce. Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press, 1988.

Quin, Mike. The Big Strike. International Publishers, 1949.