Bert Corona - Union Activities

Union Activities

During his studies at USC, Corona worked for Brunswig Drug Company as a checker. He and his colleagues were approached by the striking International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which they agreed to support. The longshoremen won their demands, and the drugstore workers, who felt they were receiving unfair treatment, were inspired to form a union of their own. They organized as a local of the ILWU, electing Marion Phelps president and Corona recording secretary. He served on various committees in the union and learned organizing skills from Lloyd Seeliger. In 1940 Corona was named head of the Local 26's strike committee and in 1941, in the wake of Phelps's resignation, was unanimouly elected local president. Shortly after his election, a rival contender for the presidency organized an unauthorized slowdown for which Corona was blamed and fired. Harry Bridges, chief of the ILWU and a major figure within the CIO, offered Corona a position as a CIO organizer.

With the CIO, Corona worked to unionize Molokan and Mexican workers in the waste material industries. He also reached out to the children of the Mexican workers, the Pachucos, who aided the union. As the CIO unionized workers in the various industries throughout the city, Corona and other organizers secured employment for the disenfranchised youth in those same fields, solidifying the bond between the two groups.

During the 1940s the CIO forged an alliance with Luisa Moreno's Spanish-Speaking People's Congress to advocate on behalf of the Spanish-speaking peoples of the United States. The Congreso marked a change from previous efforts:

Unlike some of the moderate Mexican-American organizations such as LULAC, which at the time differentiated between Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants, El Congreso opposed such differentiations and instead stressed the unity of all the Spanish-speaking, U.S. citizens or not. An attack on one Spanish-speaking group was an attack on all. That sense of unity was one of the beautiful things about El Congreso and was why it captivated so many people even though it was a relatively small movement with very little money.

The Congreso worked closely with the CIO on the issues of labor rights, police brutality, inequality in schools, and access to public facilities. One of thec major campaigns of the time was the defense of the Mexican American youth accused of the Sleepy Lagoon murder. Corona served on the defense committee alongside journalist Carey McWilliams and actor Anthony Quinn.

Corona also became involved in the struggle against racial discrimination in the criminal justice system when he joined the defense committee of Fetus Coleman, an African American man wrongfully accused of rape. As a result of the defense committee's efforts, Coleman was freed.