1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike

The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike (also known as the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen's Strike, as well as a number of variations on these names) lasted eighty-three days, triggered by sailors and a four-day general strike in San Francisco, and led to the unionization of all of the West Coast ports of the United States.

The San Francisco General Strike, along with the 1934 Toledo Auto-Lite Strike led by the American Workers Party and the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 led by the Communist League of America, were important catalysts for the rise of industrial unionism in the 1930s, much of which was organized through the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Read more about 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike:  Background, The Big Strike, "Bloody Thursday", Funerals and General Strike, End of The Strike, Aftermath

Famous quotes containing the words west, coast and/or strike:

    It’s a fine land, the west land, for hearts as tired as mine,
    Apple orchards blossom there, and the air’s like wine.
    John Masefield (1878–1967)

    What do we want with this vast and worthless area, of this region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds, of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs; to what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts, or those endless mountain ranges, impenetrable and covered to their very base with eternal snow? What can we ever hope to do with the western coast, a coast of 3,000 miles, rockbound, cheerless, uninviting and not a harbor in it?
    —For the State of Kansas, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.
    Sun Tzu (6–5th century B.C.)