International Longshore and Warehouse Union - The March Inland and Expansion To Hawaii

The March Inland and Expansion To Hawaii

The union commenced the "March Inland", in which it organized the many warehouses that received the goods that longshoremen handled, both in the ports themselves and further removed from them, shortly after the successful conclusion of the 1934 strike. The union eventually organized warehouses throughout the United States.

The union also led efforts to form Maritime Federation of the Pacific, which brought all of the maritime unions together for common action. That federation helped the sailors union win the same sort of contract after a long strike in 1936 that the ILA had achieved in 1934. Rivalries between the two unions, however, soon broke the federation apart.

The ILWU also established strong unions on the docks in Hawaii during this time. In the next decade, despite the concerted opposition of the employers, the military and most of the political establishment, it also organized sugar and pineapple workers there. The ILWU's work changed the political climate in Hawaii, confronting the hold on power that the Big Five had exercised for half a century.