The March Inland: Origins of the ILWU Warehouse Division 1934-1938 (review)

The March Inland: Origins of the ILWU Warehouse Division 1934-1938. By Harvey Schwartz. San Francisco: International Longshore and Warehouse Union, 2000 [1978]. 282 pp., $9 paper.

Through the generosity of ILWU Local 6 President Emeritus Keith Eickman and the cooperation of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, The March Inland is, happily, back in print. It is a well-written case study of how the "new unionism" of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) took root as the militant longshore union saw the necessity of literally crossing the street to organize the storage sheds and warehouses, and soon the factories, that fed goods to the docks.

The building of Warehouse Union Local 6 in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the resistance from employers and the duplicity of Teamster leadership, is an often riveting story. The origins of the union's master contract catch some of the temper of the times. A box car was loaded at a struck Woolworth's warehouse, some say with only a box of pencils. It was routed to warehouse after warehouse, where Local 6 members refused to touch it and were locked out. The union at first opposed a master contract, preferring to whipsaw employers, but settled finally with a master agreement they came to believe maximized their bargaining power.

If Harvey Schwartz missed anything, it is the extent of Communist Party influence in building and staffing the union. He refers often to the "militants," most of whom were leftists. An in-depth discussion of the Party's role might help in understanding the position of the Communist Party in building the CIO, the shaping of ILWU political culture, and why the ILWU survived expulsion by the CIO when others did not.

In his new preface to this edition, Schwartz comments that "the ILWU is still an inspiration to everyone with a progressive and humanitarian bent." As a past ILWU officer, I suggest that this is an overstatement. Local 6, decimated by plant closures over the last two decades, is torn by internal fractures along racial lines. An African-American and white coalition forged by early leftists has given way to Mexican-American leadership determined to replace their predecessors. The local suffered strange alliances between old and new leftists and opportunists, which led to violence and death in the 1980s.

Other unions facing marginalization have sought mergers, but with whom would the ILWU merge? What union leaders will not - cannot — say is that the merger that makes sense would break up the ILWU. There are three logical segments: the longshore division belongs with its eastern counterpart; warehouse and production with the Teamsters, with whom they have jointly negotiated for 40 years; and the Hawaii ILWU members are strong enough to set their own terms. The past must be understood but ought not be romanticized. The workers, not those on the outside who idealize the ILWU's past, are the people for whom any union must exist, and, when necessary, change. The March Inland is exciting reading; the sad sequel has yet to be written.