International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 17 Records, 1935-2012

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Summary

Creators:
International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Local 17
Abstract:
The collection documents warehouse organizing in the West Sacramento area. Includes minutes, correspondence, administrative files, photographs, picket signs, and memorabilia.
Extent:
97.4 linear feet
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Inventory of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Local 17 Records, D-591, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis LibraryGeneral Library, University of California, Davis.

Background

Scope and content:

The records of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 17 span the years 1936-2012. The history of the local is represented through company files, administrative files, photographs, , and memorabilia. Series 1, Company Files, includes correspondence and contracts relating to collective bargaining between the union and companies employing union-represented workers. Series 2, Administrative Files, addresses the day-to-day operation of the union and includes membership lists, dispatch records, meeting minutes, correspondence, and information on political action. Grievance and arbitration files are mainly located within Series 1, Company Files, although some are also found in Series 2, Administrative Files. The collection also includes photographs and signage, picket signs, and a small amount of other memorabilia.

Biographical / historical:

by Robin Walker, ILWU Librarian/Archivist

Local 17 traces its history back to Northern California waterfront warehouse organizing campaigns at the beginning of the 20th Century. Early efforts were centered in the San Francisco Bay Area and resulted in transitory victories. In 1919, San Francisco warehouse workers received a charter to organize workers from the American Federation of Labor as the Cereal, Flour, and Rice Mills, Public Weighers and Warehouse Workers, Local 38ā€44, International Longshoremen's Association (ILA). The San Franciscoā€based local quickly grew to 2,000 members and planned the organization of waterfront storage facilities in Stockton and Sacramento. However, the boom period was shortā€lived, due to an antiā€union drive by employers in 1921.

The San Francisco warehouse local was not revived until 1934, when ILA longshoremen and other maritime workers along the Pacific Coast struck for three months, winning union recognition and a contract covering all west coast dockworkers. This victory strengthened the ILA and encouraged successful organizing drives for warehouse workers along the West Coast, particularly in California. Longshoremen lent their full support to these drives, understanding that union warehousemen working in facilities adjacent to the docks could help protect longshore standards and prevent employers from deploying nonā€union workers as strikebreakers.

This strategy proved successful, and sparked major growth in warehouses, spreading inland from major ports. This "march inland" resulted in rapid unionization of warehouses throughout Northern California. By midā€1935, the ILA had strongholds in the town of Crockett, where the Sacramento & San Joaquin Rivers enter San Francisco Bay. Commercial warehouses and grain mills surrounding Stockton and Sacramento were also organized. The growing number of members necessitated the creation of a new warehouse local, and the ILA established Local 38ā€118 to represent workers in the Sacramento area. Two years later, Pacific Coast ILA members voted to become independent from the ILA and formed the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. It was at this time that Local 38ā€118 became ILWU Local 17. By 1943, some 85% of the warehouse workers in Sacramento belonged to the local.

In 1937, at the height of this revival, employers in San Francisco formed a consortium to address the threat of warehouse unionism. After warehouse workers succeeded in forming unions despite employer opposition, the Industrial Employers and Distributors Association (IEDA) reorganized to become a multiā€employer bargaining group for the Northern California warehouse industry. To this day, the majority of employers hiring ILWU warehouse workers in Northern California are part of the IEDA, and pension and welfare benefits throughout the industry are covered under a blanket agreement.

By the 1980s, the ILWU's Warehouse Division faced a growing trend of shutdowns, relocations, mechanization, and antiā€union activity that caused major membership erosion. Local 17's strength declined as their membership dwindled. By the 2000's, the local's membership lay primarily within one employer, Farmer's Rice in Sacramento. Despite revitalization efforts and an impressive organizing campaign in the almond industry that fell short, ILWU Local 17 faced serious problems. Excessive spending for union staff and real estate holdings, combined with growing membership concern over pension solvency led members to affiliate with Local 150 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 2011.

Acquisition information:
Gift of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 17 Pensioners Club, 2015.
Processing information:

Liz Phillips processed this collection with the assistance of cataloger April Chen and student assistant Julie Jeon.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in three series: 1. Company Files; 2. Administrative Files; and 3: Photographs and Memorabilia.

Physical location:
Researchers should contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Inventory of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Local 17 Records, D-591, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis LibraryGeneral Library, University of California, Davis.

Location of this collection:
University of California, Davis, Special Collections, UC Davis Library
100 NW Quad
Davis, CA 95616-5292, US
Contact:
(530) 752-1621
speccoll@ucdavis.edu
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