Finding Aid to the Sam Kagel Oral History, 1979 MS 2465
Finding aid prepared by California Historical Society staff; revised by
Marie Dunlap in 2010.
California Historical Society
© 2001, revised 2010
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
415-357-1848
reference@calhist.org
Title: Sam Kagel oral history
Date: 1980
Collection Number: MS 2465
Creator:
Kagel, Sam
Extent:
1 folder
(0.1 Linear feet)
Contributing Institution:
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
415-357-1848
reference@calhist.org
Abstract: Contains a transcribed copy of Lucille Kendall's
1980 interview with arbitrator Sam Kagel documenting his role in San Francisco labor
relations in the 1930s and 1940s, especially during the 1934 waterfront and general
strike and the 1937 hotel strike.
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[Identification of item], Sam Kagel Oral History, MS 2465, California Historical
Society.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Arbitration, Industrial--California--San Francisco.
Bars (Drinking establishments)--Employees--Labor
unions--California--San Francisco.
Hotels--Employees--Labor unions--California--San
Francisco.
Restaurants--Employees--Labor unions--California--San
Francisco.
Strikes and lockouts--California--San Francisco.
Oral histories.
This oral history was transcribed from an interview with Sam Kagel conducted by
Lucille Kendall for the California Historical Society on February 8, 1980.
As an employee of the Pacific Coast Labor Bureau, arbitrator, and lawyer, Sam Kagel
played a significant role in Bay Area labor relations for 75 years. Born in San
Francisco in 1909 to Russian Jewish immigrants, Kagel attended the University of
California, Berkeley, where he studied economics. In 1932, he went to work for the
Pacific Coast Labor Bureau, a firm that provided economic and legal counsel to labor
unions, particularly during collective bargaining disputes. As an employee of the
Pacific Coast Labor Bureau, Kagel played a pivotal role in the 1934 waterfront and
general strike in San Francisco, serving on the Waterfront Strike Committee and the
General Strike Committee. In the aftermath of the strike, he represented workers --
including the longshoremen -- in arbitration. Around 1936, he helped organize the
Newspaper Guild of Northern California. During the San Francisco hotel strike of
1937, Kagel and the Pacific Coast Labor Bureau represented the Hotel &
Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, playing a vital role in
pre-strike talks and post-strike negotiations. From 1948 to 2002, Kagel served as
chief arbitrator between the International Longshoremen's and Warehousmen's Union
(ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association. Kagel died in 2007.
Lucille Kendall was a member and officer of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and
Bartenders International Union. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she conducted
interviews of participants in the San Francisco culinary strikes of 1937, 1941-1942,
and 1980 for the California Historical Society.
This oral history collection consists of a transcribed copy of Lucille Kendall's 1980
interview with San Francisco arbitrator Sam Kagel; an interview history; and a copy
of an article about Kagel by Ira Kamin titled "King the Arbitrators," which appeared
in the
San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle on
August 10, 1980.
The Kagel interview sheds light on labor relations in the San Francisco Bay Area in
the 1930s and 1940s. While Kendall was primarily interested in documenting the San
Francisco hotel strike of 1937, the Kagel interview covers a number of other
labor-related themes, including: the activities of the Pacific Coast Labor Bureau;
the 1934 waterfront and general strike in San Francisco; the ILWU's subsequent
organizing drive, known as the "march inland;" and labor arbitration in San
Francisco.