As longshore workers up and down the Pacific coast take this Saturday to remember “Bloody Thursday”—when two striking San Francisco workers were killed by police while picketing in 1934—they also wait with baited breath, as their labor contract expired on Tuesday and their labor union works towards final negotiations of a new deal.
Thousands of dockworkers will recognize “Bloody Thursday” this Saturday at San Pedro’s Peck Park from 10:00am on. The event seventy-four years ago sparked the creation of the International Labor Workers Union (ILWU), which is negotiating a new labor contract. The old deal—a six-year contract agreed to in 2002—expired on Tuesday, and workers are confident that a renewed agreement will be reached soon.
The 2002 deal was reached after a ten-day workers’ strike that brought the shipping industry to its knees and the national economy to a halt. Some estimate the strike cost the national economy more than $1 billion per day, and more than $15 billion in total.
“The hope is we can reach an agreement without the kind of disruption that we’ve seen in the past,” the News Tribune quotes Pacific Maritime Association spokesman Steve Getzug as saying in this story.
But there are few signs of such an extreme disagreement this time around. Bargaining began in March, and both sides recently reached an agreement on a healthcare plan, which makes workers hopeful that a full deal will be finalized soon.
For more information about “Bloody Thursday,” Saturday’s celebration or ongoing labor talks, visit the ILWU website here.
By Ryan ZumMallen, Managing Editor