Political Button, "Longshore Victory," 1971
date: label: Date made
content: 1971
label: used date
content: 1971
notes: label: Description
content: This round metal button measures 1-1/2" in diameter and has a pin and clasp on the back. The blue lettering: "I'M FOR A LONGSHORE VICTORY IN 1971" is set against a yellow background. The name of the manufacturer appears along the button’s edge: "BUTTON WORKS / 300 BROAD ST. / NEVADA CITY, CA 95359."
label: Description
content: Longshoremen are the laborers who load and unload cargo ships. Since 1937, longshore work on the West Coast of the United States has been performed by members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). The union was formed to end favoritism, bribery, low wages, and other abuses of power that had long plagued the management of work on the waterfront. It was also established as a body to represent longshoremen during negotiations with shipping companies over contracts, work rules, and related issues.
label: Description
content: By the 1960s, both the ILWU and the shipping companies, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), recognized that new technologies would drastically cut the number of cargo-handling jobs. With the introduction of standardized shipping containers and innovations in global communications technologies, the need for gangs of longshoremen to handle individual bags, boxes, pallets, and crates was significantly reduced. While the shipping companies were anxious to adopt containerization with its intermodal capabilities—the same container could be carried by ship, rail, and tractor trailer—the longshoremen were wary of giving any ground on the basic requirement that only members of the ILWU could handle cargo in West Coast ports.
label: Description
content: By 1971, general unrest boiled over into a strike that lasted 130 days and affected all commercial ports along the coast. One of the key issues was a proposal from the shipping companies to employ certain longshoremen trained as container crane operators on a permanent basis. Shipping companies had invested heavily in container ships, cranes, and other shoreside facilities, and they wanted to select and train the men who would operate the costly machines, essentially employing them regularly as “steady men.” From the union’s perspective, this proposal would create elite workers within the union, effectively blocking jobs from some members. Union members believed this special treatment violated a core value of the union, which had always stood for the strict rotation of all waterfront jobs among members.
label: Description
content: This political button was worn by Local 10 (San Francisco) ILWU longshoreman Herb Mills, who was a strong supporter of the coastwide strike in 1971. The strike resulted in some gains for the shipping companies on the “steady man” issue, but upheld the requirement that all cargoes, including containers, would still be loaded and unloaded in West Coast ports by members of the ILWU.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Associated Place
content: United States: California
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
label: See more items in
content: Work
label: See more items in
content: America on the Move
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Herb Mills
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2002.3003.01
label: nonaccession number
content: 2002.3003
label: catalog number
content: 2002.3003.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Button/Pin
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 1/2 in; x 3.81 cm