# SS California strike > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/SS_California_strike > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/SS_California_strike.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_California_strike > Source revision: 1301538941 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) The **SS *California* strike** was a [strike](/source/Strike_action) aboard the [ocean liner](/source/Ocean_liner) [SS *California*](/source/SS_California_(1928)) from 1 to 4 March 1936 as the ship lay docked in [San Pedro, California](/source/San_Pedro,_Los_Angeles,_California). The strike led to the demise of the [International Seamen's Union](/source/International_Seamen's_Union) and the creation of the [National Maritime Union](/source/National_Maritime_Union) (now part of the [Seafarers International Union of North America](/source/Seafarers_International_Union_of_North_America)). ## Strike [Joseph Curran](/source/Joseph_Curran) was a [seaman](/source/Merchant_marine) aboard the [Panama Pacific](/source/Panama_Pacific_Line) ocean liner SS *California*. He had been an [able seaman](/source/Able_Seaman_(occupation)) and [boatswain](/source/Boatswain) since 1922. Although he had joined the [International Seamen's Union](/source/International_Seamen's_Union) (ISU), he was not active in union activities. In 1936, Curran led a strike aboard the ocean liner SS *California*, then docked in San Pedro, California. Curran and the crew of the Panama Pacific Line's SS *California* went on strike at the sailing time and refused to cast off the lines unless wages were increased and overtime paid.[1][2] The strike was essentially a [sitdown strike](/source/Sitdown_strike). Curran and the crew refused to leave the ship, for the owners would have simply replaced them with [strikebreakers](/source/Strike_action#"Scabs"). The crew remained aboard and continued to do all their duties except cast off the lines. The *California* remained tied up for three days.[2] Finally, [United States Secretary of Labor](/source/United_States_Secretary_of_Labor) [Frances Perkins](/source/Frances_Perkins) personally intervened in the SS *California* strike. Speaking to the crew by telephone, Perkins agreed to arrange a grievance hearing once the ship docked at its destination in [New York City](/source/New_York_City), and that there would be no reprisals by the company or government against the Curran and the strikers.[1][2] During the SS *California's* return trip, the Panama Pacific Line raised wages by $5 a month to $60 per month.[2] But Perkins was unable to follow through on her other promises. [United States Secretary of Commerce](/source/United_States_Secretary_of_Commerce) [Daniel Roper](/source/Daniel_Calhoun_Roper) and the Panama Pacific Line declared Curran and the strikers [mutineers](/source/Mutiny). The line took out national advertising attacking Curran. When the ship docked, [Federal Bureau of Investigation](/source/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation) agents met the ship and began an investigation into the "mutiny". Curran and other top strike leaders were fined two days' pay, fired and [blacklisted](/source/Blacklist). Perkins was able to keep the strikers from being prosecuted for mutiny, however.[1][2] Seaman all along the East Coast struck to protest the treatment of the SS *California's* crew. Curran became a leader of the 10-week strike, eventually forming a supportive association known as the Seamen's Defense Committee.[1][2] ## Formation of NMU The SS *California* strike was only part of a worldwide wave of unrest among US seamen. A series of port and shipboard strikes broke out in 1936 and 1937 in the [Atlantic](/source/Atlantic_Ocean) and [Gulf of Mexico](/source/Gulf_of_Mexico). In October 1936, Curran called another strike, the [1936 Gulf Coast maritime workers' strike](/source/1936_Gulf_Coast_maritime_workers'_strike), in part to improve working conditions and in part to embarrass the ISU. The four-month strike idled 50,000 seamen and 300 ships.[1][2] Curran, believing it was time to abandon the conservative International Seamen's Union, began to sign up members for a new, rival union. The level of organizing was so intense that hundreds of ships delayed their sailing time as seamen listened to organizers and signed union cards.[3] In May 1937, Curran and other leaders of his nascent movement formed the National Maritime Union. The Seamen's Defense Committee reconstituted itself as a union. It held its first convention in July, and 30,000 seamen switched their membership from the ISU to the NMU. Curran was elected president of the new organization. Elected secretary-treasurer of the union was [Jamaican](/source/Jamaica)-born [Ferdinand Smith](/source/Ferdinand_Smith). Thus, from its inception, NMU was racially integrated. Within six years, nearly all [racial discrimination](/source/Racial_discrimination) was eliminated in maritime hiring, wages, living accommodations and work assignments.[1][4] Within a year, the NMU had more than 50,000 members, and most US shippers were under contract. Stripped of most of its membership, the ISU became almost moribund.[2] ## Notes 1. Barbanel, "Joseph Curran, 75, Founder of National Maritime Union," *New York Times,* 15 August 1981; Kempton, *Part of Our Time,* 1998 (1955); "Retired Union Boss Joseph Curran Dies," *Associated Press,* 14 August 1981. 1. Schwartz, *Brotherhood of the Sea: The Sailors' Union of the Pacific, 1885–1985,* 1986. 1. "C.I.O. Goes to Sea," *Time,* 19 July 1937. 1. Horne, *Red Seas: Ferdinand Smith and Radical Black Sailors in the United States and Jamaica,* 2005. ## References - Barbanel, Josh. "Joseph Curran, 75, Founder of National Maritime Union." *New York Times.* 15 August 1981. - "C.I.O. Goes to Sea." *Time.* 19 July 1937. - Goldberg, Joseph P. *The Maritime Story: A Study in Labor-Management Relations.* Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958. - Horne, Gerald. *Red Seas: Ferdinand Smith and Radical Black Sailors in the United States and Jamaica.* New York: New York University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8147-3668-8 - Kempton, Murray. *Part of Our Time: Some Monuments and Ruins of the Thirties.* Hardcover reprint ed. New York: Random House, 1998. (Originally published in 1955.) ISBN 0-679-60310-7 - "Retired Union Boss Joseph Curran Dies." *Associated Press.* 14 August 1981. - Schwartz, Stephen. *Brotherhood of the Sea: The Sailors' Union of the Pacific, 1885–1985.* New York: Transaction Publishers, 1986. ISBN 0-88738-121-9 ## External links - [*SS California* at the Smithsonian Institution](http://americanhistory.si.edu/ONTHEMOVE/collection/object_21.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20070612003027/http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/collection/object_21.html) 12 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [SS California strike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_California_strike) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_California_strike?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.