Friday, March 30, 2001 WEST COAST SAILORS Page 1 HarHarHarrrryyy LundeLundeLundeberberberggg Centennial Tribute 1901-2001 ndrew Furuseth made sailors men, but Harry Lundeberg gave them lives worth living. No Aone, not even Furuseth, did more to improve the basic facts of life for those who go to sea for a living. Labor historians have consistently overlooked Lundeberg’s achievements and often for the same rea- son: they never went to sea. For those that go down to the sea in ships, the Lundeberg legacy is not some theo- retical political argument. It’s as simple and as real as the work—the turning to and knocking off. It the shapes thoughts of home and it appears on the bottom line of the payoff at the end of every voyage. Harry Lundeberg conceived of the possibility of retirement for seamen and made it a reality. He built a Welfare Plan to take care of their problems and illnesses. He correctly iden- tified the lasting threats both to the industry and to the labor movement as a whole, and usually opened fire before anyone else had detected an enemy. But Lunde- berg most presciently tied wages and conditions to pro- fessionalism, and in so doing he elevated the status of seamen in both material and moral terms. Furuseth theo- rized that “skill puts the mechanic nearest the gods.” It took Harry Lundeberg to make it pay. Born on March 25, 1901 in Norway, Lundeberg shipped out at the age of fourteen. Many years later, testifying before a Congressional committee in 1955 he described his past with simple precision. “As for my background, I am a sailor. I went to sea for 21 years. I sailed in many different rigs. I have sailed in steamers, passenger ships, sailing ships and any type of rig you can mention. I have sailed under several different nationality flags. I am an American citizen. I am married. I have a family. I have been a member of organized labor for 40 years.” “I am a sailor,” and like all sailors, his trade was at the center of his identity. Even at an early age, he was renowned as a first-class sailorman who knew and re- spected the ancient lineage of the craft. The language of seamen dominated his speech throughout his life. Moreover, all of his later convictions were rooted in the sincere realities of practical seamanship. “A good sailor is always a good union man,” he told the senators. Another key aspect of his formative years is his inter- nationalist and syndicalist experiences. Being shipmates with sailors of various nationalities, he was conscious of diversity long before it became fashionable. While sailing nitroglycerin boats under the British flag, he was twice torpedoed by German U-boats in World War I. Lundeberg was also a member of a number of different unions prior to joining the SUP, and in- cluded in such experience was an awareness of com- monality within the trade. Commonality with respect for differences: therein lies the essence of Lundeberg’s philosophy about organizations and coalitions. It’s a major reason for opposing communism, which ac- knowledged neither the individual nor the allied au- tonomous organization. It’s the model on which the Maritime Federation of the Pacific was based, and later, for the Seafarers’ International Union of North America. Harry Lundeberg in Oslo, Norway 1948. The hull of the s/s Marine Jumper is in the background. Other demonstrations of the idea came in the Pho Pho beef, the Makiki beef, the Chicot beef, and the It was at the time a bold statement to claim family ties years (see Lundeberg’s homecoming photo on page 14) Riviera beef, to name a few. In such cases, Lundeberg while at the same time working as a seamen. Before Harry confidently declare himself before Congress to be a fam- and the SUP repeatedly helped the sailors of other na- Lundeberg, most seaman were unmarried, itinerant and ily man? To the always absent seamen, the answer is ob- tions in their struggles with the shipowners. Lundeberg childless; they were without property or savings or re- vious: his shipmates were his brothers, and the Union and the SUP also sponsored thousands of alien seaman spect, and they had been that way for ages. But as sailors became his extended family. Sailors, like other exiles, and aided in their applications for U.S. citizenship. Simi- began to prosper from Lundeberg’s tough bargaining with have always discovered home at sea. Lundeberg knew larly, during World War II, Lundeberg was outraged the shipowners, as they gained overtime, vacation time, that the bonds of family are similar to the attachments that that SUP members of Japanese ancestry were being in- and as they became recipients of new benefits, it was no bind an organization together; and he deliberately and terned as a risk to the war effort. He worked tirelessly longer a necessary contradiction to be a seaman with a strategically merged the two. to free them from the camps so that they could go to family. But he also implied a second, subtler understand- Lundeberg joined the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific sea. Lundeberg put teeth into the internationalist ideas ing of family. “I have a family,” he said, his personal in Seattle in 1923, a time when the remnants of the of Furuseth and the old ISU, and in so doing made the background concluding his summary of the history of the Union still smoked from the disastrous 1921 strike. concept of the Brotherhood of the Sea vibrant, diverse, Sailors’ Union of the Pacific. Lundeberg, as a seaman, Many years later, he reflected on those days at the comprehensive and compassionate. instinctively knew that his family was not limited to blood dedication of the Marine, Cooks and Steward’s Finally, Lundeberg told Congress he was a family man. ties. How can a man who was away from home for 30 Continued on next page HARRY LUNDEBERG: A CENTENNIAL TRIBUTE Page 2 WEST COAST SAILORS Friday, March 30, 2001 come to the point that you have the conditions that Harry Lundeberg .... continued lished the union hiring hall and we did it without an can support a family—which you never had before. agreement at all. In other words, among the sea- You don’t need any handouts from any charity or- Headquarters building in 1956. men, the policy was no one hires any other place ganization, or any corporate joint, or any mission except through the union hall and it was not very “It is true that in the 1921 strike or lockout as you on the waterfront-you got your own halls, you got healthy for anyone to hire any other place, so we may call it, when the shipping industry together with your strength, you got your own conditions. We don’t took the hiring hall without an agreement and we Admiral Benson of the Shipping Board chose to join ask for charity, we ask for recognition and respect wrote it into the agreement in 1937.” hands to break the unions, we know we lost that and we got it. We may have taken the hard way but strike. We know also that and the Unions’ went back- Although he didn’t press the point, Lundeberg knew we got it.” many many years. And those of us who sailed those that regaining control of the hiring process was a great The legislation that Congress was debating in 1955 days, we know the conditions we enjoyed under non- victory. He would defend it again in 1947, this time for would have set up a Federal Maritime Board that had the union conditions. We had no strength, because they workers in all industries. During the Congressional ef- power to call “cooling off” periods if negotiations were broke us, at least temporarily. As a result of that, a fort to pass the Taft-Hartley bill, Senator Taft traveled unsuccessful. In much the same way man who went to sea for a living was the Railway Labor Act can be in- paid the big sum of $40.00 a month. voked to prevent strikes in the rail- On some of the intercoastal ships you road and airline industries, the bill made $32.50 a month and they made in question would have greatly re- you work 56 hours a week and if you duced the bargaining leverage of all squawked, they fired you. If you car- maritime unions. Lundeberg’s de- ried a union button, you couldn’t get a fense was that such a Board is un- job on a ship. They had their fink halls necessary. He time and again de- up and down the Coast, east and west scribed the collective bargaining and south and you had to go in like a agreement as sacrosanct and the ne- crumb to look for a job with your cap gotiating process as the best method in your hand just like a dog to get the of dispute resolution. lousy job for $32.00 a month. Those “I have negotiated agreements were the conditions the shipowner gave with these shipowners, various us when we were not strong.” types of shipowners, for the past he point is that Harry Lundeberg 20 years. At no time did I take a started sailing in the SUP during gun in with me. I took a commit- Tsome of the toughest times ever. tee with me. We met with them Wages then had been cut as much as 20% across the table. They didn’t have in some trades, the “hiring halls” (fink halls) take what we asked for and many were controlled by the government and times they didn’t...I can remem- shipowners, and union membership had ber at no time having a six-shooter fallen to levels that had not been seen since in my pocket and telling Mr.