University of California Berkeley 7/ University of California Bancroft Library/Berkeley Regional Oral History Office Earl Warren Oral History Project LABOR LOOKS AT EARL WARREN Germain Bulcke: A Longshoreman s Observations Joseph W. Ghaudet: A Printer s View Paul Heide: A Warehouseman s Reminiscences U. S. Simonds: A Carpenter s Comments Ernest H. Vernoni A Machinist s Recollection Interviews Conducted by Prank Jones 1970 by The University of California at Berkeley PREFACE The Earl Warren Oral History Project, a project of the Regional Oral History Office, was inaugurated to produce tape-recorded interviews with persons instrumental in the political and judicial scene during the Warren Era in California. Focusing on the years 1925 to 1953, the interviews are designed not only to document the life of Chief Justice Warren but to gain new information on the social and political changes of a state in the throes of a depression, then a war, then a postwar boom. Because of the age of many of the memoirists, efforts in the first phase of the project have been centered on capturing as many accounts on tape as possible. The interviews that were transcribed in this phase, including those in the present volume, have been checked, emended by the memoirist, final typed, indexed, and bound with pictures and other supporting information. The interviews have stimulated the deposit of Warreniana source material in the form of papers from friends and aides, old movie newsreels, video tapes, and photographs. This rapidly expanding Earl Warren Collec tion, added to the Bancroft Library s already extensive holdings on 20th Century California politics and history, provides a rich center for research. The first phase of the Project has been financed by an outright grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, by gifts from local donors interested in preserving data on Warren and his California era, and by additional funds offered by National Endowment for the Humanities on a matching basis. Contributors to the Project include the former law clerks of Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Cortez Society, and many longtime supporters of "The Chief." The Friends of the Bancroft Library were instrumental in the fund raising and supplemented all local contributions from their own treasury. Amelia R. Fry, Director Earl Warren Oral History Project 1 July 1970 Regional Oral History Office 486 The Bancroft Library University of California at Berkeley ii EARL WARREN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Principal Investigators Lawrence A. Harper Ira M. Heyman Arthur H. Sherry Advisory Council Barbara Nachtrieb Armstrong Walton E. Bean William R. Dennes Joseph P. Harris John D. Hicks Eugene C. Lee Adrian A. Kragen Mary Ellen Leary James R. Leiby Dean E . McHenry Frank C. Newman Allan Nevins Sho Sato Thomas Kuchel Helen McGregor Warren Olney, III John D. Weaver Earl Warren Oral History Project Interviews Completed by September 1970 EARL WARREN S BAKERSFIELD Maryann Ashe and Ruth Smith Henley, Earl Warren s Bakersfield Omar Gavins , Coming of Age in Bakersfield Frank Vaughan, School Days in Bakersfield Ralph Kreiser, A Reporter Recollects the Warren Case LABOR LOOKS AT EARL WARREN Germaine Bulcke, A Longshoreman s Observations Joseph Chaudet, A Printer s View Paul Heide, A Warehouseman s Reminiscences U. S. Simonds, A Carpenter Comments Ernest H. Vernon, A Machinist s Recollections Russel V. Lee, Pioneering in Pre-Paid Group Medicine John F. Mullins, How Earl Warren Became District Attorney Robert B. Powers, Law Enforcement, Race Relations, 1930-60 University of California Bancroft Library/Berkeley Regional Oral History Office Earl Warren Oral History Project Germain Bulcke A LONGSHOREMAN S OBSERVATIONS An Interview Conducted by Prank N. Jones 1970 by The University of California at Berkeley Germain Bulcke All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between the Regents of the University of California and Germaine Bulcke, dated January 2^, 1970. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of Calif ornia at Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identifica tion of the user. The legal agreement with Germaine Bulcke requires that he be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond. Germain Bulcke: A LONGSHOREMAN S OBSERVATIONS Table of Contents Forty Years In Labor 1 Born in Belgium 1 Start as Longshoreman 3 The Shape-Up 3 Blue Book Union b Union Organizing 6 Grievances 7 Signing Up 8 Union Goals 10 Strike in Every Port 11 Union Recognition 12 King, Ramsay, Conner Case 13 I Japanese Longshoremen 1<4- Internment 15 Olson Campaign 16 Labor Voice on Fish and Game 18 Warren Not Pro-Labor 19 Union Opposition 20 The Modesto Boys 21 Red Squads 24 Tenney Committee Testimony 25 Personal Opinion 2? Strike Arrests 29 Success of ILWU 31 INDEX 33 INTERVIEW HISTORY Germain Bulcke (born 1902) was interviewed by the ^Regional Oral History Office in order to document his role in the develop ment of organized labor on the West Coast, and the relationships between union leaders and Earl Warren and other elected officials. Interviewer: Prank N. Jones, who has extensive knowledge of labor history from his years with the state AFL-CIO plus general acquaintance with public affairs from his wide journalistic experience. Research material developed by the Regional Oral History Office with guidance on general questions from principal investigators of the Earl Warren Project. Conduct of the Interview: A single interview was held on June 12, 1969, at Kr. Bulcke *s home, 25 Locke Lane in Mill Valley, California, a charming rustic community in the redwood-covered coastal hills, for several generations a retreat from nearby metropolitan Oakland and San Francisco. Much of the village provides a view of the sweeping bay shore water front was the scene of the labor strife which Mr. Bulcke discusses. Editing: Editing of the transcribed -taped Interview was done by June Hogan of the Regional Oral History Office. Minor rearrangements of material were made to maintain continuity of the discussion without interrupting its informal quality. Mr. Bulcke reviewed the edited text and made a few additional comments to amplify or clarify his original statements. Narrative Account of Mr. Bulcke and Progress of the Interview: Forceful, Belgian-born Germain Bulcke, an International Longshoreman s and Warehouseman s Union co-worker with Harry Bridges, is one of the most respected of the pioneer leaders who founded the ILWU prior to the 193^ Pacific Coast water front strike. His fellow unionists speak of his clarity of thought and decisiveness of action over four decades as major factors in the ILWU s national leadership in coping with the knotty problems of automation. He was ILWU vice-president 19^7-60; a member of the 193^ and 1937 strike committees; a former president of San Francisco Local 10; and frequently a board member of the International. He served as southern California area arbitrator on the request of both management and union from I960 until his retirement in 1966. He was the first member of organized labor to serve on the State Fish and Game Commission, appointed by both Governors Olson and Warren, meeting Warren once personally during this time. Bulcke graphically recalls the anathemas of the non-organized maritime workers star gangs, kickbacks, brass checks, often fatal working conditions, aspects of favoritism, pointing up the need for an efficiently organized union to ameliorate dockside conditions during the 20s. Similar comments are made by Paul Heide, another interviewee in this series. Especially valuable is his eye-witness account of the death of two workers during the 193^ "Bloody Thursday" strike, and the little-known "Modesto Case" of 1935 in which he claims employers had planted dynamite in a car whose occupants were then arrested by company police. He feels he was well aware of Earl Warren s on positions many matters: "My personal conclusion is that Warren was anti-labor as a district attorney and attorney general . .as governor he was a smooth operator ... a brilliant man . labor found it very difficult to get pro-labor [bills] passed . you never found him on the side of legislation which would benefit the working man." Bulcke was "pleasantly surprised by the terrific job" Warren did on the Supreme Court. Gabrielle Morris Regional Oral History Office 2R July 1970 if- 86 The Bancroft Library . University of California at Berkeley FORTY YEARS IN LABOR Jones: Did you have a hand in the placement of the Benny Bufano Saint Francis statue at the Copperdome Local 10 headquarters of International Longshoremen? Bulcke: I did. I was International vice president at the time of the placement and took part in, you might say, the unveiling of it. Jones: Quite a landmark in San Francisco. It is good of you to give us your time for this project. Did you have any thoughts on the possible value of this? Bulcke: Well, it s been my feeling that a great deal of the history and the development of the trade union movement in the Bay Area and in California has not been properly recorded, you might say, and that there are great, great amounts of activity that very likely would not be available to anyone unless you had participated yourself.