Includes correspondence from the period of the 1934 Pacific Coast Maritime strike, when Lewis was International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) district president for the West Coast; scrapbooks from the 1934 strike era that document his strike leadership, his attempts to quash insurgent rank and file strike leaders like Harry Bridges, and the funeral procession for the two San Francisco strike supporters. Collection also contains the ILA district periodical Pacific Coast Longshoreman, August 12, 1935-April 20, 1936 and records from the 1934-1935 arbitration between the ILA and the Waterfront Employers Union that led to a strike settlement.

Before becoming International Longshoremen's Association President, Pacific Coast District(District 38), William Lewis worked on San Francisco docks as a longshoreman for nearly 25 years. In 1933 he became a business agent for the newly chartered ILA 38-79. In the short space of six months the organization grew from nothing to a claimed membership of nearly 4,000.

.5 cubic feet (1 box)

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Collection is open for research.