The Ferryboatmen’s Union of California came into being in November 1918.
BY BOBBY WINSTON
Published: March, 2000
The Ferryboatmen’s Union of California came into being in November 1918. A new law called the Railway Labor Act encouraged unionization so as to increase wartime production, and founder Clyde Deal took full advantage of its provisions to quickly organize San Francisco Bay passenger and auto ferries as well as railroad, tug and barge and car-float operations.
The union’s jurisdiction extended to all unlicensed personnel, including deckhands, watchmen, bargemen, oilers, firemen, cooks and waitresses. It grew rapidly throughout the 1920’s, concentrating on improving wages, hours and working conditions, at a time when most other US maritime unions were facing disastrous losses of membership as the result of unsuccessful strikes in the post-World War I period. Eventually, it grew to be the largest single union local in San Francisco.
Organizing of ferries in San Diego and San Pedro harbors was soon underway and a federation of locally autonomous unions was formed. In the early 1930’s, Clyde Deal dispatched trusted lieutenants to establish outposts in Puget Sound and the Columbia River Area.
The move into the Pacific Northwest dramatically transformed the union. Membership increased faster than the share price of an Internet IPO, as the union took on entire new industries, peaking at over 40,000. In addition to ferry service on Puget Sound there were countless tug and barge operations moving logs, pulp, gravel and wheat.
With its mandate having mushroomed far beyond representing just ferrymen, the union’s name was changed to the Inland Boatmen’s Union of the Pacific (or, as it is commonly known, the IBU) in 1935. Five major divisions were formed (Puget Sound, Columbia River, San Francisco Bay, San Pedro and San Diego) each headed by a locally elected representative.
Throughout the 1930’s, the IBU steadily avoided being drawn into a titanic squabble involving two sister maritime unions. Two mighty leaders had squared off: in the one corner was Harry Bridges, charismatic leader of the Longshoremen and in the other the greatly respected Harry Lundberg of the Seamen’s Union of the Pacific. Bridges, a confirmed leftist and Lundberg, an unabashed anti-Communist, went at each other with hammer and tong. The IBU kept its heads low as cries of "Finky Fox" and "Dirty Deal" were hurled from the one side and "Commie-loving pinkos" back from the other.
Perhaps the greatest challenge ever faced by the IBU was the opening of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges in the late 1930’s. Thousands of ferrymen were thrown out of work as a law was passed forbidding ferry service from competing with Bridge auto traffic. For the first time, workers were granted severance pay, establishing a precedent for dealing fairly with workers in technologically bypassed industries.
The World War II era brought more change and new challenges. The rapid growth of ocean and coastwise towing to Alaska and Hawaii brought prosperity but it was also a period of almost total phasing-out of river and sound freight boats. Large steam-tugs were replaced by smaller diesel tugs of much greater power and requiring much smaller crews. At the same time, serious fights over turf developed with other unions.
An ill-conceived strike against tugboat operators in the early 1960’s turned out badly for the IBU, the result being job losses and having to cede substantial jurisdiction to another union. Strains developed between the San Francisco and Puget Sound affiliates.
Today, the IBU represents 4000 workers.
