Hundreds of port union members and their families gathered on Monday, July 5, for the 87th anniversary of Bloody Thursday, commemorating the events that led to the founding of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
This year’s event came amid what appears to be the end of the coronavirus pandemic that kept the 2020 observance more subdued. Both ports also are still riding a long streak of record-breaking cargo months ports that have kept ILWU members working full shifts.
The union grew out of a workers’ strike on July 5, 1934, in San Francisco, then the West Coast’s major shipping port, During the strike, police fired into the crowd.