Harry Bridges
Harry Bridges
Harry Bridgeswas an Australian-born American union leader, first with the International Longshoremen's Association. In 1937, he led several chapters in forming a new union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, expanding members to workers in warehouses, and led it for the next 40 years. In the 1990s Bridges was revealed to have been a member of the Communist Party USA in the 1930s. He was prosecuted for his labor organizing and believed subversive status by the U.S. government during the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth28 July 1902
CountryUnited States of America
Finally, it was about how people treat one another. It was about human dignity. We forced the employers to treat us as equals, to sit down and talk to us about the work we do, how we do it, and what we get paid for it. And I believe that the principles for which we fought in 1934 are still true and still useful. Whether your job is pushing a four-wheeler, or programming a computer, I don't know of any way for working people to win basic economic justice and dignity except by being organized into a solid, democratic union.
I would have worked with the devil himself if he'd been for the six hour day and worker control of the hiring hall.
I'm a working stiff. I just happened to be around at the right time, and nobody else wanted the job.