Union Voice/Readers Write: Of the ILA, ILWU & IBL

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)“The ILA’s name has been the International Longshoremen’s Association for as long as I can recall, dating into the 1930s and before,” (Weekend Labor History 11/16 UC) writes Dan Duncan of the Maritime Trades Department. “In fact the ILWU broke from the ILA in the 1930s. The International Brotherhood of Longshoremen was created by the AFL when the ILA was expelled in the 1950’s. The ILA and IBL waged a bloody shoreside fight over several years before the ILA won and the IBL was dissolved.  This fight was part of the story that led to the making of the Brando classic ‘On the Waterfront.’”

“Brother Duncan is correct,” reports David Prosten at UCS. “ There was an IBL but it was formed by the AFL in response to problems within the ILA; it failed to win the loyalty of longshore workers and went out of business in 1959 and its president at the time went on to head an ILA district. We’ll correct it for the next round.  It’s thanks to folks like Brother Duncan and Union City that we’re able to get labor’s exotic and tangled past sorted out.”