The strike shut down the United States’ West Coast ports and put a dent in American labor history and a positive change for future longshoremen.
With the history of this type of work as well with their democratic point of view, conservative and hardworking, any negative changes are nearly impossible to make especially in a time of radical reformation.
The 1948 strike secured the future for the ILWU, in the sense that it would survive the Cold War anti-labor persecutions that diminished most leftwing unions.
[1] The outbreak of this strike goes back to the start of “Fink Hall” an open shop hiring system, which originated in Seattle, under the leadership of Frank P. Foisie.
The objective of the 1948 strike was to illuminate the control of the employers, and to end favoritism, allow opportunity for all and continue to work in a secure position.
This strike did not appear out of nowhere changes within the labor movement and a political shift gave leeway to the WEA to take a more aggressive approach against the hiring hall with the involvement of a radical leader of the ILWU.
Their Republican- controlled Congress were the ones who passed this Act, this law made it harder for unions to form, thus changing the outlook of labor.
[3] The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History by Aaron Brenner, Benjamin Day, Immanel Ness Los Angeles Times, Monday, Aug.23,1948 Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Thursday, Sept. 2, 1948