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Harrald Olaf Lundeberg
(March 25, 1901 – January 28, 1957) was a
merchant seaman and an American
labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
leader.
Biography
Lundeberg left his home in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
, Norway at age 14,
joined the
Seamen's Union of Australia
The Seamen's Union of Australia (SUA) was the principal trade union for merchant seamen in Australia from 1876 to 1991. The SUA developed a reputation as one of the most militant trade unions in Australia and was closely associated with the ...
in 1917 and transferred into the
Sailors' Union of the Pacific
The Sailors' Union of the Pacific (SUP), founded on March 6, 1885 in San Francisco, California,
is an American labor union of mariners, fishermen and boatmen working aboard US flag vessels.
At its fourth meeting in 1885, the fledgling organizati ...
in Seattle
in 1923. He sailed for 21 years on sailing ships and steamers of a variety of flags,
eventually earning American citizenship.
In 1934, Lundeberg was sailing as
third mate aboard the
SS ''James W. Griffiths''.
In the course of the
1934 West Coast Longshore Strike, Lundeberg walked off his ship in
Oakland
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
in support of the strike. At its height, at least 8,000 west coast sailors joined the strike. On July 30, 1934, as the strike came close to conclusion, Lundeberg was elected Sailor's Union of the Pacific patrolman for the
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
area.
In April 1935
at a conference of maritime unions in Seattle, it was decided to establish an umbrella union to represent the membership of the International Seaman's Union as well as maritime officers and longshoremen. This umbrella organization was called the Maritime Federation and Lundeberg was named its first president.
Later that year, he was elected Secretary-Treasurer of SUP.
Over the next two years, the International Seamen's Union experienced intense difficulties, including the revocation of their charter and the loss of 30,000 seamen in July 1937 to the
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...
' newly formed
National Maritime Union
The National Maritime Union (NMU) was an American labor union founded in May 1937. It affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in July 1937. After a failed merger with a different maritime group in 1988, the union merged w ...
. A month later,
William Green, president of the
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...
, took over the ISU with the goal of rebuilding it under the AFL. Lundeberg, who was now also head of the Sailor's Union of the Pacific, oversaw this reorganization.
On October 15, 1938, at an AFL convention in
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
, Green handed Lundeberg the
Seafarer's International Union
The Seafarers International Union or SIU is an organization of 12 autonomous labor unions of mariners, fishermen and boatmen working aboard vessels flagged in the United States or Canada. Michael Sacco has been its president since 1988. The orga ...
charter. The new union numbered some 7,000 members on the east and gulf coasts.
Lundeberg served as president of SIU from 1938 until his death from a heart attack in a San Francisco hospital on January 28, 1957.
Memorials
![Lundeberg Derby Monument](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Lundeberg_Derby_Monument.jpg)
*There is a memorial sculpture to Harry Lundeberg at 450 Harrison Street in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, outside the entrance to the Sailors Union of the Pacific Hall. The sculpture consists of a bust of Lundeberg, placed on a marble pedestal in front of the building. On the pedestal is a plaque which reads: "Harry Lundeberg - 1901–1957 - He was indeed a man who crowded into a short life no glittering promise, but unselfish service and general achievement for the course he called his own".
*In 1967,
Paul Hall established the
Seafarers Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship
The Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education is a merchant marine educational facility in Piney Point, Maryland, which is affiliated with the Seafarers International Union. Founded in 1967 in Brooklyn, New York as "The Seafarers' Harr ...
in
Piney Point,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, to give young people the chance for a career at sea. Since then, thousands of SIU members have advanced their skills, and thousands of young people from deprived backgrounds have found employment through the school. There is a memorial to Hary Lundeberg outside the Seaman's Hotel at the Seafarers Harry Lundeburg School of Seamanship. Norwegian Cruise Line provides in-house STCW training in this facility for their new hires.
*The Lundeberg Derby Monument, on First and Wall streets (), is a part of a series of works in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
created to improve First Street in 1987 called the First Avenue Project.
The statue was installed by
Buster Simpson
Lewis Cole "Buster" Simpson (born in 1942) is an Americans, American sculptor and environmental artist based in Seattle, Washington.
Career
Lewis Cole Simpson was born in Saginaw, Michigan and raised in a nearby farming community. He became int ...
when the building behind it, the El Gaucho Inn, was still owned and occupied by the Sailor's union. The statue is dedicated to Lundeberg, a key figure in the Sailor's Union Strike of 1886.
Lundeberg created the sub/Union cap that was later known as the "Lundeberg Stetson".
The statue's pillars stand roughly three feet high, atop the northernmost pillar is a derby cap, worn by members of the Sailors Union. The pillars were salvaged by Jack Mackie and Buster Simpson from a quarry just before it went bankrupt, the two of the artists involved in First Avenue Project.
Trivia
* Lundeberg's nickname was "The Lunchbox".
* Lundeberg was 6 feet inches tall and weighed 190 pounds
* Lundeberg was tattooed and "never ducked a waterfront strike or a dock brawl"
* Lundeberg had a longstanding feud with longshoreman's president
Harry Bridges.
* Lundeberg "once got a smashed jaw from a C.I.O.-swung baseball bat"
In testimony before the Canadian Parliament in 1996, David Broadfoot of the Canadian Merchant Navy Association recalled that in 1946, "Our government imported a thug, a real heavy-duty gangster from Brooklyn (Hal C. Banks), to smash our union and bring in the Seafarers' International Union ... which was no different from the Teamsters at its worst and no different from the longshoremen's association at its worst ... They came on our ships with baseball bats and bicycle chains. That's how they introduced their union to Canada."
June 18, 1996.
[http://www.parl.gc.ca . https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Archives/Committee/352/defa/evidence/06_96-06-18/defa06_blk-e.html. Retrieved March 16, 2008]
See also
*
Frank Drozak
Frank Drozak (December 24, 1927 - June 21, 1988) was an American labor leader. He was president of the Seafarers International Union (SIU) from 1980 until his death in 1988. Drozak was also president of the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department.
...
*
Andrew Furuseth
Andrew Furuseth (March 17, 1854 – January 22, 1938) of Åsbygda, Hedmark, Norway was a merchant seaman and an American labor leader. Furuseth was active in the formation of two influential maritime unions: the Sailors' Union of the Pacific ...
*
Michael Sacco
Michael Sacco (born February 14, 1937) is a retired American labor leader from Brooklyn, New York. He was appointed as the president of the Seafarers International Union of North America, AFL-CIO in June 1988 by the ''SIUNA Executive Board''.
...
*
Paul Hall
References
Further reading
*
Archie Green
Archie Green (June 29, 1917 – March 22, 2009) was an American folklorist specializing in laborlore (defined as the special folklore of workers) and American folk music. Devoted to understanding vernacular culture, he gathered and commente ...
, ''Harry Lundeberg's Stetson & Other Nautical Treasures'' (Crockett, CA: Carquinez Press, 2006).
External links
Bio blurb at West Coast SailorsWest Coast Sailors 30 Mar 2001, Harry Lundeberg Centennial Tribute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lundeberg, Harry
1901 births
1957 deaths
Norwegian emigrants to the United States
Sailors' Union of the Pacific people
Seafarers International Union of North America people
American trade unionists of Norwegian descent