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Joseph Curran
Joseph Curran (March 1, 1906 – August 14, 1981) was a merchant seaman and an American labor leader. He was founding president of the National Maritime Union (or NMU, now part of the Seafarers International Union of North America) from 1937 to 1973, and a vice president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Early life Curran was born on Manhattan's Lower East Side. His father died when he was two years old, and his mother boarded with another family. He attended parochial school, but when he was 14 he was expelled during the seventh grade for truancy.Barbanel, "Joseph Curran, 75, Founder of National Maritime Union," ''New York Times,'' August 15, 1981; Kempton, ''Part of Our Time,'' 1998 (1955); "Retired Union Boss Joseph Curran Dies," ''Associated Press,'' August 14, 1981. He worked as a caddie and factory worker before finding employment in 1922 in the United States Merchant Marine. He worked as an able seaman and boatswain, washing dishes in restaurants when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 with the Seafarers International Union of North America in 2001. Early years The NMU was founded in May 1937 by Joseph Curran and his allies, which at the time included Jack Lawrenson. At the time Curran was an able seaman and boatswain aboard the Panama Pacific Line ocean liner . He was a member of the International Seamen's Union (ISU) but was not active in the work of the union. Lawrenson later married writer Helen Lawrenson. He was forced out of the union in 1947, and according to his wife, Curran essentially wrote Lawrenson out of the union's history. From March 1 to March 4, 1936, Curran led a strike aboard ''California'', then docked in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. Curran and the crew of ''California'' went on what was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Seamen's Union
The International Seamen's Union (ISU) was an American maritime trade union which operated from 1892 until 1937. In its last few years, the union effectively split into the National Maritime Union and Seafarer's International Union. The early years Originally formed as the National Union of Seamen of America in 1892 in Chicago, Illinois, the organization was a federation of independent unions, including the Sailors' Union of the Pacific, the Lake Seamen's Union, the Atlantic Coast Seamen's Union, and the Seamen's and Firemen's Union of the Gulf Coast. Formed by maritime labor representatives from America's Pacific, Great Lakes and Gulf Coast regions, in 1893, the ISU affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, and took the name International Seamen's Union of America in 1895. The union existed at a turbulent time in the United States shipping industry. The unions within the ISU faced "continual changeover in the makeup and leadership," and weathered the historical periods o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
