Bridges, Harry (1901-1990), served as president of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU, now the International Longshore and Warehouse Union) from 1938 to 1977. He came to the United States in 1920 as a seaman and joined the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). In 1934, he led a West Coast maritime strike which became a general strike. In 1937, he brought his ILA group into the Committee for Industrial Organization, a forerunner of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Later, the CIO expelled the ILWU on grounds of Communist domination. Bridges never denied his sympathy for Communism, but he denied that he was a member of the Communist Party. The government tried unsuccessfully several times to revoke his citizenship and deport him. In 1960, he negotiated one of the first labor agreements containing provisions on automation. He was born Alfred Renton Bridges on July 28, 1901, in Melbourne, Australia. He died on March 30, 1990.
