War on the Docks:
Puget Sound’s Longshoremen in the 1934 Strike
Since the mid-nineteenth century, longshoremen have worked on the docks of Puget Sound port cities like Seattle and Tacoma.
Waterfront work in this era was difficult. Men
often worked ten to twelve hour days,
loading and unloading heavy crates, huge timbers, and grain sacks by hand.
The Ron Magden photo collection, available on the WATERFRONT WORKERS HISTORY PROJECT, documents the early history of longshore work.
Chinese longshoreman unloading
fifty pound sacks of flour, c. 1910.
EARLY WORK LIFE
ON THE DOCKS