Project Update for Fall, 2009

Currently redirecting their efforts towards exploring how the ILWU reproduces its radical and democratic organizational culture, the group is entering the third year of a $300,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant funding a longitudinal survey of changes in ILWU member preferences and beliefs over time. The group recently received an additional $50,000 from the NSF for the project as a whole to continue its research on the ILWU and $10,000 from the NSF to support undergraduate research on ILWU work stoppages over the history of the union.

Last year, the working group received a $10,000 Washington State Labor Research Grant to examine the complicated relationship between ILWU contract negotiations, state politics and the larger economy. This will help us better understand the ILWU's powerful political and economic roles. Graduate student team member Devin Kelly performed content analysis of ILWU contracts and negotiations, along with legislative reports, press coverage and statements made by public officials. This paper will be available on the Bridges Center's and project's websites soon, and the group aims to publish the paper soon.

Finally, Levi and Agnone presented results of their research at a special American Sociological Association plenary panel on "Consequences of the San Francisco General Strike of 1934" commemorating the 75th anniversary of the San Francisco general strike. The project also displayed posters at the ILWU Convention in Seattle this June, and was invited to participate in an upcoming ILWU leadership training event, LEAD, to take place in September, 2010.

The working group is composed of Professors Margaret Levi and David Olson, HBCLS Visiting Committee members Joe Wenzl, Gene Vrana, and Ron Magden, and graduate students Jon Agnone, Rebecca Szper and Amanda Clayton, along with undergraduate researchers Carrie Sachse and Lila Zucker. We have enjoyed the support of the officers, education committees and pensioners of Locals 23 and 19. We have received unprecedented access to union archives at the local and international level and to rarely analyzed data on union electoral participation. We have given papers at conferences, run our own conference featuring a important international scholars, and worked with the ILWU education department and local committees to provide aimed younger members with information about their union's history and democratic practices.

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Unions Reexamined Project Team Members - Current

  • Margaret Levi - Professor (PI), Political Science
  • David Olson - Professor Emeritus, Political Science
  • Jon Agnone - Lead Graduate Research Assistant, Sociology
  • John Alhquist - Assistant Professor, Political Science, Florida State University
  • Rebecca Szper - Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science
  • Amanda Clayton - Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science
  • Carrie Sachse - Undergraduate Research Assistant, Political Science
  • Lila Zucker - Undergraduate Research Assistant, Sociology
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Unions Reexamined Project Team Members - Past

  • Devin Kelly - Graduate Students, Sociology
  • George Robertson - Undergraduate, History
  • Igor Voloshin - Undergraduate, Political Science
  • Morgen Myrdal - Undergraduate, Political Science
  • Nowell Bamberger - Undergraduate, Political Science
  • Randy Eng - Undergraduate, Political Science
  • Adam Goodwin - Undergraduate, Political Science
  • Natalie Quist - Undergraduate, Political Science
  • Elizabeth Zamorra - Undergraduate, Political Science
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