McGuire Dental: ILWU Local 13 Dentist

The new kind of unionism born of the 1934 maritime strike was not confined to the docks. The warehouse workers, with their close ties to the waterfront that in the early days of the union came from working near the docks and handling cargo brought on and off the ships by longshoremen, also helped build the ILWU and they too shared in its achievements.

Today the Warehouse Division of the ILWU is a dynamic section of the union, tested and fortified by rank-and-file sacrifices and victories. Its members, men and women of all races and beliefs, are employed in public warehouses, coffee and spice warehouses, liquor and bottling plants, laboratories, open pit mines, hospitals, sugar refineries and chemical plants, flour and feed mills, food processing establishments and grocery and hardware warehouses. Some work in large establishments, others in companies with but a handful of employees.

Warehousing involves the storage, processing and distribution of goods, as well as some manufacturing. Though warehouse workers suffered low wages, high job insecurity and frequent speed-ups, the old AFL craft unions never considered organizing the men and women who earned a precarious living in the distribution centers up and down the West Coast. But under the impetus of the successful 1934 maritime strike, the warehousemen organized. In August 1934 new members of Weighers, Warehousemen's and
Cereal Workers Union Local 38-44 (later to become ILWU Local 6 in the San Francisco Bay Area) re-activated the local's ILA charter, which had been inactive since 1923, and immediately started a vigorous organizing campaign.

In addition to ILWU Local 6, there is our San Pedro or Los Angeles Port ILWU Local 13.  At McGuire Dental, our proximity to San Pedro Long Beach, we support our local ILWU Local 13.  One of our first ILWU Local 13 patients was Joe.  He initially came in as an emergency.  Apparently, he had a cracked tooth from a work related accident and rushed in.  He has been a loyal patient of ours for over 10 years now.  We also provide his entire family with their dental needs.  He has even referred us to other ILWU Local 13 coworkers and longshoremen of San Pedro.  Please visit us at McGuire Dental or visit us at our website, Click HERE.