Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America

IUMSWA gained size and strength during the World War II shipbuilding effort, and membership reached about 250,000.IUMSWA Local 15 signed a contract on May 15, 1941 covering workers at Bethlehem Steel Corporation's shipyard in Hoboken, New Jersey.The most successful example of anti-racist activism within the union was due to left-wing trade unionists organizing to integrate the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company.Black and Jewish activists including Bob Monroe, Lou Kaplan and Al Elliott, as well as members of the Philadelphia Black community, were instrumental in the push to desegregate the shipyards at the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. Anti-racist efforts were much less successful in Mobile, Alabama.IUMSWA organizers at the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company bowed to pressures from Southern segregationists in order to cater to white workers.
Walter Nash , New Zealand's minister to the United States, addresses IUMSWA delegates at the organization's 1942 national convention in New York City
Walter Nashlabor unionNew York Shipbuilding CorporationCamden, New Jerseystriking in 1934 and 1935Federal ShipyardBaltimoreSparrows Pointcraft unionsCongress of Industrial OrganizationsshipbuildingBethlehem Steel CorporationHoboken, New JerseySteel Workers Organizing CommitteeFederal Shipbuilding and Drydock CompanySun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding CompanyFore River Shipyardhealth and safetyInternational Association of MachinistsJohn GreenJohn J. GroganUniversity of Maryland LibrariesSparrow Point