ABSTRACT
1934’s gains emerge as key achievements: the weapon of job action, most notably, was recovered by the Sailors, who began utilizing “the oracle” with a vigor and intensity that had probably never been seen even in the glory days of Andrew Furuseth’s leadership. In 1936, turbulence within the Sailors’ Union reached an explosion point, as the organization faced challenges from the employers, the I.S.U. international leadership, and the government. The final incident marking year 1938 in the historical calendar of the Sailor's Union of the Pacific (S.U.P.) involved an attempt by the federal authorities to set up government-controlled fink hiring halls for seamen. The undercurrent of conflict over the fink book was to prove an issue in second maritime “big strike” of the 1930s, the 100-day walkout of 1936–1937, in which split between Harry Lundeberg and the S.U.P., and the Communist “ruling cadre” in West Coast maritime movement, came into open.
