Seafarers' International Union of North America

The Historical Research Department of the Seafarers International Union (SIU) kept extensive files on Joseph Curran, president of the NMU from 1937 until his death in 1981. “Big Joe” Curran, then an inactive member of the conservative International Seaman’s Union, founded the Seaman’s Defense Committee during a wildcat strike in 1936 on the Panama Pacific Line's S.S. California. The Committee was renamed the National Maritime Union in 1937, and Curran became its first president. He served as a vice-president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and ran for Congress on the American Labor Party ticket in 1940. After the second World War Curran took a major role in ridding the NMU of Communist-influenced officials and vigorously used the collective bargaining process to advance his union’s agenda. In addition to national press coverage of the NMU, the SIU kept clippings of Curran’s quarterly column in the NMU Pilot.

In addition to the NMU and Curran material, the SIU collected historical information, publications and clippings relating to its own activities and its president from 1957, Paul Hall. Hall, a staunch anti-Communist, defended his union against racketeers in the 1940s and 1950s and the encroachment of Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters in the 1960s. He was instrumental in the passing of the Energy Transportation Security Act of 1977. Also included are records of Hall’s successor, Frank Drozak, SIU president from 1980 until his death in 1988.

From the guide to the National Maritime Union and Seafarers International Union: Reference Files of the Seafarers International Union, Bulk, 1937-1969, 1878-1981, (Bulk 1937-1969), (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)