1901-1990. US labour leader. Born in
Melbourne, Australia, he ran away to sea and
settled in San Francisco. In 1931 he formed a
trade union of clockworkers, and in 1934,
after police opened fire on a picket line,
killing two strikers, he organized a
successful general strike. He remained head
of the International Longshoremen's and
Warehousemen's Union for many years, despite
Federal Bureau of Investigation objections
(later proved false) that he had concealed
membership in the Communist Party on his
immigration papers.