CHAPTER
03
WORKING WATERFRONTS AND FILIPINO LABOR
In the wake of the Great Depression, many Filipinos found employment in Puget Sound's waterfront industries. They worked as longshoremen, in shipyards, and in canneries.
Large numbers of Filipinos worked in the canning industry, from Seattle to Bellingham to Anacortes to Alaska. Before Seattle's waterfront became a tourist destination, its docks were lined with canneries, where workers processed salmon and Alaskan crab.
In the early 1930s, several Filipino men began organizing a union to advocate for better working conditions, living accommodations, and pay for workers. On June 19, 1933, they founded the Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union Local 18257 in Seattle. The following year, the American Federation of Labor chartered the union.
“After, I got out of school that was the time we organized the union. We called the union the Cannery Workers and Farm Labors Union, okay… there was some other unions but our were centered to the cannery workers union and farm labors, when the majority of the cannery workers are Filipinos. That was the reason we had to organize the cannery workers.”
–Emiliano Francisco
A crowd of laborers gathered on Seattle's Pier 40 on April 27, 1939.
Advertisements for cannery workers unions in a Filipino newspaper.
ALASKEROS
Every spring, Filipinos came to Seattle from around the country to ship out for work in Alaskan salmon canneries. These men, known as Alaskeros, faced difficult working and living conditions upon their arrival in Alaska. When the U.S. entered World War II, Filipino men rushed to leave cannery work and join the armed forces. Fearing a great loss of labor, Local 37 president Trinidad Rojo persuaded the U.S. draft board that cannery work helped the war effort by providing canned salmon to troops. This allowed many Alaskeros to defer the draft and continue their work in the canneries.
FILIPINOS AND JAPANESE FARMERS
When the government forced Puget Sound's Japanese population into internment camps during World War II, Filipinos took on additional agricultural work. On Bainbridge Island, some Japanese families entrusted their strawberry farms to Filipino friends and workers. Cousins Felix Narte (pictured with the Kitamoto family) and Elaulio Aquino (pictured with Lilly Kitamoto) watched over the property of the Kitamoto family while they were incarcerated at Minidoka, ensuring their farm still thrived when they returned after the war.
Images courtesy of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community.
Solidarity During Hard Times
Lilly Kitamoto Kodama shares her memories of Felix Narte and Elaulio Aquino, two Filipino men who had helped Lilly's grandparents run the family farm when her family was interned during World War II. They stayed in the Kitamoto home while they were away and looked after their property.
Shipyard work
Maria Batayola recalls her father’s work at the Todd and Lockheed Shipyards after her family arrived in Seattle. Her father had an aeronautical engineering background and was initially hired to work for Boeing, however the company crashed. He had to look elsewhere for work, leading him to the maritime industry.
The Local 37 Cannery Workers Union, a chapter of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), was a mainstay of labor organizing for Filipinos. This 1952 Yearbook details some of the unique issues facing Filipino laborers, and the union’s organizing efforts at improving workers’ conditions.
A Filipino man processes fish at an Alaska cannery, circa 1940.
The Todd Dry Docks Harbor Island yard in Seattle underwent a huge expansion in 1940 to accomodate wartime demands. The yard ultimately completed 45 destroyers and converted or repaired 576 ships for war service. Many Filipinos worked at Todd Dry Docks, later renamed Todd Pacific Shipyards, and other shipyards during and after World War II.
Image courtesy of MOHAI, Vigor Industrial Collection on Todd Shipyards, 2023.36.84.
Union officers gather on the Seattle docks to see workers off to the Alaska canneries, circa 1940s-1950s.
