As cast in bronze in Tacoma: Longshore leader Harry Bridges

In life, Harry Bridges stood 5 feet 6.

In bronze, he’ll hit 6 feet 4.

Bridges, revered by the West Coast dockworkers as founder of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, is the subject of a statue being sculpted by Key Peninsula artist Paul Michaels.

“People forget what the past has done for them,” said Tacoma maritime historian Ron Magden at a recent preview of a clay model of the Bridges sculpture.

People might forget, but longshore workers do not.

Australia-born Harry Bridges went to sea at 16 and was working the docks at San Francisco by 1922. He briefly was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (known as the Wobblies), and later a member of the International Longshoremen’s Association.

He was a leader of a violent 1934 strike affecting West Coast ports. Afterward, most West Coast chapters of the ILA left the organization and followed Bridges into the ILWU, established under his leadership in 1937.

“From 1958 until his death, Tacoma was a major player in the ILWU, especially in the 1971 strike,” Magden said. “Tacoma staunchly supported him.”

In the 1960s, Bridges negotiated a labor agreement that allowed port mechanization, helping to foster the revolution of container shipping while protecting the interests of union members.

Bridges served the ILWU until his retirement in 1977.

He fought battles against President Franklin D. Roosevelt, against intolerance, against greed, against deportation as a Communist and against an 1846 Nevada law that barred marriage between a white man and a woman of a “yellow race.”

He won against Roosevelt, he improved conditions for workers, he was not deported and he did marry the woman he loved. He died in 1990.

There’s a Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at the University of Washington Seattle, and there’s a Harry Bridges Boulevard near the Port of Los Angeles.

Soon, there will be a statue in Tacoma.

It will stand temporarily at the union’s local headquarters at 1306 Alexander Ave. E.

Officials hope to see it completed in time for the 49th annual meeting of the ILWU Pacific Coast Pensioners Association in September in Tacoma, a gathering that will include a parade honoring two longshore workers who died in a 1916 strike.

One of the primary financial backers of the Bridges project — Emil Korjan, a former ILWU member who died at 92 — had said he wanted the statue to be placed “where students mingle,” Michaels said.

The sculptor noted two locations where the statue might ultimately stand, either at Bates Technical College or the University of Washington Tacoma. Both have shown an interest, he said.

“This is a tangible tribute to labor,” said Bill Connolly, Korjan’s nephew and fundraiser for the $95,000 project.

A scholarship fund will be established in Bridges’ honor as well, he said.

“Emil wanted the statue because he wanted a united labor movement,” Magden said.

Some bitter memories have been long-lived at the Tacoma local between supporters of ILA and ILWU, Magden said, as he offered a chronicle of longshore activities over the decades, from the 1916 strike to the animus between supporters inside the local.

Bridges “overcame most of the Tacoma opposition, through people like Emil,” Magden said. “He came here often to meet with longshoremen. He would visit three or four times a year, for 20 years. He respected Tacoma because there had always been African Americans in the local, and the second reason was that whenever Tacoma gave its word, it kept it.”

Artist Paul Michaels might be best known for his bronze sculpture of Ben Cheney, seated at Cheney Stadium, or for his depictions of Tacoma booster and historical figure Allen C. Mason.

He also created sculptures of a strawberry farmer in Puyallup and of the Top of the Ocean restaurant as shown at the waterfront site where the boat-like nightclub and restaurant stood before being destroyed by an arson fire.

“I’ve always liked local history,” Michaels said, and that’s part of the appeal he found in the Bridges commission.

Personally, Magden said, Bridges was “quiet and shy.”

Throughout the insider squabbles and bickering, from the mundane and momentous, Magden said Bridges “was just a down-to-earth guy.”

“His central thought was that everyone should have a decent living, and live in dignity,” Magden said. “He had charisma. He knew how to handle you.”

“He was radical,” said Jim Norton, a former ILWU Local 23 business agent.

“We’re interested in people learning what labor has done for Pierce County,” Norton said. “Harry stood for a decent living — for everybody.”

“He was critically important,” said Magden, speaking of Bridges’ impact on the 84-day 1934 strike. “He was shrewd. He knew how much the profit margin was for the shipping lines.”

“It is to his credit that he was able to crystalize the arguments. That brought peace to the waterfront. He was the first longshoreman who could talk to the general public.”

This story was originally published July 4, 2016 at 11:00 AM with the headline "As cast in bronze in Tacoma: Longshore leader Harry Bridges."