The Seafarers International Union's founding on October 14, 1938, came during the turbulent times of the
Great Depression, a worldwide economic slowdown, and the international rise of
communism. SIU's roots, however, reach back to 1892, when delegates representing unions of the West Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes gathered at a seamen’s convention in Chicago. The convention eventually gave rise to a federation of maritime unions known as the
International Seamen's Union (ISU) chartered by the
American Federation of Labor (AFL). SIU's origin is portrayed by the union as an outcome of the "wreckage" of ISU. The breakup saw ISU membership plummet from more than 100,000 after
World War I to less than 3,000 by the mid-1930s. The revocation of ISU's charter and the loss of 30,000 seamen in July 1937 to the
Congress of Industrial Organizations' newly formed
National Maritime Union (NMU) signaled ISU's death knell. Leadership of AFL, one of the first federations of labor unions, understood that the ISU was near collapse. The AFL subsequently moved to replace it by issuing a charter to the
Sailors Union of the Pacific (SUP) to organize the new Seafarers International Union.
Harry Lundeberg, a SUP officer and seaman who was originally from
Norway, became the Seafarers International Union's first president. The SUP remained autonomous for years within SIU. The AFL's action to form the SIU not only countered the threat of loss of seafaring jobs to the NMU but also served as a political block against the increasing Communist influence in the rival
Congress of Industrial Organizations. NMU, a product of the economic struggles and waterfront strikes of the times, became a longtime nemesis of SIU. This consolidation helped the SIU edge out the NMU whose earlier purging of Communist Party members or those suspected of CP association had left it weakened. When Hall took over the Maritime Trades Department, it was a struggling organization made up of only six small unions. He built it into an active and effective political force in the trade union movement. At his death, Maritime Trades Department comprised 43 national and international unions representing nearly 8 million American workers. In 1967, Hall established the
Seafarers Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship in Piney Point, Maryland, to give young people the chance for a career at sea. Since then, the school has become one of the finest maritime training schools in the country. Thousands of SIU members have advanced their skills at the school. Moreover, the Harry Lundeberg School has also presented opportunities for generations of young people from deprived backgrounds to gain employment. The 1970s saw further strengthening of the SIU with acquisition through merger of the
National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards (NUMCS). After an eight-month battle with cancer, Hall died in 1980. ==Controversy==