Union Zindabad! — South Asian Canadian Labour History in British Columbia

ILWU [International Longshore and Warehouse Union] rally, Portside Park re: contracting-out, February 2, 1999
Sean Griffin photo, Image MSC179-19795, courtesy The Fisherman Collection, Simon Fraser University Library.
Longshore
The International Longshore and Warehouse
Union (ILWU) has long been a militant union
in British Columbia, with a strong dedication to
international solidarity and preserving their own
labour history.
Much like in the IWA, 1946 was a significant
year to the ILWU. It was the year that they were
among multiple unions who came together at a
San Francisco convention to consider “one big
union” for all maritime and waterfront workers.
The campaign was a success. At the same time,
they kept an eye on international events, with the
union’s international newspaper The Dispatcher
reporting headlines like: “Starvation threatens six
million Indians”, and a full-page article on the
conditions for longshoremen in India.
With a global economy increasingly dependent
on shipping, longshore workers have wielded their
collective power by taking actions such as refusing
to load ships to Nazi Germany or apartheid-era
South Africa.
It was just before this period that we see South
Asian labour appear on the Fraser River waterfront.
Jack Singh is believed to be the first South
Asian longshoreman in ILWU Local 502 (New
Westminster). He was hired on in 1958; Singh
didn’t recall a whole lot of trouble for being the
first “East Indian” in the local. He talks about
the increase of diversity he saw on the waterfront
over his career. He worked the “greenchain” at
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