The 1985–1986 New Bedford fishermen's strike was a labor strike involving fishermen in the port city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States. The strike, led by the Seafarers International Union of North America, began on December 26, 1985, after discussions on the terms of a new labor contract fell apart. The strike continued into the next year and involved about 700 of the 1,200 fishermen in the city. The strike ended around March 1986 with mixed results for the union, with a compromised labor contract. However, the strike severely hurt organized labor among the fishermen, with the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center saying that the strike "[led] to the end of organized labor in the New Bedford fishing fleet".
Situated in a natural harbor on Massachusetts's South Coast, New Bedford developed a strong commercial fishing industry in the early 1900s, becoming a major processing location for sea scallops. During the 1930s and 1940s, a public fish auction was established, and fishermen in the city unionized. By 1985, the Seafarers International Union of North America (SIU) represented about 700 of the 1,200 fishermen in the city and negotiated labor contracts with the shipowners. About 30 owners, representing 100 of the city's 250-ship fishing fleet, were part of the Seafood Producers Association, a trade association whose labor contracts typically set the standard for the entire port. In 1985, the union and association entered negotiations for a new contract. While New Bedford was one of the highest earning ports in the country at the time and had brought in over $100 million in catches last year, 1985 saw a decline in catches. Coupled with increased costs of operating ships, the association requested a change to the contracts that would have seen the shares of revenue from the catches be split equally between the fishermen and the shipowners and captains. However, the union rebuffed, pushing to maintain the current split that favored the fishermen, while also requesting increases in benefits and requiring hiring to take place through the union. After both sides could not come to an agreement, the union went on strike on December 26.
Over the next few days, the union began picketing along the docks, also blocking entry to the auction house, causing fish trading to come to a halt in the city. Over the next few days, several ships began sailing with nonunion crews, and negotiations resumed sporadically under federal mediation in January 1986. During this time, there were several acts of violence, including multiple fires set to buildings and at least two bomb threats, though the union denied any involvement. As the strike continued into February, more and more ships began sailing with both union and nonunion crews, negotiating contracts independently with the union. By late February, most of the ships in New Bedford were in operation again, and several shipowners who were part of the association opted to negotiate independent contracts as well. By this time, multiple sources reported that the strike was winding down. In the aftermath of the strike, organized labor had been severely weakened, and the public auction house was not reopened as business interests instead opened a private operation. A new public auction was later opened in 1994 and as of 2022 was one of the largest public fish auctions in the United States. In 2017, the strike was the subject of a documentary film that was coproduced by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center and the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.
Background
Fishing industry in New Bedford
New Bedford, Massachusetts, is a seaside port city situated at the mouth of the Acushnet River, where it shares a natural harbor with the towns of Acushnet and Fairhaven along the state's South Coast. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the city had an economy supported by its large whaling and textile industries, though starting in the early 1900s, as these industries went into decline, the city's commercial fishing industry grew. In the early 1900s, the introduction of more powerful diesel engines allowed ships from New Bedford to travel further from the port to Georges Bank, off the coast of Cape Cod. During this time, the port quickly becomes a major processing location for sea scallops, and shortly after World War II, 80 percent of the sea scallops caught off of the coast of the United States were being unloaded in New Bedford. In the 1930s, a permanent trade union was established amongst the fishermen in the city.
Through the early 1900s, the city was not a major site for the buying and selling of fish, as many of the city's fishermen sold their catches at the Fulton Fish Market in New York City or at the fish market in Boston, which was accessible from New Bedford via the Cape Cod Canal. This began to change through the 1930s, and improvements in refrigeration technology and infrastructure in New Bedford, such as the building of a freezer plant, caused more fishermen to unload their catches in the city. Prior to the 1940s, ship captains would negotiate directly with different merchants in the area to sell their catches. However, in 1941, New Bedford's Seafood Producers Association and the Atlantic Fishermen's Union established the New Bedford Fish Auction. The auction, operated by the trade association of boat owners and the union, allowed for merchants to bid on fishermen's daily catches following a set of rules and regulations. The catches would stay on the boats during the auction, and after the end of the auction day, the captains would either have their catches unloaded to the fish houses of the highest bidders. The auction was popular with the merchants and fishermen, and in September 1947, the city government added an addition to the Wharfinger Building to permanently house it. By municipal law, the auction was to be public, and it was the only place where fish sales could legally take place in New Bedford.
Labor disagreements By the 1980s, New Bedford had become one of the most lucrative fishing ports in the United States, regularly bringing in about $90 million in fish per year. In 1984, high scallop prices caused this value to increase to over $100 million (). However, in 1985, New Bedford's fishermen saw a decline in catches due to several reasons, including a decline in fish populations due to overfishing in the region, the closure of almost of shellfish locations due to pollution, and a ruling by the International Court of Justice that limited American fishermen's access to Georges Bank. Around this time, fishermen in the city were represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 59, but in March 1985, they switched their affiliation to the Seafarers International Union of North America (SIU). That same month, the labor contract that the Teamsters had established with the producers' association expired, but both sides agreed to continue to honor the contract's provisions while discussions on a new contract were underway. At the time, the SIU represented about 750 of the city's 1,200 fishermen. At this same time, the Seafood Producers Association was composed of 32 members, representing 110 ships. The total fishing fleet for New Bedford at the time was about 250 ships. Contracts negotiated between the union and the association, while not binding for non-association ships, usually set the standard for the entire port.
Going into December 1985, the union and producers' association were negotiating the terms of a new labor contract. Of chief concern to both parties were the division of proceeds from catches. Under a system established a decade prior, fishermen who worked on draggers would receive 58 percent of the proceeds from their ship's catch, while scallop fishermen received 68 percent. For draggers where crews paid their own expenses, as established in the Teamsters contract, the fishermen would receive 59 percent, while scallopers were already required to cover all expenses such as food and fuel. The remainder of the profits from the catches went to the shipowners and the skippers. According to the union, these rates had been in place for the past 25 years. The shipowners wanted to increase their share of the profits from the catch and requested that both of the rates for the fishermen be reduced to 50 percent, which the union rejected. Another point of contention concerned hiring, with the union wanting all fishermen sailing on the producers' association ships to come from the union hiring hall, while the shipowners wanted the skippers to have final say on the ship's crews. The union also sought to move the location of the fishermen's pension and welfare funds, and they requested a 9 percent increase in benefits and catch shares over the next three years, down from an initial proposed 11 percent at the beginning of the discussions. Additionally, the union wanted the fishermen to be considered employees of the shipowners they worked for, which would require the owners to pay half of the fishermen's Social Security tax. The shipowners rebuffed the union's requests, arguing that a combination of poor catches in the preceding months and increased costs of operating their ships, such as insurance, had hurt them economically, and offered to share their records with the union to prove this. With discussions at a standstill, negotiations ended on December 16, with union leaders authorizing a vote for strike action, which passed unanimously on December 26. This would be the first strike amongst the fishermen in New Bedford since a two-month labor dispute in 1973.
Course of the strike