How the life and personal qualities of Harry Bridges can inspire us to Scholarship Essay

How the life and personal qualities of Harry Bridges can inspire us to achieve our goals today - Scholarship Essay Example After completing school, Bridges declined to enter his father’s real estate business, choosing to be a merchant seaman at 16. In 1920, Bridges entered the USA, and became a longshoreman at San Francisco in 1922. Bridges protested against the stranglehold of the ship owners through the company-controlled Longshoremens Association of San Francisco and the Bay Region (the Blue Book Union). Speedups, arbitrary dismissals, blacklisting of militant workers, low wages, long hours and dangerous working conditions were endemic on the docks. Bridges earned support among the longshoremen for the revival of the local of the International Longshoremen’s Association, advocating "Organization...rank and file control... unity of action... union democracy... solidarity among all Coast ports... among all unions,† (ILWU website). The local ILA was formed in 1933. Despite pressure from the Roosevelt administration, theories of a communist conspiracy and media opposition, the 1934 Wes t Coast Longshore Strike began on May 9, with Bridges as the chairman of the Strike Committee. Bridges formed a coalition of all waterfront workers and effectively stopped shipping on the West Coast. On July 5, "Bloody Thursday," the police charged the workers picket lines, shooting into the ranks of unarmed men, and wounded over one hundred men. Two men were killed. This led to a general strike and finally, arbitration commenced, with the unions successfully negotiating joint hiring-halls, a thirty hour week, higher wages, union recognition and coast-wide contracts. In 1937, Bridges founded the ILWU, serving as President for 40 years. Bridges life was characterized by a shining integrity which one cannot fail to admire. He remained steadfast in his loyalty to his fellow-workers, insisting that the salary of all union officials be the same as that of a longshoreman’s wages. His tactics are a shining example of the adage ‘United we stand,