[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 34 (Tuesday, March 24, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1415]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   JIMMY HERMAN--WARRIOR FOR JUSTICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, sadly I rise to call to the attention of my 
colleagues the passing of a good friend of working people in America, 
Jimmy Herman.
  Jimmy Herman is one of the most respected and beloved labor leaders 
in San Francisco history, and he died on Friday. He was the president 
emeritus of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union.
  Jimmy was known for his enormous compassion, commitment to workers' 
rights and social justice. His life was truly about justice. He was 
also an extraordinary orator who inspired thousands to take up the 
cause of workers' rights, justice for farm workers, peace in Vietnam, 
to name a few. His death marks the end of an historic era in the labor 
history of the San Francisco Bay area and our Nation.
  Jimmy devoted his life to building a strong, democratic and 
multiracial trade union. Since the big strike of 1934, the ILWU has 
provided democratic and strong representation that gives voice, and 
that is ``democratic'' with a small ``d'', Mr. Speaker, to the 
aspirations of working people up and down the West Coast.
  The ILWU broke down barriers denied members of minority groups by 
providing access to a decent standard of living. It also provided a 
powerful means for working men and women to make a contribution to the 
political and social fabrics of their communities.
  Under the leadership of Harry Bridges, followed by Jim Herman, the 
ILWU faced head-on the great political challenges of our Nation, 
refusing in the 1930s to load scrap metal on ships bound for Japan or 
to unload cargo in ships bearing the Nazi swastika.
  Jim Herman led his union in its efforts to oppose the apartheid 
regime in South Africa, leading his members in refusing to unload cargo 
sent from South Africa. Jim Herman had a social conscience that did not 
allow for rest or moral fatigue. His moral leadership played an 
important role in bringing about a negotiated end to the war in El 
Salvador.
  In November 1989, Neighbor to Neighbor, a national grass-roots human 
rights organization based in San Francisco, launched a boycott of 
Salvadoran coffee to apply economic pressure on the Salvadoran 
Government and the coffee growers, many of whom had founded and funded 
the notorious death squads. The boycott was triggered by the murder of 
6 Jesuit priests and the bombing of a Salvadoran trade union 
federation.
  My chief of staff in San Francisco, Fred Ross, was the head of 
Neighbor to Neighbor at that time. So I was well aware of Jimmy's 
leadership and involvement. Under Jimmy's leadership, the ILWU strongly 
endorsed the coffee boycott. The members honored picket lines on the 
docks of San Francisco, Vancouver, B.C., Seattle, and gave the Cindad 
de Buenaventura ship loaded with 43 tons of Salvadoran coffee a final 
rejection in Long Beach, forcing it to sail back to El Salvador with 
its coffee in its hold.

                              {time}  1845

  The ILWU effectively sealed off the West Coast from shipments of 
Salvadoran coffee over the next 2 years.
  Another cause that Jim Herman championed was that of the farm workers 
led by Cesar Chavez. He was one of the first labor leaders to go to 
Delano to join the farm workers on the picket line. Later in his life 
he was a mentor to people at Delancey Street Foundation in San 
Francisco.
  I will submit for the Record some of the particulars of his 
background which is an extraordinary one.
  On this Earth, God's work for the poor, the disenfranchised for peace 
and social justice was done with love and compassion by Jim Herman 
throughout his lifetime. He was truly a warrior for justice.
  My heartfelt sympathies go out to his two brothers, Rodman Herman and 
Milton Herman. On a very personal note, I along with the gentlewoman 
from California (Ms. Eshoo), the gentleman from California (Mr. Miller) 
and many other members of the California delegation have lost a friend, 
a person who loved life, loved politics and all of the art of the 
impossibilities. Jim Herman's passion for life was matched only by his 
rage for justice.
  He is now our shining star, the one with the twinkle of merriment for 
all to see as night draws near, the twinkle that we will miss in his 
eye forever. We will miss you, our dear Jimmy, our sweet friend.
  Born in Newark, NJ on August 21, 1924, son of a school janitor, Jim 
Herman went to sea in the early months of World War II. Sailing was a 
tough, lonely business, ``. . . But it provided the opportunity to read 
everything in reach, and to talk with people who had seen it all,'' 
Jimmy once remarked.
  As a 16-year-old in 1942 he served on a freighter backing up the 
invasion of North Africa. After the war he was a steward on the Lurline 
during its majestic cruises between San Francisco and Honolulu. In 1949 
he led a walkout that forced the Lurline empty and silent for 6 months 
in solidarity with an ILWU strike in the massive sugar cane fields of 
Hawaii.
  In 1953, he joined Warehouse Local 6 in San Francisco. In 1956 he 
moved to Ship Clerk's Local 34, where he was elected vice president in 
1960 and president 1 year later. He was re-elected every 2 years 
thereafter, until his election to the presidency of the ILWU in 1977.
  His leadership was characterized by the continuation of the rank and 
file style of the leadership which had characterized the ILWU during 
Bridges' years. Under Jim Herman's leadership, through five sets of 
negotiations, the daily wage of longshoremen more than doubled, and the 
maximum monthly pension benefit tripled.
  In 1988, he steered the ILWU toward affiliation with the AFL-CIO, 
ending a long chapter of exclusion which had benefited neither the ILWU 
nor the Nation's labor movement. Throughout his presidency he was the 
ILWU's ambassador, building and strengthening the union's relationships 
with maritime and other unions, and within the larger community. Most 
of all, he kept the ILWU--with its broad and complex jurisdiction in 
the maritime industry, tourism, warehouse and distribution, 
manufacturing and processsing--strong and viable in extraordinarily 
difficult times.
  The labor movement was his family. ``The labor movement offered me a 
chance to be part of history, not just a passive observer,'' he has 
said. ``I'll never be able to repay that debt.'' It's not for lack of 
effort. Take Jim Herman's mentorship with the young men and women 
putting their lives back together at Delancey Street. ``He makes me 
cry,'' says Mimi Silbert, president of the drug and alcohol 
rehabilitation program. ``Two of three times a week he drops by to have 
coffee with the residents, talking, getting them interested in the 
world outside themselves, strengthening their faith in themselves.''

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