In early April of 1940 the talk around Fields Landing was that the San Francisco Sea Products Company wanted to build a whaling station there. A town meeting was held at the Fields Landing Civic Club Hall. Mr. A. D. McBride, one of the owners of the company, was on hand to promote the whaling station. His pitch was a success, when at the end of the meeting, almost all hands were raised in support of building the plant. Over a dozen of us out-of-work local men were happy to be gainfully employed in construction. Most of us stayed on as part of the processing crew during the 1940 season.

While building the whaling station, those of us who were promised jobs when it opened began organizing a local union. I contacted Helen Lima, secretary of the Eureka CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) Fishermen’s and Fish Plant Workers’ Union, in an effort to get us signed up in that local. However, more experienced and influential union people were able to start a new local, the Eureka and Fields Landing Cannery Workers’ Union, affiliated with a rival organization, the Seafarers’ International Union of North America, AFL (American Federation of Labor). Our contract with the AFL was signed on the tenth day of June in 1940 by Harry Lundeberg, International President for the union, and by A. D. McBride for San Francisco Sea Products.

The selection of the AFL union was a letdown for me as I was trying as best I could to help build the CIO in Humboldt County. On May 2, 1940, I had written to Vern Smith, a San Francisco labor reporter, to find out about the San Francisco Sea Products Company: “I am seeking information concerning their labor record, union conditions around such a plant, and what union would have jurisdiction over a whaling plant.” I told Mr. Smith that we were getting 75 cents an hour as laborers while building the plant and hoped to be paid 85 cents an hour when the station began to butcher the whales. I expressed the hope that if the whaling station employees worked for good union wages under a signed agreement this would aid the current organizing drive by the CIO in the lumber industry for better wages and a union shop.

On May 6 Vern Smith wrote back, saying that the United Fishermen’s Union in San Francisco was negotiating with McBride, whom they had dealt with previously. Smith suggested that I contact Helen Lima (which I had already done) at the United Fishermen’s Union office at 236 D Street in Eureka and asked me to keep him informed of any progress in our attempts to organize the lumber industry. Sad to say, the union organizing drives in the redwoods were never totally successful, mainly because the companies blacklisted potential employees with union backgrounds.

We joined the AFL Eureka and Fields Landing Cannery Workers’ Union and elected Dick Berg president at our first meeting. He was the plant foreman and came to Fields Landing as one of McBride’s key men. (Prior to the enactment of the anti-labor Taft-Hartley Law in l947 by the Republican-dominated Congress it was legal for foremen to join the same unions as other employees.) We elected Louis Mundt, another key man who came from the 1939 whaling station near San Rafael, as our financial secretary-business agent. Walter “Bus” Selvage, the newly elected vice-president, was a Fields Landing resident. He was aware that I had taken the shorthand notes for the town meeting, so he and Mundt recommended me for recording secretary, an office I accepted with the approval of the membership. They were impressed that I had gone to college all of one and one-half years. In the late thirties in Humboldt County many young men didn’t finish high school, let alone attend college. Though I had been in a couple of unions in the late thirties, this was my first elected union position.

June of 1940

The first regular meeting of the Eureka and Fields Landing Fish Cannery Workers’ Union of the Pacific was held on Wednesday, June 5, 1940. Whaling station operations had formally begun the previous Sunday, when the first boats were dispatched. After the officers were elected and sworn in, we discussed admitting new members. Several were initiated into the local, including A.D. McBride’s son, Darcy, who was hired as a common laborer. The union decided not to accept the plant watchman as a member of the local. This was not unusual as watchmen were not considered production workers. Business Agent Louis Mundt read the provisional agreement. Discussion was held on several of its sections, including one giving more skilled members preference in employment. That meant that key men such as a second flenser could remain on the job even with less seniority. (The flenser was responsible for stripping blubber from the bones of the whale.) That provision was accepted. It was moved, seconded and passed that if any worker had to work more than five hours straight, he would get at least a half-hour off for a meal.

This was a progressive reform: many employers at that time didn’t allow time off for lunch, let alone a break; lunch had to be eaten while working. Another provision in the contract that was readily accepted was that the company had to furnish a first-aid kit, proper sanitary facilities, and showers.

It was decided to delete the section allowing the employer to obtain extra men for night work without going through union channels and to retain another clause that all extra workers must get working permits. These permits were purchased by the employee from the union and were good for only a few days. If the company decided to keep the new employee, he would have to join the union. We insisted that the proposed agreement be strictly enforced. The Gleaner brought in the first whales on June 13 and 18, and our next union meeting was held on Wednesday, June 19. A few minutes before the meeting started, Mr. McBride came in and told members that he was carrying out his plan, as presented previously at a town hall meeting, to have tourists observe the whaling operation, and he promised a portion of the gate receipts to the crew. After making this announcement, McBride left, and the meeting was called to order.

Vice-President Bus Selvage again brought up the question of whether the watchman, James Cowen, could join the union. It was decided to postpone judgment until he applied for membership. The watchman was a former butcher shop owner in Fields Landing. (He was also a former county supervisor, who had spent time in San Quentin Prison upon conviction for writing county checks to dead people and then cashing those checks for his own use.) Business Agent Louis Mundt read the clause from the agreement providing that a worker would get paid a minimum of four hours if put to work and for two hours if not put to work, unless he had been notified not to show up on the job. This was important to a worker who spent gas money and time getting to work only to be sent home without compensation. In 1940, many of the workers could not be notified beforehand because they didn’t have telephones.

Brother Herb Schlinkman — union members are called brothers or sisters — was fined one dollar for failing to attend the previous meeting without a satisfactory excuse. Attendance at union meetings was required. (After the passage of the Taft-Hartley act of 1947, unions were no longer permitted to levy such fines.) The demands for a decent drinking fountain and night meals paid for by the company were discussed. Because the crew often worked extremely long hours when there were several whales on the landing to be processed, night meals were important. With no more items on the agenda, the meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m.

July of 1940

On July 3 the meeting was called to order at 8:00 p.m. Brothers Kelly and Brandt were initiated. Brothers Henry Hovland, Kelly, Carl Brandt, and Herb Schlinkman were appointed to see about getting the promised showers, drinking fountain and a place to wash clothes. (In the minutes, some of our members were identified by either first or last names, and as recording secretary, I have to take responsibility for not reporting Kelly’s full name.)

Brother Carl Brandt was hired as the second flenser because we had too many whales for Henry, the primary flenser (another one of McBride’s key men). Brandt had worked in the Trinidad Whaling Station. The fact that the showers were not yet installed by July 3, 1940, although they were part of our union contract signed on the 10th of June, showed that the company was slow in carrying out some of the provisions of our agreement.

Albin J. Gruhn, a rising figure in the local labor movement and head of the Eureka Labor Council, addressed the local and urged us to affiliate with the council. Joining the council could strengthen our influence in the local labor movement.

August of 1940

The next meeting was called to order on August 7 at 8:00 p.m. by acting chairman, Brother Darcy McBride. The applications for membership by French, Johnson, Hibbard, and McNamara were accepted. (Three of these new men lived in Fields Landing; perhaps they had heard of the “big money” we were making and had quit their previous jobs.) Frank Shipman, a local craft trade unionist, was endorsed for the office of vice-president of the California State Federation of Labor. He was part of the conservative leadership of the Humboldt County labor movement. The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m. for refreshments. No doubt many of the members were getting thirsty for beer and harder drinks from the bar in the Fields Landing Hotel where the meetings were held. (That hotel, built in 1884, was run by Botchi Santi in 1940. It is now the Whalers’ Inn.)

The very next night, August 8, 1940, a special meeting was called to order at 9:30 p.m. to deal with unsettled issues. Brother Henry reported that the showers had been put in, but not the washing machine. There was discussion about a man working without a permit, contrary to the working agreement. Brothers Henry, Brandt, Kelly and Graham were chosen unanimously as the shop committee to prevent violations of the union contract. The members had confidence in the leadership ability of those skilled workers. A motion to affiliate to the Eureka Labor Council was passed. Brother Johnson and myself were elected as delegates. That was my first election as a delegate to any labor council. The meeting adjourned at 10:45.

As far as I know, no other minutes of that local for the year 1940 exist. I recall that during much of the summer, Superintendent Klein tried to bring in new hires without going through the union. We had to attempt to strictly enforce the contract to protect our jobs and conditions. The fact that it took two months to get the showers installed while the crew was laboring under odorous conditions is an example of many broken promises made by McBride — one slick promoter, as it turned out.

As pointed out earlier, common laborers received 75 cents an hour while building the plant and expected to get paid 85 cents an hour when the plant commenced full operation. Instead, those in the lowest paid jobs got only 70 cents per hour. I would like to believe that if we had gotten a contract under the CIO we would have obtained our wage goal. One thing I do know was that in 1940 the AFL leadership often made sweetheart agreements with companies in order to keep their rival, the CIO, from gaining new bases in the labor movement. At that time in Humboldt County, the AFL leadership of the lumber workers was successful in preventing the International Woodworkers of America, CIO, from establishing a foothold in the lumber industry.

Another factor to consider was that the two top leaders (Berg and Mundt) of our local came to Fields Landing with the company. Furthermore, ever since about 1915, when the Northwestern Pacific Railroad had moved its shops and yards to Eureka, Fields Landing had been basically a non-union town. All told we did quite well for ourselves through that small union, and we did learn how to function in a democratic manner.

Although it pains me to write ill of a union brother, in light of the likelihood that because of his age and lifestyle he must be long ago deceased, I feel obligated to mention that our elected delegate to the California State AFL Convention did our local an injustice. As sometimes happens at such gatherings, our delegate went on a big drunk, missed most of the sessions, and blew our union’s small treasury.

My experiences in the whalers’ union in 1940 were invaluable training for my life’s work in the labor movement.

SIDEBAR: Whale-Watching, 1940s-Style

At the town meeting in Fields Landing, Mr. A.D. McBride, who was promoting the whaling station, presented his plan to attract sightseers to the plant. “This will be the only place in the United States where visitors will be able to see whales being cut up,” McBride said. “This is bound to help out your town. Of course we will charge the visitors in order to get a little money from the deal. There will be a walk built around the plant for this purpose.”

That walk was not built, but McBride’s promise to attract visitors came to fruition. The sightseers were only a few feet back from the processing. When the deck was hosed down, the plant crew had to make sure the tourists were not in the way of pieces of whale gut, meat and blubber being washed into the bay.

Helen (Mitchell) Selvage, whose husband Bus Selvage was the winch driver at the plant, remembered an incident that happened to a large group of paying visitors. As a whale was being sliced up on the processing deck, the hook (which was used to peel off a strip of blubber the length of the whale) broke loose and everyone close by was splattered with whale pieces and blood. Among those in the line of fire were the late Dr. Sam Burre and his beautiful wife, Norma (Gambi) Burre, who was dressed in white. Both of them were covered from head to toe with whale mess.

My cousin, Myrtle (Barnes) Baxter from Rohnerville attended a talk at the whaling station given by Dr. Frances K. Oldham, a marine biologist from the University of Chicago. Dr. Oldham was seeking whale glands for her fellow scientists at the university and was interested in examining whale fetuses. According to Myrtle, “The fetuses were in a tub in some kind of preservative at the entrance to the station. I asked the man at the gate if I could have a picture taken holding the whales up by the tail. The smell was something to write home about. I saw people gagging and leaving with their hands over their mouths. The blood that dripped onto the planks rotted there and didn’t make for too good of perfume. I know they hosed the planks off, but that didn’t quite do the job. I saw them perform a Caesarean on a whale. The fetus was several feet long.” (Unborn whales, sometimes up to twenty feet long, were frequently found in the mother.)

The Fields Landing Whaling Station was the only whaling station in operation in the continental United States during World War II. The ownership and name of the whalery had changed by 1943. Owner Max Hoffman’s company was now called Wartime Industries. The name and new operating procedures reflected the wartime status. Whales were processed immediately instead of being put on display for tourists. Tourists were still welcome, but not a priority.

In 1948 Gilbert Hunter and Herman Foland bought out Max Hoffman. Hunter and Foland turned the whaling station back into a tourist attraction. There were sixty-seven whales to observe in 1948. When a whale was winched onto the deck, a line of customers formed at the box office where they were charged a small admission fee to watch the whale being butchered. An editorial in the Humboldt Standard helped to boost tourism by comparing the giant whales to the giant redwoods. Both were identified with the “history, tradition, development, and economy of Humboldt County.”

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Lesa Coleman met Noel Harris in the basement of the Humboldt State Library in 1991. Noel had helped to acquire about one hundred boxes of papers from the defunct Redwood District Council of Lumber and Sawmill Workers for the Humboldt Labor History Project. While working on her B.A in history, Lesa was hired as a student assistant to help in archiving the records. A few years later, Noel and Lesa spent many Saturdays volunteering in the Humboldt Room at the county library in Eureka. They used this opportunity to research materials about Fields Landing and the whaling station.

The story above was originally printed in the Summer 2007 issue of The Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society, and is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.