Pamphlets: Marine Cooks & Stewards Union

Representing service workers in the steward departments of United States ships that sailed in the Pacific, the Marine Cooks and Stewards Association of the Pacific Coast, later the National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards (NUMCS), was founded in 1901. After the maritime strikes in 1934 and 1936, communists and young radicals, as well as Black, Asian American, and gay workers, transformed it into one of the most democratic, racially integrated unions in the United States. By the 1950s, the majority of the members and leaders of the union were people of color.

Black and white photo of Marine Cooks and Stewards marching in the San Francisco labor day parade.

National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards at Market Street Parade, 1947

National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards at Market Street Parade Links to an external site., 1947. California Labor School Negative Collection, larc.pho.0013, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.