Sailors' Union of the Pacific

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SUP

Sailors' Union of the Pacific logo.jpg

Full name Sailors' Union of the Pacific

Founded March 6, 1885

Members 736 (2005)

Affiliation AFL-CIO

Key people Gunnar Lundeberg, president

Country United States

Website sailors.org

The Sailors' Union of the Pacific (SUP), founded on March 6, 1885 in San
Francisco, California, [1] is an American labor union of mariners, fishermen
and boatmen working aboard US flag vessels.

At its fourth meeting in 1885, the fledgling organization adopted the name
Coast Sailor's Union and elected George Thompson its first president.
Andrew Furuseth, who had joined the union on June 3, 1885 was elected to
its highest office in January 1887. In 1889 he returned to sea but was
reelected to the position of union secretary in 1891. It was during this
term[2] on July 29, 1891 that Furuseth merged the Coast Seamen's Union
with the Steamship Sailor's Union with the new organization named the
Sailors' Union of the Pacific.[3]

With the exception of a two-year period when he shipped out as a

fisherman, he was secretary of the SUP until 1935.[4] In 1908, Furuseth
also became president of the International Seamen's Union and served in
that office until 1938.[2] During this period, he successfully pushed for
legislative reforms that eventually became the Seamen's Act of 1915.[2]
SUP is an affiliate union of Seafarers International Union of North America.
Headquarters are in San Francisco [5] and the union has branch offices in
Wilmington, California, Seattle, Washington, and Honolulu, Hawaii. SUP
also has an office in Norfolk, Virginia.