FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ILA Local 1233 Women Pioneers

Still Going Strong

 (Local 1233 pay homage & appreciation to their perseverance that paved the way for all women)

Article By: ILA Local1233 President, William Bernard Dudley

Summary History of Women Entering the Port

     While it is almost a cliché to describing dedicated members of our community as "laboring in the vineyards of the lord," few Americans are better characterized by that poetic turn of phrase than Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm who was the first serious African-American candidate for President of the United States, running under the slogan "Unbought and Unbossed." She also helped bring women into the Port of New York / New Jersey in 1979.

In that year, thanks to the prescient foresight of Congresswoman Chisholm, a series of events took place that changed our union, our country, and, indeed, our world. In that year, the first women dockworkers began operating on the East Coast piers of the United States. Her coalition-building outreach to both the Civil Rights and Women's Movements truly changed the face of America, not just at the ports, but in all workplaces. Together with the National Organization of Woman, as well as many other Civil Rights groups, Mrs. Chisholm's efforts, first in her own 12th Congressional District of Brooklyn, and later throughout the entire Port of NY/NJ, opened the docks to our sisters.

(Pioneer Women Receive Awards, Left to right: Alba Harris, Linda Wilkins, Lillian Boyd, Cynthia Brooks, Jessica Freeman, Gwen "Gwen2" Wells, not pictured Maxine Poku)

Of the more than sixty women who entered our Local Union initially, only seven steadfast sisters remain today. But those pioneers opened the port to their "daughters", to all of our daughters, sisters, nieces, and aunts as they opened the industry to all women who work the deep-waters ports of our country today.

William Bernard Dudley

President, Local ILA 1233