Kagel, last leadership survivor of 1934 dock strike, dies at 98
Sam Kagel, the last surviving member of union leadership in the famous and bloody 1934 San Francisco waterfront strike, died last Monday of heart failure. He was 98.
Kagel spent more than 70 years as a nationally known labor arbitrator, handling more than 10,000 cases throughout his career. He garnered headlines in 1935 with one of his first major cases, negotiating severance packages for ferryboat crews displaced by the building of the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge.
Born in San Francisco in 1909, Kagel worked his way through UC Berkley where he studied economics. In the early 1930s, while representing labor unions for the Pacific Coast Labor Bureau, Kagel met and began a life-long friendship with Harry Bridges, who would later gain fame as the leader of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union.
Kagel served on the ILWU steering committee during the 1934 dock strike that eventually led to a general strike that shut down San Francisco.
During World War II he represented workers in war industries and following the war taught law at UC Berkley.
Appointed chief arbitrator for the ILWU and Pacific Maritime Association contracts in 1948, Kagel held the position until 2002.
Kagel is survived by his second wife and three children.