How the life and personal qualities of Harry Bridges can inspire us to Scholarship Essay

How the life and personal qualities of Harry Bridges can inspire us to give our goals today - Scholarship Essay ExampleAfter completing school, Bridges declined to enter his fathers real estate business, choosing to be a merchant seaman at 16. In 1920, Bridges entered the USA, and became a longshoreman at San Francisco in 1922. Bridges protested against the stranglehold of the ship owners through the company-controlled Longshoremens Association of San Francisco and the Bay expanse (the Blue Book Union). Speedups, arbitrary dismissals, blacklisting of militant workers, low wages, long hours and dangerous working conditions were endemic on the docks. Bridges earned support among the longshoremen for the revival of the local anaesthetic of the International Longshoremens Association, advocating Organization...rank and file control... unity of action... league democracy... solidarity among each Coast ports... among all unions, (ILWU website). The local ILA was formed in 1933. Despit e pressure from the Roosevelt administration, theories of a communistic conspiracy and media opposition, the 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike began on May 9, with Bridges as the chairman of the Strike Committee. Bridges formed a coalition of all waterfront workers and effectively stopped shipping on the West Coast. On July 5, Bloody Thursday, the police charged the workers picket lines, shooting into the ranks of unarmed men, and wounded over whizz hundred men. Two men were killed. This led to a general strike and finally, arbitration commenced, with the unions successfully negotiating joint hiring-halls, a thirty hour week, higher wages, union recognition and coast-wide contracts. In 1937, Bridges founded the ILWU, serving as President for 40 years.Bridges life was characterized by a shining integrity which one cannot cave in to admire. He remained steadfast in his loyalty to his fellow-workers, insisting that the salary of all union officials be the same as that of a longshorem ans wages. His tactics are a shining example of the adage United we stand,