Joseph Curran

Joseph Curran
Joseph Curran, President of the National Maritime Union chats with Capt. Clifton Lastic of the Liberty ship SS Bert Williams
Born	(1906-03-01)March 1, 1906 New York, New York
Died	August 14, 1981(1981-08-14) (aged 75) Boca Raton, Florida
Occupation	Trade union leader
Spouse(s)	1) Retta Curran, 2) Florence Curran
Website	www.seafarers.org

Joseph Curran (March 1, 1906 – August 14, 1981) was a merchant seaman and an American labor leader. He was founding president of the National Maritime Union (or NMU, now part of the Seafarers International Union of North America) from 1937 to 1973, and a vice president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

Curran was born on Manhattan's Lower East Side. His father died when he was two years old, and his mother boarded with another family. He attended parochial school, but when he was 14 he was expelled during the seventh grade for truancy.

He worked as a caddy and factory worker before finding employment in 1922 in the United States Merchant Marine. He worked as an able seaman and boatswain, washing dishes in restaurants when not at sea and sleeping on a Battery Park bench at night. It was during this time that he received his lifelong nickname "Big Joe."

Curran joined the International Seamen's Union (or ISU; the remnants of which would become the Seafarers International Union), but was not active in the union at first.

In 1936, Curran led a strike aboard the ocean liner S.S. California, then docked in San Pedro, California. Curran and the crew of the Panama Pacific Line's California went on strike at sailing time and refused to cast off the lines unless wages were increased and overtime paid.