Memorial plaque Howard Street

The metal plaque on the Howard Street side of the old Pacific Telephone and Telegraph building marks the spot where the nineteen thirty-four general strike turned violent. On July fifth, a day known to labor organizers as Bloody Thursday, police fired into a crowd of striking longshoremen and their supporters. Two men, Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise, died from their wounds. The strike lasted eighty-three days, eventually shutting down every port from San Diego to Seattle and changing local labor relations forever.