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In December 1980, an officer with the longshoremen's union in San Francisco learned that a shipment of military weapons on the docks was soon to be loaded onto a ship bound for the military dictatorship government of El Salvador. While the Salvadoran regime murdered thousands of its citizens, in the United States, Ronald Reagan was elected president on a conservative, union-busting agenda.
Herb Mills, a local officer in the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union), led his union's campaign to refuse to load the weapons. But such a direct violation of their union contract could lead the government to jailing the officers and putting the union into receivership.
How could the union stop the shipment and keep out of jail? Would the public support them and, if so, how? Would the press vilify or praise them?
Based on his personal archives and historical union records, Mills fashions a fictional account of that campaign. The names have been changed, but the courage and the daring of the union men and women are not made up, they are all real, and now their story is told.
