March 28, 2018 — The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center has begun a major research initiative, exploring the history and role of unions and other industry organizations from the 1930s to the present through a combination of archival research and oral history interviews.

The resulting documentation will become part of the center’s growing archive and will provide the foundation for the creation of exhibits, public programs and publications. Funding for this project is provided through grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Mass Humanities.

The center is currently working to identify individuals who worked in the fish houses (seafood-processing plants) during the 1970s and during the seafood workers strike of 1981 as part of an effort to better understand and document the history of organized labor on the city’s waterfront. The center is particularly interested in understanding how the seafood industry, work conditions, the labor force and the community has changed over time, according to a news release.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times