 During the 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike the longshoreman's unions organized at Pier 26.The Bloody Thursday riots of July 5, 1934 that killed two union workers occurred outside of Pier 26.Although the strike was perceived by many to be a failure, it helped secure a critical pay raise for the longshoremen during the darkest days of the Great Depression, and cemented the resolve of waterfront unions to protest abuse by their superiors.