Social Context: What Was Being Walled In or Walled Out?
Ramparts and Recognition

In the wake of the shooting deaths, Governor Frank Merriam sent in the National Guard, who promptly occupied the waterfront, and—in a dramatic recognition of the carefully constructed "facts on the ground" — installed sand bagged machine gun emplacements on the roofs of the bulkhead buildings. It is difficult to imagine a more graphic testimony to the nature of these buildings. These rooftop posts were continually manned for the duration of the strike, with strikers now forcibly barred from the entire waterfront, which had become a field of fire commanded from the convenient ramparts of the bulkhead buildings.

However, the killing of the strikers united both the labor movement and the general public in strong, spontaneous sympathy with dockworkers. After lying in state in the union hall, the bodies were taken for burial in a dramatic mass funeral march down Market Street. This impressive event further galvanized public opinion in favor of the strikers.

Finally, from July 16 through 18, a general strike paralyzed the city. Confronted with the possibility of the strike spreading along the west coast, and with dwindling support for their position, employers finally agreed to binding arbitration of all issues.

When the lengthy arbitrations were finished, the union gained not only full recognition, but complete control over the hiring process, which was now relocated to the union hall itself, ending the humiliating shapeup. The last bulkhead building to be erected on the San Francisco waterfront was begun in 1936, the same year that hiring was moved to the union hall.