Page 5 - Florida Sentinel 8-21-20

Feature
James ‘Chicken’ Harrell Recalls Changes After 60 Years On Docks
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
James “Chicken” Har- rell, Sr., spent 60 years around the docks as a long- shoreman with the Interna- tional Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), Local 1402. His health led to his retire- ment in 2018. Since then he has been enjoying his family, playing dominoes with the guys at the “Hall” and watch- ing TV. Before the pandemic struck, he also enjoyed base- ball games in the area, and boating with family.
Just recently, Andre Davis, Vice President of Local 1402, organized a drive through at “The Hall” to recog- nize Harrell’s 60 years of service to the Local.
In a telephone conversa- tion this week, Harrell re- called the hard work longshormen did on the docks
JAMES HARRELL, SR.
compared to what it’s like now.
Harrell’s journey with the organization began with an uncle, Joseph Harrell, who was already a longshoreman.
“During those times you could get men off the streets to come work on the docks, in the hole. The jail was right down from the Hall. So Mr. Harvey (Sr.) would get them when they were released from jail to do the work. There was a lot of loose work that you had to
James “Chicken” Harrell, Leon Chandler, Sr., President of Local 1402; Howard Roundtree, Business Agent; and Vice Presi- dent of Local 1402 Andre Davis, who made the presentation to Har- rell.
Local 1402. At that time, he was a Header and continued to work on the docks. In 1972, Perry Harvey, Jr., named him a Deputy Vice President of the organization. That meant more office duties and travel- ing a lot on behalf of the or- ganization. He became President of the organization after Harvey, Jr.’s death.
Harrell spent 2 terms as President of ILA, Local 1402.
When asked how did he get the nickname “Chicken,” that brought a chuckle from him. He recalls a teacher gave him that name while in 7th grade at Booker T. Washing- ton. “There are a lot of people who don’t even know me by my name – just “Chicken,” he said.
The father of 6 (1 daughter is deceased), Harrell and his wife, Linda, have several grands and great-grandchil- dren.
handle by hand,” he explained, “and we needed the men.”
At the time, they worked with pallets, boxes and con- tainers. They had about 16 gangs (groups of workers) of 4 guys per gang.
But then 9-1-1 struck. After that, the men had to have cer- tain credentials and qualifica-
tions to be longshoremen. “That took away a lot of the jobs we had. We had only 3 or 4 gangs, with 7 men in each gang,” he said. The men then became forklift and crane driv-
ers,” Harrell said.
Seeing the dedication in
his work, Perry Harvey, Sr., named him a Vice President of
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