Shaun Maloney

Shaun "Jack" Maloney (1911–1999) was an American labor activist active in the Midwestern United States in the 20s and 30s and the West Coast of the United States after 1942. Though he was best known for his role in the 1934 Minneapolis Teamster Strike, Maloney was also an important figure in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in the 1970s.

Biography Maloney was born on 10 September 1911 in Minneapolis. His mother was an Irish nationalist and his step-father, Ole Severson, was a Teamster and Wobbly. In his early life he was known as Jack or John Severson after his step father, but he began to use his biological father's name around 1936 after receiving federal documents under that name. He was called Jack by people who knew him from Minneapolis but was called Shaun by his fellow sailors and longshore workers.

Following the 1934 strike, Maloney continued organizing truck drivers in the Midwest. In 1940, he was jailed when during a strike by the North Central District Drivers Council a delivery van was destroyed.After his release from prison in 1942 Maloney joined the United States Merchant Marine to avoid being drafted into a war he did not support. After sailing once to Russia in a convoy that suffered heavily casualties, he moved to the West Coast and sailed between Seattle and Alaska.