John Gilbert Mers, best known by his middle name, Gilbert, was born in Oklahoma, spent his youth in Arizona, and moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1929 at the age of twenty-one. In July of the following year, he began working with the longshoremen on the waterfront there. Mers did not become involved politically in union activities until December 1931, when he was elected president of the Local International Longshoremen's Association (I.L.A.) in Corpus Christi. In May 1934, Mers edited the official Americal Federation of Labor labor paper, which unfortunately only lasted a short time. He then retired fron active participation in union offices of the I.L.A. During that time, he was also involved in several strike activities, and served on the contract committee in the waterfront strike of 1935. Mers left Corpus Christi in March 1941, when he was called up in the peacetime draft. After World War II, he came to Houston where in 1947 he joined the International Workers of the World (I.W.W.), or the "Wobblies" as they were known. In 1948, Mers moved back to Corpus Christi, and in 1949 he was elected president of the Local for three consecutive terms. In 1957, Mers returned to Houston permanently, and remained interested in union activities.
From the guide to the Gilbert Mers Collection MSS 63., 1936-1969, (Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library)
