Whatever hostility there was in the beginning soon went. However, the challenge remained, and that challenge together with the union is mainly responsible for the splendid discipline aboard the gray ships. If you were to watch a deck gang rigging booms, you would be hard put to locate the bosun among the others. They study for upgrading and promotion. The men are fanatically loyal to their union.
Union schools upgrade along with government schools.
The National Maritime Union has the finest wartime no-strike record of any body of organized labor. Union casualty lists run into the many thousands. The real hatred of fascism and Nazism which helped our seamen to take their ships anywhere came in a large measure from their union training. The good food, the better working conditions, the relationship between officers and men is also very much due to the maritime trade union struggle. In the days when Westbrook Pegler led the vicious campaign of lies and false accusations against our merchant service, the legend was fostered that all merchant seamen were draft-dodgers and received fantastic pay.