The New York herald., 1921-05-15
.TUCDOAT ENGINEERS
IGNORE STRIKE CALL
Fear Lower Scale Here if
They Break Agreement
Lasting to Jan. /.
UNION MEETING TO-DAY
UNION MEETING TO-DAY
Shun Unfair U. S. Ships Is
Worldwide Order of In
ternatiOnal Seamen.
ELEVEN SHIPS LEAVE NY,
Great Lakes Men Accept Cuts
of Is and % P. c., Shipping
Board Reports.

Organized labor's attempt to in,
tensify the marine strike by drawing
into it the tugboats of New York har-
Dor has failed thus far. Few II any
tugboat engineers have needed the re.
quest of their leader, Thomas B. Healey
that they refuse to handle unfair
ships.
This reluctance, 1t was said yester-
day, is due to their unwillingness to
violate the union contract with the
towing companies, which runs to IAN
uary 1 1922. Aside from any legal
action the employers might take II the
men ignored the agreement, the break
ing OF it would automatically give the
employers a chance to present a new
wage scale, and In the present condi.
ton OF the labor market and the ship
ping industry the engineers believe
that such a scale would be consider
ably lower than the present one.
The tugboat phase of the strike Is to
Park place at . 80 o'clock this after
noon. Mr. Healey said yesterday he
did not know what would come of It,
but he added that from Union stand
point the situation was curious, when
steamship engineers belonging to local
80 were on strike and doing their best to
tie up American shipping and the tug
boat engineers, members of the same
local, were assisting ships to move and
thus to break the strike. Tugboats also
stand by and furnish steam when the
ships are loading and unloading.
The International Seamen's Union
which has left the handling OF strike
negotiations to the engineers, got busy
on its own account yesterday and asked
members of the organization throughout
the world not to handle American ships
the. wages of whose crews have been
cut.
From the port Of New York eleven
steamships sailed yesterday, four more
than on the preceding Saturday One
was the big Red Star liner Finland
with 700 messengers, for Plymouth, Cher'
| bourg and Antwerp. At the pier 1t was
said. with the intention OF delaying ths
departure. striking firemen got them
selves hired aboard the ship through =
etrike breaking agency and then. JUS
before sailing time. resigned" Evident
" the company had plenty OF reserves
for the Finland. pulled into the stream
| by tugboats, as usual, sailed at noon
| as scheduled, assisted by the cneerins
! of passengers on the Cedric and Olympic
! lying near by
| Other American steamships gettina
awav were the Walter A. Luckenbach
| for Hamburg by way or Philadelphia
El Estero for New Orleans, Henry r
Mallory Of Havana, Hamilton for Nor
folk. Ell Oriente for Galveston, City O
Alma for Philadelphia, Arapahoe FOL
Galveston and Jacksonville, Pearldor
for Tannpico, San Lorenzo for Porte
Rico. Zacata for Santiago and Kingston
and F. u. Asche for Texas City. On'
of the vessels still held UP is the Color
Of the Panama Line.
The Shipping Board was INFORMED
Yesterday that the Lake Carriers Asso
| citation. controlling most of the tonnage
on the great lakes. had decided to Gu
| the wages of officers, including engi
neers 15 per cent. and OF unlicensed
mon an average OF % per cent, ant
that the men had agreed to accept tn
reduction. Hardly more than 20 pc