Montana labor news., 1936-12-03
West Coast Strike
Spreads As Nego-
tidtions Fail 10 Aid
By MIRIAM ALLEN deFORD
Federated Press

SAN FRANCISCO. - tffl - Inc
west coast maritime strike was
swelled by the addition of 600 barge
men on San Francisco bay and the
| San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers,
as hopes of breaking the deadlock
between shippers and unionists
waned on the refusal of steam
| schooner owners to negotiate with
the Masters, Mates & Pilots Union.
It was expected that if differences
with steam schooner operators were
settled, a beginning could then be
made with the group of deep sea
operators represented by E. T. Ford
of the Grace line, which are willing
to grant the unions fundamental de-
mands. After that, a split might
take place in the Coast Committee
of Shipowners, headed by 1. q.
Plant. This group contains the
richly subsidized diehards-Dollar,
Matson and American-Hawaiian-
against whom Pres. Roosevelt is re-
ported to be considering bringing
pressure for settlement. The Dollar
line is said to have obligations to the
government in excess of $l7,0OO,O0O.
AS hopes for immediate negotla-
lions faded, discussion conferred on
the handling of perishable foodstuffs
aboard vessels and in warehouses.
Strike committees at coast ports
were voting on removal of perish
ables from ships, as recommended
by the joint maritime strike COM
mittee. No union action will be
taken on requests for skeleton crews
to man ships until this question is
settled. Some owners yer report
ed placing guards on ships, which
would present new dangers in the
tense situation.
The skeleton crew issue has been
complicated by reports from Port
land, Ore, that federal steamboat in
spectors there were taking the num-
!, bers of licensed personnel who
walked off ships, an action construed
as a denial of the right to strike. Al
New York, Director J. B. Weaver OF
r the bureau of navigation and steam
boat inspection, heard himself called
"Strikebreaker No. |" by James P
Traynor of the Master Engineer!
n Beneficial Assn. for threatening en-.
gineers who refused to work or
: struck vessels.
Striking warehousemen were
/ ready to issue permits for remova
q Of food products for hospitals anc
the army and navy, but employers
3 refused at first to accept the permi
n system. It seemed likely that som'
s permit system for handling perish
Y able fruits and vegetables would b.
evolved, however. The Waterfront
remains tense but quiet.
The northwest lumber industr!
was slowed down as it felt effects o
the strike. At the San Francisc,
,tICentral Labor Council, Dist. Pres
Harry Bridges of the init. Long
# shoremen's Assn, received a big ova
l. ton and told the union delegates
nl"We don't need your help yet, am
we're not going to ask for it unit
a-we do" The Maritime Federatio,
sr of the Pacific cabled New Zealan
If unions asking their refusal to wor
American ships Or at least to ba
Handling of hot cargo.
,e At New Orleans, where everyon
to from a Y. W. c. A. secretary to
m Communist gets arrested now an
sr then as a red, 200 rank-and-file long
u shoremen and sailors, picketing j
le sympathy with the west coast, wer
ordered arrested. Police informe
them they were Communists. Or
NEGRO replied: Use no Communis
H. Use Methodist" Holt Ross, Amer
l. can Federation of Labor represent;
es tive, has denounced the New o.
Al leans strike as outlaw. Police al
of mobilized with riot guns, rifles ar
teargas bombs. The strike there a
re fected chiefly Luckenbach ar
H. Swayne & Hoyt lines.
he'll At New York, a weekend confe
ence was planned by the Seamen
defense Committee, with delegat
from east coast and gulf ports e.
pected to attend. Demands for we
coast scales might be brought 70
ward at that time. Vice-Pres, Dav
E. Grange Of the Init. Seamen's U,
ion, combating the rank-and-fi
tieup, announced plans to pick
lSeamen's Defense Committee hea
quarters and to open recruiting hal
for non-striking seamen. He threa
: ened expulsion of strikers from Il
union. Shipowners called on FEEDER
and New York City officials for he
in breaking the strike, which h
: seriously affected all but a fe
freighters in the harbor.