Montana labor news., 1937-01-28
5HIp0WNER5 AVOID
settlement EFFORT
CONTINUED from Page y


formed us that the shipowners were
not willing TO change their position
on this issue in any respect. In other
words, they were the mice in a 2H
hour game of cat and mouse.
Upon leaving the meeting we
were surprised to find that prepared
statements were already in the hands
of the press which purported to COW
er the meeting we had just left.
Included in the statements were
copies of letters addressed to us
which we hadn't even received yet.
They We're not delivered to US until
half an hour after we had returned
to our office.
'The proposals contained in the
letters We're at no time the subjects.
of discussion in the meeting.
'"The subject of the meeting was
preference of employment for u
Notwithstanding else. Refusal of
the shipowners to negotiate sincere
ly on this fundamental issue leave
us exactly where we were two
months ago. Ninety-five per cent
of the men eligible to fill positions
in the field which our union covers
are members of our union, and we
are asking that they be given pref
erence in filling vacancies-with the
employers right to pick and choose
among them as he sees fit. This is
the fundamental issue of our dispute
the issue which Mr. Plant refuses
sincerely to discuss"
Statement by E. F. Burke, Secy.-
Treas. of the Marine Cooks and
Stewards of the Pacific Coast, De-
cember 81, 1886.
81 feel that the circumstances sur
rounding our failure to get anywhere
by negotiating with the shipowners
are of particular public interest, in
asmuch as the point of dispute in
our case is the 8-hour day, one of
the fundamentals of the maritime
dispute as a whole, and at the same
time an established American insti-
tuition.
1--WE have been unconditionally re-
fused the 8-hour day, Present prac-
tice is for cooks and stewards to
work closer to 10 hours per day,
within a spread of Is hours.
when we came to the conference
with the shipowners' representatives
we knew request was just, rea-
sonable, and practical. In our ranks
are the men who have operated and
managed the sea-going cooks and
stewards departments for years.
"These men had taken the ships
section by section, man by man,
analysed each job and figured the
increase in men the 8-hour day
would require. II was our desire
to get down to brass tacks, to study
the facts.
"On the basis Of careful figures
we were willing to commit ourselves
to the statement that the additional
men required would never exceed
forty-reaching that figure only with
peak loads on the largest ships with
crews of 10000 in the cooks and
stewards departments.
"This threw the responsibility on
us. If we couldn't carry through the
8-hour day with a maximum increase
of 40 men, we would have no one to
blame but ourselves.
But the shipowners are unwilling
to let us so commit ourselves. They
first insisted the increase in men
would be ITO, later dropping their
figure to rs. But the important point
is that at no time did they present
figures to back their statements, nor
did they show any serious inclina-
ton to study ours.
1--WE therefore concluded that the
shipowners are not genuinely inter
ested in settling the dispute by ne
collation."
Fundamental issues which the en-
ployers r unwilling to give an inch
on are.
/. Continuance of the 6-hour day
and the hiring hall as established by
the U. S. Government arbitration
award of 1884 for the longshoremen.
2. Preferential hiring for licensed
officers.
3. Eight-hour day for the cooks
and stewards.
These demands are labor funda-
mentals, endorsed by the present ma
tional administration, which are be-
ing blocked by the big Three"-a
small group of shipowners who are
bent on destroying the entire union
movement on the Pacific Coast. Vigil
lantes, labor gag-laws which will be
introduced into Congress soon and
attempts to discredit union leaders
are few of the methods Matson, Dol
lar, and American Hawaiian are
using.
Strong public pressure is necessary
if the nations economic royalists,
both here and in the East are to be
prevented from pushing through