Evening star., 1946-09-14
.0fficiaIs Predict
Sea Strike 'sEnd
Within "a Hours
ClO Picket Lines
Keep Ports Tied Up
As Tight as Ever
By jones Y. Newton

Top Federal officials hopefully
predicted today that the great
Today old maritime strike would
be settled in the next "a hours.
AFL and CIO seamen had swapped
places on the picket lines about
the Nations ports, and shipping in
most places remained tied up as
tight as ever. Only in scattered
areas did the situation seem some
what eased.
Key to settlement tnat would free
the great ports and the several
thousand ships immobilized there
was the conference in New York
between the National Maritime
Union (CIO) and their ship-operat-
ing employers.
Early Agreement Expected.
Federal officials said they believed
| 1t was only question of time be-
fore NMU President Joseph Curran
and Frank j. Taylor. head of the
American Merchant Marine Insti-
tute, got together on a new agree
ment embodying the higher wages
for able-bodied seamen won by the
two unions of AFL sailors.
The two AFL unions which started
the strike September 5 in protest
OF Government stabilization ruling
reducing their newly won pay in
creases had reached agreement with
their employers and called of the
strike. The unions are the Sailors
Union of the Pacific, on the West
Coast, and the Seafarers Interna-
tional Union in the East and Gulf
areas.
The Seafarers ordered their pick
cts withdrawn from the ports after
settlement calling for higher pay
Tor able seamen was reached in
New York late yesterday between
Frank Hawk, union vice president,
and Leslie A. Parks, head of the
Atlantic and Gulf Ship Operators
Association.
| Members of the Seafarers and
Sailors Union voted in New York
and elsewhere, however. to respect
picket lines of the CIO sailors union,
whose 10000 members struck yes
terday for wage parity with the
e AFL.
30 Cross Picket Line.
+ About 80 members of the Inter-
national Longshoremen's Associa-
ton (AFL) walked through an
NMU picket line at a New York
City pier. There was no disturbance.
However, about 200 longshoremen
; at the pier refused to go to work
despite lila President Joseph p.
Ryan's plea that:
! There's no need here for a picket
line. Come on, if you want day's
pay, go in and get it,
In Baltimore. William Rentz, port
agent for the Seafarers, who earlier
had declared that his men would
resume their duties. said AFI sea-
men would respect CIO picket lines
for the time being" He added:
We are sending eight or 10 main
tenance men to each of the so ships
under our jurisdiction" More than
l30 vessels are tied up in the port
now.
ALL tugboat workers, who had
observed picket lines of their own
seamen, were returning to work in
Baltimore. -Four foreign-fiag ships
were towed from anchorages to
docks. They are members of the In
ternatlonal Longshoremens Asso-
citation, whose membership is made
up largely of dockworkers. A long
shoremens official said. We expect
all of the men to be back on the Job
by Monday"
Cooks on Coast Are Idle.
In San Francisco Harry Lunde-
berg, leader of the AFL sailors, said
the question of observance of CIO
plckets made little difference since
C1O cooks and stewards are on strike
and ship cannot sail without them,
we got them their raise" Mr.,
ILundeberg said when questioned
about the purpose of the CIO strike.
What are they stumbling around
down there ton picket hnesl for
now? If it's for working condition.
we will respect their lines. But we
won't respect them if it's political"
Reports from Norfolk, Va, and
other Hampton Roads points indi-
Gated AFL seamen intended to
board their ships
The end of the AFL strike was
made possible by action of John r.
Steelman, reconversion director and
economic stabilizer. in amending
stabilization regulations to allow
Government agencies like the Mari
time Commission to pay the same
wage scale as private operators in
the same field regardless of effect
on cost to the Government.
In this way. wages for able sea-
men are being raised from the $l7.50
monthly increase approved by the
Wage Sterilization Board to s22.50
for West Coast AFL Seamen and to
$27.50 for those on the East and
Gulf Coasts.
The CIO seamen had set the pat
tern" Of S1750 month higher
(See MARITIME, Page A-3D