The Daily Alaska empire., 1946-07-13
4Ship Firms Charged With
 Strike Blame
Longshoremen Ch arge. Empire Misinforms;0pe
 afors Broke Agreement

df0fS br0Ke Agreemem
 Forty businessmen and yachtsmen of Juneau last night heard Juneau Local Is, International Longshore- mems and Warehousemens Union (CIOD, present it's first statement of the longshoremen's position in the port dispute just ended.
 Opening declaration of the union delegation, made by Secretary Don McCammon, was however, that the strike here was not ended-aS far as three of the four major ship lines were concerned. Stating that the primary purpose of the long shoremen in being represented at the merchants meeting" was to correct transformation" spread by the Empire tThe Daily Alaska Elm pire) McCammon said that settle ment had then been reached only with the Alaska Steamship Com pany; but it was expected that agents here for the Northland Transportation Company and the Alaska Transportation Company would soon receive word from their head offices which would automati- cally end the strike against those two companies also.
 EuDire Attacked
 More forceful in attach On the Empire was Local 16's President George Ford who declared that in 10 years he has been reviewing Elm pire accounts pertaining to labor, from our view. for every truth there has been half -a-doZen un- truths or half-truths and wrong implications.
 The longshoremen laid before the meeting copies of the "Ketchikan Agreement" which settled the pre- vious Alaska longshore strike which ended in April of this year; of Prof. Vernon A. Munds findings as arbitrator of non-negotiated issues in that dispute; and of correSpon- dence with the Alaska Steamship Company-which, McCammon said, show the facts of the late strike.
 Asked if the settlement reached with the Alaska Line today in cludes everything?" McCammon re- piled affirmatively. but to another inquiry added Until September" ,"
 Ne,D Contract Refused
 In answer to a question why September? McCammon said that time has been set in notifications for negotiation of new contracts with the ship lines and dock oper- ators. There is no present con- tract, he elaborated. The long shoremen have worked through the war and are working now under a former years contracts that ex- pired in 1942; in the face of opera tors refusals to negotiate new contracts The old contracts pro- vided that work terms might be thrown open to new negotiations at any time after expiration, upon 30 days notice. That notice, he said, has several times been given by the union. Now, the longshore- men want new contracts with tke operators by the September date, or there was no "or" stated.
 Charging that the real cause Of the latest strike was ship opera tors refusal to abide by the terms of the "Ketchikan agreement Ford pointed out that agreement provided that any Pacific Coast settlements pertaining to pay were automati- cally to be extended to Alaska workers.
 Agreement Broken
 A new coastwise agreement was reached Cat San Francisco last month which provided a P cents an hour increase in the base pay rate for longshoremen. Operators on the Pacific Coast immediately began paying that new rate, but despite what they had agreed at Ketchikan-the Alaska ship opera tors refused to. Result: Longshore- men Below have been receiving a base rate of $137 per hour while Alaska longshoremen have been paid only $l32 per hour; that in face of custom decreeing that Alaska long shoremen receive higher pay.
 That operator refusal to agree to pay the added g cents an hour awarded Pacific Coast longshore- men precipitated the strike, Ford charged. Dock operators were not involved, he said, because they inn mediately agreed to pay the Sl.54 per hour base scale and have been paying it. The Alaska Dock Com pany. he added, has also paid off retroactive wages awarded by Ar