The Wrangell sentinel., 1946-08-09
THROUGH THE SENTINEL RERTSCOPE


 on Alaska shipping before the House Merchant Marine and Fish cries subcommittee. Owners and managers of the three lines sery- ing Alaska = Northland, Alaska Line and Alaska Transportation Company = contended they were unable to give better service to the Territory because of uncontrolled labor conditions. They blamed waterfront workers and ship crew members for delays. for loss of cargo, for showdown procedure, for work stoppage and so on; said they didn't run their ships any morei declared the labor unions ran them. Labor representatives, cn the other hand. blamed man agement. They asserted the opera tors have refused to negotiate new contracts; have refused to pay re- troactive wages, have held up pay cheeks for as much as a month meanwhile attempting to get rate increases.
 George Ford, head of the Juneau longshoremen and a port where ships have been held up frequent ly in recent months, declared the seat of the trouble was failure on the part of the operators to nego- tiate a new contract. He said the longshoremen were still living up to the terms of a contract which expired in 1922 but continued during the war under a no-strike agreement. Now with the war over, the unions have endeayored to get new contract but without suc- cess, he claimed Meanwhile, he declared, the operators have failed to pay retroactive wages recon mended by a fact-finding board. He said one company had held up regular wage checks for a month, then blamed longshOremen for not working that lines boats. The longshore boss denied vigorously that members of his union ever pilfered any cargo. He said one oc- casion had arisen where a man was found pilfering and the latter had been fired" and that he had been refused further employment by the union He blamed the companies for improper stowage of cargo, so that many times 1t was necessary to move part of the cargo destined or another port to get at the Ju- neau cargo. This entailed more work with a result of a longer time in port, he said, but the longshoremen were blamed for showdown procedure.
 Chris Hennings, Alaska repre- sentative of the CIO. declared: Labor is being blamed for 90 per cent of the trouble in Alaska ship ping. I think it's just the other way around Management should be blamed for go per cent of the difficulties
 G. W. Skinner, President of the Alaska steamship Company, said it was his view that three things were necessary to assure adequate shipping to Alaska: Replacement with new vessels of ships lost dur ing the war; certificates of con- venience and necessity to regular competition in the Alaska trade, and legislation to make labor un- ions live up to their contracts.
 L. w. Baker, General Manager of Alaska Line, William Semar. General Manager of Northland, and Capt. Swanson, General Man ager of Alaska Transportation, all blamed labor troubles for the pre- sent inadequate service. All wait ed continuation of the service un- der the War Shipping Administra- tion until something could be fig ured out. They said the lines couldn't operate without a raise in rates if they were turned back by War Shipping.
 Into this controversy, David k. Scoll, counsel for the Alaska De- with atomic results. He announced that the examiner for the U. S. Maritime Commission had recon mended to the Commission that re- quest for rate increases be denied velopment Board. dropped a bomb and further hearings be discon- tinued. This was something the good old Alaska consumer could get his teeth into. This meant there would be no increase in rates if the Commission concurred with it's Examiner, which was expected.
 * < #
 Among those appearing at the hearing from towns in the South east was Mayor Doris Barnes of Wrangell, Alaska's only woman Mayor. In reply to questions by Chairman Henry Jackson about adequacy of steamship service, Mayor Barnes pointed out Wran- gell depends on one American ship the North Sea which arrives every two or three weeks and the CPR vessels. She pointed out that