Evening star., 1946-09-27
Operators Reluctance
To Come Here Delays
Ship Strike Farley
By jones Y. Newton

~ofSh iAaNilS SAAOl W dNCI |
through conciliation a strike of IL
censed ship personnel Monday were
postponed today pending a decision
by West Coast ship owners or
whether to attend the conferences
here with the unions.
Labor Department officials, mean
while, announced they had received
word that officers of the AFL Mas
ters, Mates and Pilots, one of the
two unions threatening a new tieup
OF shipping, would attend the con-
ciliation sessions.
When the negotiations began here
this morning. only representatives of
East and Gulf Coast ship operators
and the CIO Marine Engineers
Beneficial Association, the other
union involved, were present. The
AFL union subsequently sent word
that their officers weres en- route
from both the East and West coasts.
Schwellenbach Awaits Decicion.
j. B. Bryan, president of the
Pacific American Shipowners' Asso-
citation, who had held the position
that his negotiations with the two
unions should be held on the West
Coast, wired Secretary of Labor
Schwellenbach from San Francisco
that decision on whether his
group would come to Washington
would be made at an association
meeting which started shortly after
noon.
The Labor Department immedi-
ately made arrangements to bring
Mr.. Bryan and his group here by
Army plane should their decision
be favorable.
Talks between the CIO Engineers
and Eastern ship owners were
suspended because of Mr.. Bryan's
absence. The chief representative
of East Coast and Gulf interests
Frank ]. Taylor. head of the Ameri-
can Merchant Marine Institute, was
said to be reluctant to talk with the
union without participation of the
West Coast owners. The recent big
maritime strike, it was pointed out
resulted largely because the West
Coast group agreed to pay seamen
higher wages than the Eastern
interests already had granted.
$1,000 Officers Involved.
About 07 mn
ficers are involved in the strike
threat
Secretary SchWellenbach report
edly was concerned that efforts to
head off strike will fail unless all
parties involved show up.
Contracts of both the CIO and
AFL unions expire Monday The
AFL group includes the deck Off
GERS and the CIO licensed engine
room personnel. Neither group has
shared in the wage increases given
seamen and other maritime work
ers. The AFL is asking a 80 per
cent raise and the CIO 35 per cent
Stevedore Walkout Threatened.
Stevedores on the West Coast also
are threatening to strike Septem-
Der 80. but Mr. Sc.lwellenbach ar
ranged for dock worker Cancellation
meetings on the West Coast and
separate from the seamens negotia-
tions here. He sent Nathan P. Fem
singer as a special aide to try to
work out new contract between the
CIO Longshoremen's Union and the
Pacific Water Front Employers AS
Sociation.
In San Francisco, the longshore-
men, headed by Harry Bridges, pre-
sented demands for a 35 per cent
wage increase, but said it was sec
ondary to a demand for a safety
code which previously had dead
locked negotiations.
This drew fire from F. P. Foisie,
president of the Water Front EN-
ployers' Association, who charged
that "pathos and publicity, rather
than sincere desire to prevent ac-
cidents, are the self confessed mo-
tives behind the latest ILWU de-
mand."
He said the associations $780, 900
annual safety program already in
effect had cut accidents along the
Pacific Coast water front 40 per cent
since its inception in 1927"