The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-09-23
Army Charged With S+rikebreoking
In Lonqshoremen Dispute On Coast

III EOII9SHOI CIIIOH
Washington LPA) - Striking
west coast longshoremen last weel
were backed up by President Philip
Murray in their dispute with the
JUS Army.
Members of five unions, led by
Harry Bridges Of the Int'l Long
shoremen's & Warehousemen's I'm
ion, accused the Army of strike
breaking after it turned down un-
ion offers to help load army sup
plies for the south Pacific and by
passed the regular hiring hall ir
favor of recruiting scab labor at
the docks.
AS the shipping strike entered
it's second week, Murray wrote to
Army Secretary Kenneth Royal
asking that the Army use the Cen
tral Dispatching Hall as it has in
/ the past. "The men are ready, will
ing and able to work directly fol
the Army" he said. "This action
on your part will insure the prompt
handling of army cargoes, which
know is your objective, and will
prevent the army from lending sup
port to the employers in this econ
omic dispute by actions which are
equivalent to the hiring of strike
breakers.
"The Army's present announced
policy of hiring off the streets can
only prolong the labor dispute and
make more difficult the achieve
ment of the mutually satisfactory
agreement all of us wish to see
take place"
Since the strike began Septem-
Der 2, the Waterfront Employers
Assn. and Pacific American Ship
owners Assn have refused to nego-
tiate for a settlement or cooperate
in moving Army supplies. They say
they will make no effort to reach a
settlement until the union officers
sign non-communist affidavits un-
der the Taft Hartley act.
Several independent stevedoring
companies have signed contracts
with ILWU granting 15c wage in
creases and retaining the union
hiring hall Murray suggested that
Secretary Royal contract with
these firms to move army essen
tials. The unions volunteered to do
Army jobs for these companies at
prestrike wages. Several hours lat
er, the Army offered such a con-
tract to the Seattle stevedoring
company of Griffith e. Sprague.
While the company was consider
ing the offer Il representative of
the Waterfront Employers Assn
said: Tf this goes thru, it is a COM
plete backdown by the Army"
Meanwhile, lLWU President
Harry Bridges filed $750,0O0 libel
suit against WEA and the Pacific
American Shipowners' Assn, claim
ing that they had damaged him by
calling him a Communist. Bridges
himself led picket line at Army
hiring headquarters and told steve
dores who showed up there: "The
Army is offering you jobs under
civil service but the minute the
strike is over you'll be thrown out"
An lLWU statement declared that
"the union intends to resist this
strikebreaking with all the re-
sources at its command, including
call to longshoremen overseas to
refuse to unload scab cargo at
ports of destination"
The same statement accused Pre-
sident Truman and George Killion,
former treasurer of the Democra-
tic Party, of being behind the
Army strikebreaking. The charge
was picked up by Progressive Party
candidate Henry Wallace in a
speech IN Chicago the next day.
The longshoremen's union also
made an indirect challenge to the
rest of the labor movement with
the statement: "lf any labor union
in the country, regardless of affili-
alton or political or economic views,
stands idly by while the Army en-
cages in strikebreaking in behalf
of a group of arrogant employers
who will bargain with a union only
if they can select the unions offic-
ers, then the organized labor move
ment and collective bargaining are
on their way to extinction as free
institutions"
The Seafarer's Int'l Union-AFL
showed its concern in an editorial