The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-12-08
Oyster Season
Also Season TO
Organize Shuckers

VS. SNSatanl1V ~ss saVsASs "
Cambridge, Md. (LPA)-Oysters
r in season. And over here on the
Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay
the Amalgamated Meat Cutters
AFL is taking advantage of the
season by conducting a vigorous
organizing campaign among 10000
oyster shuckers and other seafood
workers in the Eastern Shores
scores of. fish-packing plants. And
the campaign is going well.
People said the Eastern Shore
couldn't be organized. They said
that the workers, almost 100 per
cent of whom are Negroes, were
too downtrodden, too completely
intimidated by their employers, to
respond to an organizing drive.
The union knew better. Union of
ficers knew that Local 453 in Girls
field, Md, an oyster-packing CEN
ter we'll down the shore, had sur
vived for seven years or so, endur-
ing both strikes and lockouts. If
Crisfeld could be organized, SO
could Cambridge, Kent Island,
Rock Hall and other Maryland
communities, and so could those
towns in that part of Virginia
which forms the Eastern Shores
southern tip, union officials rea-
soned.
Certainly the oyster shuckers
needed the benefits of unionization.
The oysters, the crabs and the other
marine delicacies packed on the
shore are treated with the loving
and sanitary care you give a new
born baby. How the workers are
treated is another matter indeed.
Take the oyster shuckers, for ex-
ample.
Remember first that an Eastern
Shore oyster shucker works only
about 80 weeks year at his trade,
and he's lucky if he makes $1,000 at
it. He must find something else to
do through the other % weeks,
perhaps work on a local farm.
He does the best he can, but that
doesn't come to much. He can't |
even get a decent place to live. A
typical shucker's home is room
about II feet square. The floor is
flat on the ground and the walls
are plywood. Moreover, it is one
room in low-ceilinged building
hat may be 300 feet long, so there
are. another Is or 20 families liv-
ng close by, each in its single
room,
Over in Kent Island the union
found $50 families living in a
group of such buildings virtually
within reach of high tide. There
vas Sone outside toilet and one out
side pumpfor the whole group. The !
owners of these shacks charged
each1 family a dollar a week for
rent.iea
Then there's oyster shucking it
self, a messy, miserable job, that
requires considerable skill. If you
lon't think so, try opening an oyst-
er. You'll be lucky to get your
oyster out at all, and you'll be
even luckier if you don't cut your
land with either the shell or the
lnife.
Consider how it would be to
;huck a gallon of oysters an hour
for only 80 cents in non-union
you see what the job is
ike, especially if your employer
lses a nine-pint gallon. You have
o do your gallon an hour to make
lnything.
The union has run into troubles.
intimidation has led to
oss of a number of NLRB cleo
ions. William Mosca, an organizer
rom Local 149 in Baltimore, was
Irrested at Kent Island for taking
pictures of the shacks described
lbove. He was "trespassing" on
,rivate property, the arresting of
icers said, but the case was later
dismissed. Also at Kent Island
he natives call it Ken lsland-an
Employer told an NLRB represent
tive that a bullet would go
Trough him just as easily as
trough union organizer. But by
md large the union can be proud {
# the job it has done so far.
Here in Cambridge, the Amalga-
mated won elections in three inn
,ortant firms early in November,
Though one big one is left. Late
n October, elections were won in |
our Kent Island plants without
ingle vote against the union.
seven more elections were schedul-
d at Kent Island the first week in
December and union officials were
iopeful of victory.
One thing that may have given
he union a boost was an arbitra
ion victory won by Local 453 in /
for 500 workers. The
Inion member and the neutral
member Of a three-man panel re-
ected an employer attempt to cut
wages, but the company represent
tive. refused to sign the decision.
TNelve firms were involved.