Evening star., 1953-10-02
Dockers' Strike
May End Soon,
But Ships Idle
3-Mon Inquiry Board
Due to Report Under
Tuft-HurtIey Act
BY the Assecioted Press

NEW YORK, Oct. 2.-Striking
longshoremen marked time to-
day in major East Coast ports
pending an expected early end to
the costly walkout via Taft
Hartley Act machinery.
After President Eisenhower
invoked the labor law at midday
yesterday and appointed a
three-man inquiry board to re-
port by Monday midnight, OBJ
servers were optimistic that the
struck ports would reopen by
next Tuesday or Wednesday.
The board will hold its first
meeting here tomorrow.
The crippling strike started at
midnight Wednesday, with all
but military shipping idled from
Portland, Me-, to Hampton
Roads, Va.
The striking union, the Inter-
national Longshoremen's AsSo-
citation, says it will abide by any
formal no-Strike order-a Fed
eral injunction sending dockers
back to work during an 80-day
cooling off period.
Picketing Is Peaceful.
Picketing by the lila, ousted
from the AFL for failing to rid
its ranks of racketeerS, was Or
derly yesterday. Police, fully mo-
bilized to cope with possible vio-
lence along the Sprawling New
York-New Jersey waterfront,
had little to do.
But one volcanic aspect of the
situation remained unsolved: the
now unafhliated LAS battle for
existence against the new union
backed by the AFL.
The new union, ILA-AFL, is
keeping hands off in the strike
bound ports. However, it's men,
bership drive continues I'M
abated, and friction is expected
to increase between the rival
unions even though a strike
truce is declared.
The old lila struck against
the employers group, the New
York Shipping Association
(NYSA), in contract dispute
over wages and welfare benefits.
1t seeks a 13-cent hourly wage
raise. The NYSA has offered 81a
cents. The current basic wage
for longshoreinen is $2.27 an
hour. Sixty thousand longshore-
men are affected.
AFL Officers Irked.
AFL union officials were not
pleased by the Presidents in
vocation of the Taft Hartley
Act. Said Paul Hall, AFL Sea-
farers international Union sec
retary-treasurer:
"An injunction is just the
sort of thing the Ryan-AnaStaSia
group wants. They were forced
into this strike to perpetuate
themselves in power. An injunc-
tion will take them off the hook"
Hall was referring to Joseph
P. Ryan, lila president under
indictment for alleged larceny
of union funds and currently i'll
in a hospital, and Anthony
(Tough Tony Anastasia, sup
porting Ryan's union in Brook
lyn.
New York's Gov. Thomas E.
Dewey drew wrath from the in
dependent lila yesterday, when
he arrived here to confer with
heads of the ILA-AFL and Of
ficials of the New York-New
Jersey Waterfront Commission.
organized to clean up and super
wise the docks.
IT am greatly interested that
the Shipowners do not sign up
with the old, racket-controlled
union," said Gov. Dewey. 1T
would make our job much more
difficult; 80. it's big, tough and
complicated job and one that
will take time"
Connolly Makes Hot RetOrt.
Commented Patrick j. Con-
molly, executive vice president of
the striking union:
THE Governor is talking out
of both sides of his mouth. Only
last week he had a man from
the State Mediation Board sit
ing in on our negotiations trying
to get us to settle :"
Meanwhile, tugboat crews were
respecting lila picket lines and
% ships were stalled at their
berthS in New York, with others
riding at anchor in the harbor.
The strike is costing the ship
ping industry an estimated $11a
million a day. In 1851, a 25-day
wildcat strike tied up a billion
dollars worth of cargo along
New York piers.
The Cunard liner Britannia,