LABOR: Song of Americans

You may make her fast and pack your gear

Leave her, Johnny, leave her.

And leave her moored to a West Street pier,

It’s time for us to leave her.

—From “Songs of American Sailormen” Cursing the Government, Johnny left her. He left her moored to West Street piers in Manhattan, to the Embarcadero in San Francisco, to the docks of Boston, Seattle and New Orleans. Last week Johnny was on the biggest maritime strike in U.S. history—a strike, moreover, in theory as well as fact against the Government.

The Hitch. The Government’s troubles with Johnny began last spring, when, as now, the Administration was trying to hold the wage and price line and control the nation’s economy. C.I.O.’s Johnny, led by Harry Bridges and Joe Curran, demanded higher wages. The operators, directed by the War Shipping Administration, granted a $17.50-a-month boost, which was approved by the Wage Stabilization Board.

A.F.L.’s Johnny, who dominates West Coast shipping (C.I.O. dominates the East) watched all this with interest. A.F.L.’s seamen’s unions have enjoyed a slightly higher wage scale than the Communist-dominated C.I.O. maritime union. But this boost put C.I.O. out ahead. The A.F.L. bosses howled for a boost too. They threatened to strike. They ordered occasional work stoppages so everyone would get the idea.

“Hit the Bricks.” The owners of A.F.L.-manned ships got the idea. They agreed to A.F.L. demands which put A.F.L. ahead of C.I.O. again. They were influenced by two facts: 1) of the two unions they prefer A.F.L.; 2) their business is booming.

There was one hitch. The Wage Stabilization Board had to approve. Seldom had a Government board found itself in a hotter spot. To approve meant: 1) cracking once again the Administration’s well-fractured wage line, 2) inciting C.I.O.’s Johnny to come back for another helping. To disapprove meant: 1) rejecting the principle of what everyone still insisted was collective bargaining, 2) infuriating A.F.L.’s Johnny. The hapless WSB took the second course. A.F.L.’s Johnny gave the Board one chance to change its mind, then struck.

Hardboiled Harry Lundeberg’ in the West, and in the East, medium-boiled John Hawk of the A.F.L. Seafarers International, yanked out 43,000 men. Longshoremen, tugboat men, radiomen, masters, mates and pilots announced that they would support the strike. Machinists in repair yards “hit the bricks.” Even C.I.O.’s wily Johnny announced that he would respect A.F.L.’s picket lines, although he promised to work UNRRA ships.*

“Those Phonies.” At week’s end some half a million men were out of work, some 1,500 U.S. ships were immobilized, 280,000 tons of food and relief goods for overseas shipments were blocked. New York, also embarrassed by a truck strike (see below), wondered how long it would eat. Everyone looked hopefully and reproachfully at the Government.

Everyone, that is, but Johnny. His white cap cocked, Harry Lundeberg gave his considered opinion of “those phonies” in Washington. “I warned Schwellenbach and the WSB that when this union takes a strike vote it means it. Old sister Schwellenbach keeps calling me but he’s wasting the taxpayers’ money. Even Ma Perkins was better than him. We’re not playing politics, we’re counting our economic strength.”

Vice President Hugh Gallagher of the Matson Navigation Co. said sadly: “We followed the rules of collective bargaining. We arrived at what seemed a fair deal. Now we are caught between the Wagner Act and the WSB, like getting caught in gunfire between the door and the bar. About all we can do is lie down on the floor.”

About all the public could do was lie down on the floor too. A faltering WSB got ready to meet again this week, figure out some way to get Johnny back on his ship and straighten out this latest venture in Government control. No one had any solution to this strike against the Government but to give in to Johnny.

*In a strictly political strike of their own the day before the maritime strike became general, A.F.L. longshoremen refused to load one UNRRA ship in Manhattan because its cargo was destined for Yugoslavia.