• U.S.

Labor: They’d Rather Strike Than Work

3 minute read
TIME

“The men in this union fight like hell and walk out at the drop of a hat.”

So, several months ago, said Thomas W. (“Teddy”) Gleason, boss of the International Longshoremen’s Association. He meant it as a boast, but by last week he probably wished he had swallowed it. The longshoremen, ignoring Gleason’s pleas that they ratify what he called “the best contract in I.L.A. history,” voted their reflexes, turned down the contract, then walked off the docks from Maine to Texas. Since other unions refused to cross I.L.A. picket lines, goods in shipment piled up on docks across the U.S., and 235 cargo and passenger ships stood idle. Cost to the economy: about $67 million a day.

“Operation Facts.” Gleason’s 60,000 longshoremen are so contrary that many of them would almost rather strike than work. The I.L.A. has struck seven times in 18 unruly years—not including numerous walkouts for the purpose of boycotting ships going to Russia, coming from Cuba or sailing under Communist flags. It holds the record among all unions for having the Taft-Hartley 80-day cooling-off injunction invoked against it six times. “Nobody understands this union,” Gleason once said. Count him in.

When the shippers’ contract came up in October, the longshoremen—naturally—voted to reject it and go out on strike; that strike ended after a court order for 80 days of cooling-off, followed by a 22-day no-strike extension. When longshoremen rejected Gleason’s plea to accept the contract and walked out, the union hurriedly launched something called “Operation Facts” in an effort to sell them on the contract before calling another ballot. Union officials obviously felt that most dockworkers did not know what they were rejecting. Gleason went on a radio program to answer questions phoned in by members, and the union mailed each worker a four-page pamphlet detailing the contract’s benefits.

Improving the Image. The benefits are considerable. The shippers offered an 80¢-an-hour package over four years (including a 36¢-an-hour wage hike), which amounted to a 4.5% increase v. the 3.2% guideline recommended by President Johnson. The contract includes a fourth week of vacation for twelve-year employees, three more paid holidays (making twelve in all), pension increases, more health benefits and a guaranteed annual income of $5,800. This was a sweetener in return for the reduction in work crews from 20 to 17 men, recommended by Government mediators in October, and a “flexibility” clause that would permit employers to move cargo checkers from job to job during the day.

Aside from their fear of job losses, the workers resented the contract because it included a 1¢-an-hour raise in union dues—levied, explained Gleason, to pay off the union debt and hire a public-relations man “to get the union’s image improved.” Though the Government made no move to intervene in their strike, waiting for another vote, the shippers petitioned Washington for compulsory arbitration. Gleason then called a new contract vote for this week. Meanwhile, the striking dockworkers never broke step in their picket lines, and dared anyone to cross them. No one tried.

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