LABOR: Walloping on the Docks

John Dwyer, a brawny hiring boss on the brawling New York City dock? (and a prototype of Marlon Brando’s movie role in On the Waterfront), quit his $10,000-a-year job last year to fight the racket-ridden International Longshoremen’s Association. As vice president of the A.F.L.’s new rival dock union, he won thousands of dock-wallopers away from the I.L.A. But last month the I.L.A. won a Labor Relations Board election (by a scant 263 votes out of 18,551), and thereby held on to control of waterfront jobs.

The A.F.L. brasshats, retreating from their attempt to reform the docks, cut their organizing losses (about $1,000,000), ended their all-out campaign and fired John Dwyer. When Dwyer protested, they ignored his letters and hung up on phone calls. Last week Dwyer bitterly told his men to “forget about the A.F.L, and go back to the I.L.A.” Brusquely, the I.L.A. snubbed Dwyer and said A.F.L. rank-and-filers could come back only if they paid up back dues. For a happy ending dockers could go to the movies.