Seafarers Log 1952 • Official Organ of the Seafarers International Union • Atlantic and Gulf District • Afl •
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Kov SEAFARERS LOG 1952 • OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE SEAFARERS INTERNATIONAL UNION • ATLANTIC AND GULF DISTRICT • AFL • 'J 1 SlUCO'S J • HUDDLE M ^• v story On Page 3 BULLETIN—^Representatives of the SIU Atlantic and Gulf District and its contracted dry cargo operators concluded late this afternoon negotiations on a new contract embodying increased wages and overtime rates and improved working rules. I! ^ The agreement was signed by the majority of the shipping com panies as the SEAFARERS LOG went to press. Among those sign ing were: Bull Line, Waterman SS Co., Isthmian SS Co., Victory Carriers, Seatrain Lines, Seas Shipping Co., and the Orion agency. The Union won an agreement that is, for the first time, uniform for all contracted dry cargo companies in the industry. Money pro visions are subject to WSB approval. The full text of the agreement and an analysis of its provisions will be published in the next issue of the LOG. Meanwhile, copies of the new contract will be dispatched to all affected vessels within the next few days. (For earlier story, see page 3). I* f%mm Pictured in one of his last public ap rOSSCS wlla pearances at the AFL convention in NY during September, AFL President William Green passed away last week at his home in Coshocton, Ohio, at the age of 82. The post of the Veteran AFL leader, head of the Fed eration since 1924, has been filled by AFL SecretaryTreas urer George Meany amid reports of renewed effort for unity between the AFL and CIO. (Story on Page 3.) • f,. Die cA n #Ar Stubbornly straddling the l^iaaVfffVr* channel at St. Joseph, Mich., the old Lakes' liner City of Grand Rapids, formerly manned by the SIU Great Lakes District, "refuses" to be sent to the scrapheap. Her bow mooring line parted when she was tied up temporarily on the way to the boneyard. • W: W '"T Pare Twe SE^AFAM^RRS LOG Friday. November 28, 195F Ship Pluss Up Rotterdam SIU Mon's BME Membersliip Case Sets Precedent Cool To Plan For An important court decision establishing a man's right to main tenance and cure from a company even though he may have shipped on another vessel after the injury MMP, MEBA Unity has been won by a Seafarer. The case involved Seafarer Bill With the blunt statement that the "BME is not going to al^ Morris, who was employed by low itself to be captured," the membership of the SlUaffili Cities Service at the time of the ated engineers union served notice on the MEBACIO that injury. Morris was represented by the BME would be the final*^ the office of Seymour W. Miller, judge of proposed affiliation part of the Seafarers International. general counsel to the Union, in with the Masters, Mates and We won't say we're against a imion his appearance in the Municipal Pilots, AFL, which would involve of all engineers because we believe Court in New York. the BME. most engineers favor that. That is Sprained Wrist Further, the BME membership the role the BME is following— Morris suffered a spraiijed wrist at a headquarters meeting on No tl^at of a national union of en while on a Cities Service Tanker, vember 18 stated in a resolution gineers." but kept on working after receiv that the "MEBA is still to be con Leftwingers' Role ing first aid. When he paid off the sidered a dual and hostile organ Waterfront observers were a lit tanker he signed on a Waterman ization" and that any proposal tle sceptical about the chances of ship and worked the whole trip. when and if drafted for such af the merger going through because However, his wrist still pained him, filiation and absorption of the of the strong leftwing faction in so after paying off the Waterman BME can't be put into effect with the MEBA. AFL affUiation is the The Panamanian freighter Faustus rests on the bottom, partially ship on a Friday afternoon, he out approval of the BME member last thing: this faction is. likely to blocking the mouth of Rotterdam Harbon She hit the breakwater decided to go to the USPHS hos ship. want. The group that pushed Lee while entering without a pilot. Plans have been made to under pital for a checkup. Seeking AFL Charter (Continued on page 17) mine her and sink her deep enough to reopen the harbor entrance. He went to the hospital Tues The'BME took this action after day morning, four days after he the official publication of the CIO paid off and about three months engineers union revealed that they after he first received his injury. are dickering for a charter from Shoregang Pacts Provide At the hospital he was marked the MM&P which would bring "unfit for duty." them into the AFL. While these negotiations are in their prelim Company Passes Buck inary stages, the obvious objective He then claimed maintenance is for a merger of the MEBA and Jobs For Men On Beach and cure for Cities Service, since BME. MOBILE—Contracts covering shoreside work on Waterman and Alcoa ships in this port he could not sail without a "fit i BME headquarters revealed that have been signed by representatives of the SlUaffiliated Marine Allied Workers^ and the for duty" slip. Cities Service told at no time has the BME been for companies involved. A contract covering shoregoing work on Mississippi vessels has him that Waterman was responsible mally approached by any MEBA • |also been signed in New Or since that was the last company representative with a proposal. leans. he worked for. Waterman then BME SecretaryTreasurer Charles told him that Cities Service was KingHsaid that "the desire of the Final details of the arrange responsible as he was injured on MEBA for a merger with MM&P ment providing about 150 jobs im a Cities Service Ship. and for an AFL union label shows Mobile under the initial operation' of the plan were worked out under Morris then brought suit against that these fellows are really wor Cities Service for maintenance and ried about the rapid progress the terms of agreements that became effective in October. cure. The court's decision was that BME has been making. Now Cities Service was responsible, they're throwing in the sponge and The new shoregang contracts since he was injured on a Cities suing for peace, hoping that they were hailed by SIU VicePresident Service ship. The court absolved can get rid of us and be free to Cal Tanner as a boon to Seafarers Waterman because the injury was operate as before. on the beach in this port. Tanner, in no way aggravated by his work 'MEBA StiU The Same' who is also SIU Port Agent in on the Waterman ship. "As far as we are concerned, Mobile stated that already more Consequently it ruled that while the BME is here to stay. We'd like than 100 deep sea men are engaged he was not entitled to maintenance to see the MEBA and MM&P work in dockside activities which cover while he was working on the out something between themselves, all phases of ship maintenance and Waterman ship, he could collect but we are not going to be swal supply for Waterman and Alcoa once he got off that ship. The fact lowed up by the outfit whose short vessels calling in the Port of that he took a job between the comings led to the formation of Mobile. time he was hurt and the time the BME. The MEBA is still the Work involved includes such he was marked "unfit for duty" same organization it was when the operations as rigging, chipping, merely suspended his rights to BME^was formed. scraping and painting in the Water maintenance but didn't eliminate "Furthermore," King pointed man repair yards. Alcoa ships on them. out, "the BME is already affiliated. the bauxite run are washed down In addition, the court ruled that We're in the AFL family and we're and sougeed by the MAW shore Morris was entitled to maintenance gang after the ore is discharged. from the day he got off the Water Joe Callahan (left), Alcoa snpt. of ship maintenance, and Cal Tanner All Waterman and Alcoa vessels man ship, four days before the SEAFARERS LOG (right) SIU Mobile agent, talk over shore gang operations with now are shifted in the harbor from doctor certified him as unfit for Connie Knowles, bosun of the MAWSIU shore gang in Mobile. dockside to repair yard and to ore Nov. 28, 1952 Vol. XiV. No. 24 duty. The court said that obvious ' discharging sites by SIU or MAW ly if the doctor certified him unfit As r See It .....Page 13 crews. four days later for an old injury, Burly Page 16 Store Ships, To« he must have been unfit at the Crossword Puzzle Page 12 Ships of both lines are stored time he got off the ship. Editorial ..Page 13 SIU Nightclub Closes, by the MAW shore gang under the Did You Know Page 19 new arrangement. Much of this Galley Gleanings Page 20 work formerly was carried on by Inquiring Seafarer Page 12 nonunion gangs, but none of it is Speah Your Mind In The Wakfe Page 12 Will Reopen In Hotel work which is normally considered At SiU Meetings Labor RoundUp Page 16 On the eve of the completion of three months of successful longshoring.