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mnnmavi AWABDKO nnST PItlU • OCNfRAL EDlTOJITAt EXCtLUNCM • IMI • iNTERNATIONfAL LABOH PRESS OF AMERICA • OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE SEAFARERS INTERNATIONAL UNION • ATLANTIC AND GULF DISTRICT • AFL-CIO • ^ ! I . 41 ^ I -Story On Page 3 Stoiy On Page 2 ' _ '^-1 I 'r ••T- KintM ^arat% Rican longshoremen ponder big job of moving CAfftiArilir B man to seek VWrjfW# ii2.ton turbine stator rig to nearby power plant after UOffTS jemonwy* higher seniority under SIU the stator was skidded off the Dorothy onto the dock in San Juan. It was put aboard contract's amended hiring rules, Joseph Scaturro, oiler in Baltimore after a rail trip from Pittsburgh. The huge mechanism was moved off (right), files papers as hq. patrolman Frank Bose looks without a hitch. (Story on Pago 7.) on. Changes start Oct. 1. (Story on Page 2). -:t.:: •;' fV..«j-' ' - f Pace Twe SEAFARERS LOG September 14, 1^5t SlU BrOSdSr shrimpers' Fete Seniority Hiring Clause Acknowledging a rise in shipping wd job opportunities for Seafarers, the SIU has won agreement from its contracted employers on a modification of Article 1 of the SIU contract, the seniority hiring ptoviaon.provision. Effective October 1 of'this year, all rated men with Class B seniority can qualify for class A seniority if they began ship Under the original coniract pro were required by the terms of the ping before January 1, 1952 vision, class A seniority was contract clause to accumulate 90 and have been sailing regularly granted to men who started with days seatime a year for eight years since that time. the Union before January 1, 1951, before graduating to class A status. In other words, any rated Sea a full year earlier than the cutoff Normally then, the earliest a class farer who started shipping before ^ate which is now going into effect B man could have advanced to 1952 and shipped steadily in the Originally men who were eligible class A would have been January, years that followed will now quali for B seniority (those who started 1959. Seafarers who do not have fy as a class A man. any time after January 1, 1951) ratings will still follow this rule. Increase in Jobs However, in the year and a half since the seniority agreement was Await Labor Bd^ negotiated, there has been a steady increase in contracted jobs and shipping for Seafarers, reflecting the reactivation of once idle ships Dock Vote Action and the addition of new vessels to the SlU-contracted fleet through Representatives of the old International Longshoremen's Union organizing activities. The Association and the New York Shipping Association con job increase has led to spot short tinued their delaying tactics last week in an attempt to side-, ages of rated men and the ship step a showdown election on + ping of large numbers of men with ued discussions as to the composi class B and class C seniority to the New York docks. How man the ships. ' ever, the National Labor Rela tion of the voting unit and the tions Board continued to take the procedures to be followed in con necessary steps to set up an early ducting the election. The first ILA- election among the port's long shijJowner stall came when the IBL Scatturo 1st in Line asked the Board to order the ship shoremen. The first applicant at headqdar- TV Programs Started owners to turn over a\ list of long shoremen eligible to vote. ters for an A seniority rating un Meanwhile, the International der the new contract provision was The IBL pointed out that the Brotherhood of Longshoremen, Seafarer Joseph Scaturro, oiler. general practice has been to con AFL-CIO, stepped up its campaign Scaturro started sailing with the sider all men working 700 hours SIU in April, 1951, which he de in-the port with the first of a series a year as regular longshoremen. of weekly television programs scribed as a "joyous day for me." The only source of this informa His first ship was the Julesburg, a aimed at longshoremen. The pro tion is the payoll records main Some of the 5,000 spectatorji from several states (top) grams are carried in the New York Mathiasen tanker. tained by the various stevedoring Since then he has been sailing crowd a dockside platform at the annual blessing of the area on Channel 5 at 1 PM, Sun firms. Such records should be days. They spotlight the issues of pretty regularly on Robin Line runs shrimp fleet in Bayou la Batre, Ale. Visitors and crewmen of made available to all parties, the to South Africa. 83 boats heard the Rev. Thomas Nunan, (at^ mike), and the the election and the abuses long IBL argued, so that ineligible men shoremen have suffered during the He heard the good news about Rev. Joseph Adams (far left) make the blessings. About could be quickly weeded out and the new seniority agreement at the years of ILA misrule. prevented from voting. half of the boats are operated by members of the SlU-afFili- Wednesday night, September 5, ated Ivlobile Bay Seafood Union. ' Meetings held at the New York Reduce Challenges headquarters membership meeting office of the Labor Board contin- This procedure, IBL said, would and showed up the next morning reduce challenges to a minimum to make his application. and make for a clcar-cut election "I really appreciate getting this decision. It would also discourage top seniority rating," he said, "be Shipping Boost Seen AFL Acts On any efforts on the part of ILA to cause having worked ashore I know "vote tombstones" in the coming there's no Union like the SlU.when balloting. The ILA, as the current it comes to protection and party to the longshore contract, al benefits." In India Snrplns Deal Abuses Of 3 ready has information on eligible voters available to it. The biggest surplus commodity deal ever negotiated lias Shipowner spokesmen argued Class B Seafarers who possess been reached between the US and India. It calls for sale of Welfare Funds that they should not be compelled only the entry ratings of ordinary, $360 million worth of food and commodities from the US to make such- lists available. wiper and messman, but who have stockpile, principally wheat, An AFL-CIO crackdown on al Another issue to be decided by the seatime requirments, can move leged welfare fund abuses in three the Board is the question of voting into class A by passing a -Coast cotton, rice and tobacco. Since sales negotiated until now, it is unions has again pinpointed the ad by hatch bosses. The IBL argued Guard examination for a rating in the "50-50" law will apply to only one of several recent arrange vantages of the self-insured SIU that hatch bosses are supervisory their particular department. Other this cargo, the sale means a con ments made with Asiatic countries. Welfare Plan jointly administered employees and should not be al wise, the negotiators agreed, they siderable boost for US shipping to Others include sale of condensed by Union and shipowner trustees. lowed to vote as longshoremen. will wait out the full eight years. India. milk and cotton to Burma, sale of cotton to Indonesia and Hong The AFL-CIO recently took steps The ILA has also attempted to be In accord with the Union's own The magnitude of the'new sur cloud the issue by calling for a rules on membership, those Sea plus deal is shown by the fact that Kong, and other sales to Denmark, for the possible suspension of the Great Britain and West Germany. 25,000-member Distillery, Rectify- coastwise election. farers who attain class A seniority the $360. million figure represents big and Wine Workers Interna It is expected that the regional as per the amended contract will far less than the tcue market value The sales to Denmark and Great tional Union and warned of similar office of the board will refer these now become eligible for full mem of the commodities, somewhere Britain, whUe relatively small ones, action against the Laundry Workers matters to the Washington head bership in the SIU, replacing the around $650 million. indicate that efforts by foreign International Union and the Allied quarters of the NLRB for final probationary membership they Wheat Shipment Big maritime nations to undermine Industrial Workers, the latter for decision. held up until now. The wheat cargoes alone will "50-50" have been given up for the merly known as the United Auto amount to 130 million bushels or time being. AVorkers-AFL. approximately 3,500,000 long tons, One of the arguments used by Widespread charges of misman ILA Fires Filth Barrage Against SIU at least half of which must be "50-50" opponents was that the agement and "corrupt influences" Unable to face up to the issues posed by the International Broth carried on American-flag vessels un maritime nations were boycotting in the handling of welfare and pen erhood of Longshoremen, the waterfront mobs who control the dis der the laws. The rest of the agree US surplus sales abroad because sion trust funds have been made credited International Longshoremen's Association have* unleashed ment includes 500,000 bales of cot they could not carry them exclu against all three unions, particular a campaign of vituperation against the SIU. ton; 4.4'million bags of rice at 100 sively on their own ships. ly against the distillery workers. pounds to the bag; 6 million pounds The SIU has been selected as the prime target for an ILA filtii of tobacco and ^31^ million worth All three have insurance com barrage because of its staunch support of the IBL.