SEAMEN’S STRIKE CALLED OFF BY CANADIAN UNION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23083, 22 October 1949, Page 5

SEAMEN’S STRIKE CALLED OFF BY CANADIAN UNION

(N.Z.P.A. —Reuter —Copyright.) (9 a.m. ) MONTREAL. Oct. 21. The Canadian Seamen’s Union announced last night it had called off the strike begun over six months ago against the Canadian East Coast shipowners. The national headquarters of the union said it had called on the dockers and affiliates of the World Maritime Federation in foreign ports to end the boycott against Canadian ships which the Canadian Seamen's Union sought several months ago. The union said one of the reasons for calling off the strike was the “continued persecution of seamen by the Government who had refused to pay unemployment, insurance to seamen in an effort to starve them into submission.” The strike was called on March 31 when the union learned that the Shipping Federation of Canada had signed with the rival Seafarers International Union of the A.F.L.

The early stages of the walk-out were marked bv violence in Canadian ports and scores of arrests in world porls as seamen were charged with disobeying the captains’ orders.

About 80 ships were affected by the strike. The shipowners and the Seafarers International Union claimed that hundreds of C.S.U. members deserted the striking union’s ranks to join the rival S.I.U.

A statement by the C.S.U. said that “although we are compelled to call off the strike the union will continue its struggle to win back wages and working conditions that were taken from the Canadian seamen.”