HALF MILLION MARITIME WORKERS

Grey River Argus, 4 September 1948, Page 4

HALF MILLION MARITIME WORKERS

On Strike Along West Coast of UJS.A. (Received September 3, 9.25 p.m.) SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 2. In the Federal District Court, Judge George Harris to-day issued an order dissolving an anti-strike injunction obtained by the Federal Government against five maritime unions on June 15: When this dissolution order was issued to-day thirty thousand men in West Coast ports had already quit their jobs after a failure of the owners and the unions to reach an agreement on the wages for Sunday work and the hiring hall dispute. The union’s predict that the maritime strike may last as long as three months. i It affects 500,009 workers. Judge Harris issued an order today at the request of the Government, which had secured the antistrike injunction under the TaftHartley Act, which provides for an eight-day “cooling off” period. This period expired to-day. The President of the Longshore- . men’s and Warehousemen’s Union is Mr. Harry Bridges, an Australian. To-day, Mr. Bridges boycotted a conference which was called by the Federal Conciliation Service as between the employers and Mr. Bridges’ union. He said: “There will be no further negotiations between our committee and the shipowners until the latter give earnest evidence that they actually intend to negotiate in •- good faith to end the strike.” Mr. Bridges also told a mass meeting of longshoremen: “It will be one of the toughest fights that we have ever had.” The tie-up affects about five hundred and fifty foreign and American ships, and' over half a million workers. President' Truman said in Washington, to-day that he is powerless to take further action in the strike, except through negotiation. As the law stood, he had no emergency powers left