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441
Given these considerations, it is not at all surprising that leaders of the local
(who probably acted out of a fear for their individual leadership positions as well as
concern for the future of the local) might talk rank and filers out of acting on their
sympathy for the striking seamen when it meant risking the known AFL for
something as iffy as a new insurgent formation. Sectarian actions by the seamen
could only reinforce the sense of risk in a solidarity strike. This interpretation of
the Local 858 decision seems to be borne out by the fact that after the vote against
striking, the local's president, Jefferson Davis, went out of his way to emphasize
that he and his followers were sympathetic to the striking seamen, but that they
acced out of organizational necessity.
With the failure to win the longshoremen to the struggle, the peak of the
100-Day Strike in Baltimore passed. The strike however did not collapse; even as
the longshoremen were returning to work, two locals of ships officers again went
out, idling 225 non-striking I LA members in the process. In fact, the rank-and-file
seamen's strike lasted until January 26,1937, and during its last month, took up a
whole new campaign against the continuous discharge books authorized by the
federal Copeland Maritime Act that went into effect on December 26,1936. The
continuous discharge books, to be carried by all seamen, were a permanent record
of each seamen's employment. Militant seamen saw these books as "fink books"
oo
that could lead to blacklisting.-" In his autobiography, former seamen and editor
of the rank-and-file's Pilot, Charles Rubin, remembered the key event of the
campaign against the fink book:
Undoubtedly, the highest point of the struggle ... was the fight
against the fink book at the end of the strike. As described by the Pilot, the
most sensational event was led by Patty Whalen, and called the "midnight
march of the Baltimore Brigade, through rain and slush all the way to
Washington and the Capitol. Seamen came from every port on the Atlantic
and the Gulf. It was the most effective and sensational demonstration ever
held by seafaring men in Washington."
Pickets were thrown around the Department of Commerce.
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