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Commercial Alabaman, the crew of seamen on board refused to operate the cranes
and, with MWIU leadership, joined the strike. Over the objections of the
presidents of the ILA locals, a joint strike committee was set up, joint picket lines
manned, and, with a reported 400 police standing by, the strike was spread to the
two other ships at the dock. The company decided to meet the strikers demands,
and the Marine Workers Voice reported that the local ILA presidents were
subsequently turned out of office.
Successful collaboration with longshoremen also occurred as a pan of the
Munson concentration. When the MWIU struck the Munorleans, two gangs of ILA
longshoremen came out in support, again defying instructions from ILA leaders
who claimed that a solidarity strike was in violation of the contract. As if to return
the favor, when 150 coastwise longshoremen of the ILA struck Munson for wage
increases, the crew of the Munloyal, led by the MWIU, came out in solid support.
As in the case of the Commercial Alabaman strike, a joint ILA-MW1U Strike
Committee was formed, a joint picketline was set up, and seamen and
longshoreman together crashed the dock and drove strike-breakers longshoremen
away. This time, though, in a break from past practices, the local ILA leadership
joined the struggle, the MWIU borrowed a launch from the ILA, and the ILA
requested legal defense from the Communist Party-initiated International Labor
Defense. Munson capitulated.
The national MWIU was pleased. An editorial entitled "United Front Wins"
in the Marine Workers Voice, pointed to the Baltimore Munloyal strike and a
concurrent strike of radio operators in New York and proclaimed that This shows
that while difference exist[s] in the programs of various organizations, it is possible
for workers regardless of their affiliation, to act jointly." The editorial did not
relinquish its critical attitude toward the ILA leadership, which it felt joined the
United Front in the Baltimore struggle "to disrupt and betray it"; in this way it
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