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special wage scale that made their jobs sought after." A victory like this in
Baltimore over a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel was a significant victory indeed,
and there was hope that it could reinforce the organizing efforts among Bethlehem
steel workers. "
Other ships and shipping lines were not immune. Strikes occurred on the
Buffalo Bridge and the Nelson Traveler of the Nelson Line. Job actions on the
Lament and the Oakmar won monthly wage increases of $10 or more. Defeat was
snatched from the jaws of victory in the case of the Felix Taussig of McCormack
Shipping, where the ship's committee, backed up by a solidarity demonstration of
200 seamen, ignored the advice of the MWIU, turned down a "small" wage increase,
and demanded the restoration of the 1929 scale; the ship snuck out of port.
Similarly, in the case of the Nosa Chief of the Grace Line, the 1929 scale was won,
but the ship's committee, again against the MWIU's advice, held out for a written
agreement, and the ship slipped away. The MWIU made a self-criticism in the
latter incident, saying that its lack of work among Filipino sailors had weakened its
influence on the Filipino strikers of this ship; whatever its weaknesses in this case,
though, the Baltimore MWIU continued, throughout this period, to uphold its
policy of racial equality in its leadership of job actions. All tolled, over 50 strikes
were claimed in Baltimore harbor in less than two months during early 1934: a
veritable maritime strike wave in one port.
•••
As significant as the strike wave was, and as pat'.i-breaking as takeover of
relief administration was, the most significant and path-breaking accomplishment
of the 1934 Baltimore seamen's movement was its creation of the Centralized
Shipping Bureau (CSB). The National Bureau of the MWIU had long proposed
that democratically-controlled centralized shipping bureaus be set up in all ports so
that seamen could hire out from one location within a port on a rotary basis. Such
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