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personnel which had heretofore been represented by the Marine Engineers'
Beneficial Association, which was by this time gravitating toward the CIO. The
AFL raid resulted in a tugboat strike that tied up the port for two weeks until it was
tentatively terminated on October 18 so the two organizations could argue their
cases before the NLRB. This strike seems to have set the unlicensed tugboat
workers, organized in to I LA Local 1337 into motion around their own demands,
and three weeks later a second tugboat strike tied up the port. During the second
strike, which lasted a month and resulted in a compromise settlement with shorter
working hours, the CIO sat on the sidelines.44
As dramatic as the AFL's "war" on the CIO on the waterfront was on
occasion, it really signified very little during 1937. Despite the AFL's active
opposition, the NMU grew to overwhelming dominance among the seamen as the
ISU, severely damaged by the 100-Days Strike, all but collapsed; additionally, the
IUMSWA-CIO initiated its organizing campaign among non-union shipyard
workers. The ILA, on the other hand, retained the support of the longshoremen,
but made few inroads elsewhere. Perhaps the main benefit of the anti-CIO
campaign for the AFL was that it did shored up its hegemony over the
longshoremen, many of whom wavered during the 100-Days Strike. There must
have been some concern on the part of ILA leaders about the Black longshoremen
in particular, for according to the Afro's William N. Jones at mid-year, the
longshoremen of Local 858 were loyal to the AFL for the moment, but were
apprehensive both over the coming battle with the CIO and over the prospect of a
never-ending battle within the AFL over Jim Crow. The NMU was aware of the
Black longshoremen's ambivalence and continued its efforts to wean them away
from the AFL - a practice that made ILA leaders livid. ^
It is important to note that, despite the overwhelming rejection of the rank-
and-file seamen's movement by Black longshoremen in late 1936, and despite
continuing solidarity of these workers with the AFL, there was no backlash in the
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