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The Labor Month in Review

ON JULY 10, Federal District Court Judge Sylvester J. Ryan issued an 80-day Taft-Hartley injunction against the maritime strike, dated back to July 3, when the strike was suspended by a temporary restraining order. The strike, which had begun on June 16, had involved some 70,000 workers on all three coasts. The court rejected the contention of the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association and the Masters, Mates and Pilots that as supervisory employees they are not subject to the Taft-Hartley Act. Judge Ryan directed the union and management groups to continue bargaining to attempt to reach agreement on all issues before the injunction runs out on September 21.

Some settlements had been made before the strike, and mediation efforts of the Presidential Board of Inquiry appointed on June 26 resulted in other tentative agreements. All negotiations were complicated by rivalry between the Seafarers and the National Maritime Union, with the other unions drawn to one side or the other. The Seafarers had made some agreements for 4-percent package increases in 1-year contracts, while the NMU had signed with some employers for a wage increase of 10% percent over a 4-year period, plus increased fringe benefits. The toughest union demand to resolve the right to bargain for seamen on "flag of convenience" ships-was referred to a Government committee by the NMU contracts. The Seafarers obtained employer permission to organize men on such ships. The NMU represents most of the seamen on subsidized ships, whose owners are not permitted under Federal law, also to operate ships under foreign flags.

A weekend walkout of 15,000 warehousemen ended on June 19 with the signing of 3-year contracts negotiated jointly by the Teamsters and the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union with the Distributors Association of Northern California. The settlement reportedly included periodic hourly wage increases totaling 27 cents for men and 21 cents for women, an addi

tional paid holiday (making a total of 9), and medical care for pensioners after June 1, 1962. Under arbitration of a reopener in the ILWUPacific Maritime Association agreement, 16,000 workers were granted wage increases effective June 12. Longshoremen received 6 cents an hour and clerks 84 cents an hour (longshoremen work 6 hours at straight time and 2 hours at time and one-half, while clerks work a straight time shift of 8 hours). The award also increased the employer contribution, to maintain existing health and welfare benefits, by 2 cents, bringing it to 17 cents an hour.

In a progress report on the closing of three meatpacking plants issued on June 19, the Armour Automation Committee confirmed existing knowledge of the effects upon workers terminated by plant closings. The report concluded, among other things, that retrair ing "is likely to benefit only a minority of employees in a situation involving middle-age individuals who have limited. formal education to start with."

THE TEAMSTER CONVENTION, meeting in Miami Beach July 3-7, reelected James R. Hoffa as union president by acclamation and unanimously approved all actions taken by him and other union officers since the last convention in October 1957. Hoffa's only opponent in the election was Milton J. Liss, president of a local in Newark, N.J.; Liss withdrew halfway through a roll-call vote in which he had received 15 of the 1,875 votes cast. The delegates expanded the union's jurisdiction to cover all workers in all fields. They approved constitutional changes (a) compelling all locals to join areawide negotiations when a majority of locals in an area favors such action, (b) making local officers and business representatives automatically convention delegates, (c) raising monthly per capita dues to the international from $0.40 to $1 and (d) authorizing the union to join with other unions for the purpose of "creating and/or participating in any federation of labor organizations."

Delegates to the Communications Workers convention, held in mid-July at Kansas City, approved a resolution on automation similar to the one originated by the UAW in April. It called for a "national security fund" for retraining costs and for the maintenance of a 40-hour pay level when weekly hours are reduced to less than 40 as a result of automation. The convention also