Parting of the Harrys

In 1935, bruised and battered by San Francisco's general strike, seamen, longshoremen and other maritime trades banded together loosely in a Maritime Federation of the Pacific. Their slogan: "An injury to one is an injury to all." Within a year they counted 8,000 members of the Sailors' Union of the Pacific, 17,000 members of the International Longshoremen & Warehousemen's Association, 17,000 members of nine smaller unions.

One thing which made M. F. P. possible was that Harry Bridges of the powerful Longshoremen's Union backed big, tough Harry Lundeberg of the Sailors' Union for first president of the federation. Independent as Robinson Crusoe, Lundeberg cared little when his union was booted out of A. F. of L. But when his sailors voted to join C. I. O. he promptly locked the votes up in a San Francisco bank. Joining C. I. O. would have meant the subordination of Harry Lundeberg to Joseph Curran, leader of C. I. O. seamen in the East (who outnumber West Coast seamen five to one). "Yoost a sailor," Lundeberg wanted to be alone. Last spring he began to "dump" East Coast seamen from West Coast ships, picket C. I. O. crews. When Harry Bridges' C. I. O. longshoremen crashed S. U. P. picket lines, the break between the Harrys was complete.

Fortnight ago, at the fourth annual convention of the Maritime Federation of the Pacific, Lundeberg's seamen accompanied by licensed officers and firemen walked out when the meeting refused to seat delegates of a Tacoma local of A. F. of L. longshoremen, Harry Bridges' bitter enemies. Also grieved because Harry Bridges has eagerly taken shoreside unions into the Maritime Federation, Lundeberg snorted: "We don't want any more cannery workers telling us what to do!"

Eager for unity, the convention sent Lundeberg a boatload of delegates bearing olive branches. At the hall where S. U. P. was holding its weekly meeting, they found the Norse giant himself, blocking the door. Fists clenched, he thundered at Revels Cayton, author of the unity proposal, denounced him as fink and traitor. Of the secessionists only the repentant firemen returned to the federation fold. This week Lundeberg announced worse news for the Maritime Federation: His sailors had now chosen A. F. of L. by a 2-1 vote, were ready to join A. F. of L.'s Maritime workers under Joseph P. Ryan in a new organization romantically called the Seafarers' Federation. Result: a new line-up of Labor on the West Coast, the solid front of the Pacific Maritime Federation shattered, new allies for the A. F. of L., a new chance for shipowners to drive a wedge between the warring factions of Labor.

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