Beached

Skippers who read the signs got their ships loaded fast and moved up sailing dates. More than 100 managed to steam out of U.S. ports ahead of schedule one day last week. Next day, Joe Curran lowered the boom. Men of Curran's 50,000-member National Maritime Union and two smaller C.I.O. maritime unions went "on the beach" to win themselves higher wages and better working conditions.

The N.M.U. called it limited war, applied it only to American-registry freighters and passenger ships (making up about 650 of the 1,350 in the U.S. merchant fleet). It excluded those that carry military cargoes, relief supplies and some economic aid. Ships with EGA cargoes could sail, the N.M.U. decreed, in cases where the Government labeled them "defense cargoes." Foreign-registry ships were free to come & go. Principal victims: U.S. passenger ships, just now gliding into the main rush of the annual tourist traffic.

The N.M.U., the Marine Engineers and the American Radio Association (ships' radio operators) wanted their new contracts to show a 25% wage boost (the shipowners were offering 10%), a 40-hour work week at sea instead of the present 48-hour week, a company-financed kitty of 50-c- per man a day for vacation allowances. By this week, at least 36,500 men were on the beach, no-sail notices were posted in every major U.S. port. The way things were going, nearly half the U.S. merchant fleet would be tied up.

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