Decision on the Docks

For the first time in his presidency, Richard Nixon was moved to use the Taft-Hartley Act. Despite his longstanding reluctance to interfere in labor disputes, he sent Justice Department attorneys into federal court last week to stop the 98-day strike by the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union that had shut down every port on the West Coast. The economic impact gave him no choice. Citing the "irreparable injury" of the strike, Government lawyers were granted a temporary restraining order. This week the court will consider a permanent injunction that would impose an 80-day cooling-off period.

Longshoremen also struck East and Gulf Coast ports two weeks ago, but the walkout in the West had already gone on much longer with more serious consequences. The 15,000 striking I.L.W.U. members had idled 249 ships at a cost of about $2 billion. Feed grains, furniture, machinery and even Christmas trees destined for Viet Nam had piled up near the docks; ships carrying bicycles and Scotch were anchored in the ports. Major importers estimated that the work stoppage had reduced their annual volume of sales by 15%, and West Coast politicians had bombarded Nixon with demands that he intervene.

From Anathema to Statesman. He might have responded sooner but for the fact that shippers had cautioned him to keep hands off. They were worried that I.L.W.U. President Harry Bridges might lose control of his union if the Federal Government got involved. Once anathema to management because of his fiery radicalism and flirtation with Communism, Bridges is now respected as a labor statesman. In recent years he has agreed to eliminate featherbedding in return for more job security and fringe benefits. Because of his new stance. Bridges is now under attack from militants within the union. Alarmed over the decline in jobs on the docks, they have insisted that the I.L.W.U. be given jurisdiction over loading the huge containers now used to carry ship-borne cargo. Since the Teamsters already have jurisdiction over many of these jobs, the I.L.W.U. forced a strike to decide the issue. But the shippers' Pacific Maritime Association refuses to choose between the two unions; the I.L.W.U. refuses to accept arbitration; and so the strike goes on. Tempers are not expected to cool very fast during the cooling-off period.

On the East Coast, shippers are no more anxious for Nixon to intervene than they were in the West. The 45,000 striking members of the International Longshoremen's Association, on the other hand, insist that the shippers have locked them out; they would welcome an order to return to work. It was the shippers who forced the strike when the three-year contract expired two weeks ago. New York shippers served notice on the I.L.A. local that they would no longer accept the contract definition of a guaranteed annual wage. They insisted that they were being driven into bankruptcy. By guaranteeing every union member 2,080 hours of work a year at $4.60 an hour, they had expected to lay out an extra $13 million annually. Instead, they found themselves paying $30 million. They charged that an overly generous decision by labor mediators had enabled union members to draw wages without working. Last year, in fact, they paid for 40 million man-hours of work when actual work done amounted to 28 million.

Jealous Independence. The I.L.A., which once branded the Taft-Hartley Act a "slave labor" law, would only be too happy to see it invoked now. It would restore the status quo--that is, the guaranteed wage--for the cooling-off period. But the strike has not yet hurt enough to force the President's hand. Knowing it was coming, shippers avoided routing cargo to U.S. ports. It will be at least a month before outbound cargo starts piling up on the docks.

Before that happens, the Administration expects an erosion of union solidarity, which has never been strong among the jealously independent locals of the I.L.A. The issue of the guaranteed annual wage affects New York alone, and longshoremen outside the city are scarcely concerned with the battle to keep it intact. I.L.A. President Thomas Gleason is having a hard time keeping his other locals off the job. He threatens stiff fines if they disobey. But over the years, the New York union has slipped steadily as the city has lost business to Southern and Western ports. Thus the strike is really a test of how much power a shrinking local in a decaying port can still muster.

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