spite of the Taft—Hartley 80 day "cooling off" period, and a porsonal request from Kennedy to delay their strike by another 90 days, the 75,000 members of the International Longshoremen's Association shut down ports from Meine to Toxas on Dec. 23, The strike is a continuation of one that began Oct. 1 which was halted by Kanmnedy with a Taft-Hartley injunction.Negotiations, which began last June, never even got to the issue of wages and benefits. The snag in negotiations has been the insistence by the New York Shipping Association that the minimum sige of the work gang be roduced from 20 to 17 men, and that | other measures of "efficiency" be introduced. The Ili said that it will not "negotiate our mon" out of work. Inroads have already been made on ILA work forces by automation and other technical advances, and the ownerstdemands for speed-up and more “rational use of the work force would further cut employment.
Kennedy proposed that the workers remain on the job 90 tore days while two government committees wore sct up, one to "study" the disputed question of _"manpower utilization" and the other to recommend settlements on all other issues, he ILA replied that the proposnl “would be taking away our rights to colloeétive bargaining and putting tho matter in the hands of porsons who are not familiar with tho industry...." The shipowners rejected a proposal by the ILA that the issue of the size of work gangs be set aside for one year in order to reach a settlement. According to the ILA ,six maritime unions have pledged support of the strike and will walk off ships tied up in struck ports, The teamsters have also declared their support. : The shipowners prepared for the strike with accelerated schedules during the last hours before the strike deadline, Passenger lines cance Id their _ Voyages, and no liners were even scheduled to enter the port of New York during the first week of the strike... This de-activetion was widely viewed as a sign that the owners were preparing for a long strikes But Thomas W,. Gleason, chief negotiator for the ILA, said that the owners are “very wook" and "we'll lick 'om fast." i