to me, personally, nor to many others, but it did give the union a new lease on life; it gave the union preference of employment. And of course, as soon as that happened, men began to fall all over themselves in their endeavor to get into our unions on the Atlantic coast. The Atlantic coast unions thus grew "like Topsy," and overnight became quite large, because some of us old fellows had succeeded in negotiating a union contract with the Atlantic shipowners. There had been no strike, mind you. The Atlantic coast shipowners signed an agreement; and the increase took effect on January 1, 1935. On the other hand, the increase on the Pacific coast, which had been won as a result of the strike, did not take effect until very much later, because of this slow process and the shipowners' dilatory tactics to which I have already referred. I do not know whether I have answered all your questions, Senator. The CHAIRMAN. That is very interesting. Mr. SCHARRENBERG. That is all I wanted to submit. The CHAIRMAN. We are very much obliged to you. You left the material for the amendments, did you? Mr. SCHARRENBERG. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Very well; thank you, Mr. Scharrenberg. FURTHER STATEMENT OF JAMES MULLEN, NATIONAL MARITIME UNION, COMMITTEE FOR INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION Mr. MULLEN. May I make a comment regarding Mr. Scharrenberg's statement? The CHAIRMAN. Yes, sir. Mr. MULLEN. He said that Joseph Curran did not represent the Masters, Mates, and Pilots of the Pacific and the Firemen's Union of San Pedro. The secretary had authorization sent here, authorizing Mr. Curran and myself to represent the marine firemen of the Pacific coast. Mr. Fitzgerald, that secretary, has been out of office, and a man named Malone is now in; and he was the secretary at that time. So I think he was correct in appointing Mr. Emerson and Mr. Curran to represent him. When Mr. Scharrenberg spoke about the contracts on the Atlantic coast and the west coast, he did not bring out the very important point, which is this: The membership did not want them. Mr. Scharrenberg failed to state that the union members instructed the union officials time after time to disregard those contracts and to go get better ones. But those leaders told us we would have to take them. so the seamen themselves formed their own union, which is the National Martime Union. When the National Maritime Union was formed, the seamen came in very rapidly, from the International Seamen's Union. And And if I may say so, if the Senator would look further, he would see that that fight out there was simply between the crooked officials and the men in the union. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, sir. That will be all tonight. We have had a long day, and have been here since 10 o'clock this morning, and it is now after 5 o'clock. Thank you. (Whereupon at 5: 10 p. m. an adjournment was taken.) 32437-38- pt. 8--10 MARINE ACT OF 1936 HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE AND THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR UNITED STATES SENATE SEVENTY-FIFTH CONGRESS THIRD SESSION ON S. 3078 A BILL TO AMEND THE MERCHANT MARINE ACT OF 1936 AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES 32437 PART 9 JANUARY 26, 1938 Printed for the use of the Committee on UNITED STATES WASHINGTON: 1938 |