SECTION IX PROPOSED ALLIANCE OF TRANSPORTATION UNIONS Not since the 1950 railroad strike has the Nation's economy faced a threat such as that posed by the proposed alliance of dockworkers and trucking unions. Even the logistic functions of the military would be dangerously disturbed. The subcommittee recently reviewed the history of the organizations and principal personalities involved and submitted this record, with its findings, to the Defense Department with the suggestion that it seek new laws if needed, and to the Justice Department with the recommendation that it bring the facts before a grand jury for study to determine if antimonopoly laws were being violated. Joining in a call issued last July to "all unions in the transportation industry" to participate in forming a "continuous and permanent" conference on transportation unity, were the following: International Brotherhood of Teamsters, headed by James R. Hoffa; National Maritime Union, headed by Joseph Curran, and the International Longshoremen's Association, headed by Capt. William V. Bradley. Harry Bridges, president of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, subsequently announced that he and other officials of ILWU would participate in the organizational meeting, at Hoffa's invitation. These four unions claim a membership of more than 1,750,000 transport workers from coast to coast and in Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. Largest is the Teamsters Union, which includes chauffeurs, warehousemen and helpers, and blankets the Nation with 1,600,000 members. The ILWU, which operates on the west coast, Hawaii, and Alaska, claims 70,000 members, including Hawaii's sugar workers, many public employees, and some fishermen's unions in the United States and Canada. The International Longshoremen's Association lists 52,000 dockworkers on the east coast, the gulf coast, the Great Lakes, and Puerto Rico. The National Maritime Union, with 40,000 members, also operates on the east coast (p. 11).2 The three larger unions are "independents." The Bridges union (ILWU) was ousted by CIO in 1950 on the ground that its policies were As the subcommittee's 1958 annual report was being readied for printing, the threat of a nationwide strike as a protest against an antitrust law for unions was voiced by James Hoffa, president of the Teamsters' Union, at a South Atlantic and gulf coast convention of the Longshoremen's Union. Page citations in this section refer to the subcommittee's report of December 17, 1958, entitled "The Alliance of Certain Racketeer and Communist-Dominated Unions in the Field of Transportation as a Threat to National Security." 36554-59- -5 consistently directed toward the achievement of the program ILA was dropped as an AFL affiliate in 1953 as a gangster-controlled, racket-ridden operation. The Teamsters were orphaned by AFL-CIO for failing to clean house when ordered to do so by the parent organization after the Rackets Committee revelations in 1957. Both ILA and the Teamsters are reputedly trying to get back in AFL-CIO. HUGE RESERVOIR OF POWER Apparently, referring to the Teamsters and the two east coast maritime unions which signed the conference call, Bridges said in a statement published by the Washington Daily News and the Wall Street Journal: There's one thing I know. If the Teamsters and the two dock unions got together they'd represent more economic power than the combined AFL-CIO. They are so concentrated an economic squeeze and pressure can be exerted that puts any employer in a very tough spot-and furthermore puts the U.S. Government on a tough spot. The Bridges union and elements of the Teamsters already seem to have some sort of working agreement. Bridges, who has been an initiatory and active force in this movement, is currently in Moscow. In the past, Communist leaders have secured both guidance and finances for subversive purposes in Moscow. In June 1958 representatives of the warehouse division of the Teamsters and of ILWU met in Los Angeles. Quoting "a participant," the Los Angeles Times listed as among the meeting's accomplishments agreements that (1) if one union strikes, the other will; (2) neither union will reach any agreement with an employer unless it is acceptable to the other union, and (3) negotiators for the two unions will coordinate their bargaining strategy against employers. Another participant, also unnamed, was quoted as saying: "There will be *** in time-when, I don't know-a merger. Two weeks later, the ILWU "Dispatcher" spoke of "the unity of purpose and common determination of the ILWU and the Northern California Teamster Warehouse Local" in negotiating a contract settlement with the Distributors Association of Northern California. Last September a dispatch to the New York Times from Honolulu, where the ILWU has what is virtually a labor monopoly, said that one Mike Singer, a Teamster organizer, set out to organize nonunion meat dealers. Though the campaign was launched without an employee election or approval of the National Labor Relations Board, Singer established a picket line on the docks and ILWU members refused to cross it.3 *Bridges, himself, has been fully aware of the corruption within the Teamsters Union. * The campaign was abandoned within a few days. He is quoted, for instance, in the Daily Worker of April 3, 1957, as having told the ILWU convention of that year: The dilemma the ILWU faces is whether to attack Beck and other Teamster leaders, or whether the ILWU can afford to close its eyes to the terrible danger to all of labor from the kind of legislative straitjacket the Senate committee could develop on the pretext of helping the rank and file. Of course, Dave Beck is no longer president of the Teamsters and, while Hoffa has had troubles, legal and otherwise, as a result of the investigation of Teamster union personnel by the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field (Rackets), he has been able to ride them out. There are indications that Irving Velson, east coast "observer" for Bridges, may have tried to help Hoffa in one legal engagement. Miss Katherine Barry was a member of a New York jury which handled a wiretap indictment against Hoffa early in 1957. She reported to the judge that she had received a telephone call from the editor of a labor paper. The Rackets Committee had information that Richard Pastor, editor of a retail store union, had made the call at the instance of Velson. Questioned by the Rackets Committee, Pastor invoked the fifth amendment, refusing to answer for fear of possible self-incrimination. He took the same course on questions about his past and present membership in the Communist Party. There is one element which may strongly affect Bridges' thinking about the combine. Now ILWU is blocked off from the mainstream of organized labor-an outcast. By joining in with the Teamsters he would again attach to himself a large segment of the labor movement. As a member of the alliance, he would be one of four leaders with an army of a million and three-quarters. THE RECORD ON COMMUNISM Of Bridges, his secretary-treasurer, Louis Goldblatt and his principal eastern representatives, the interim report has this to say: Harry Bridges, president of the ILWU, has been identified Louis Goldblatt, secretary-treasurer of the ILWU, is Inzer, William P. Branhove, and Louis Rosser. When Of Velson, who described himself, in testimony before this subcommittee, as an "observer" on the New York waterfront for the ILWU: Irving Charles Velson was born as Irving Charles Shavel- In September 1943, Velson was fired as president of Local Velson was identified under oath as a member of the Mr. Gladnick added some details regarding Velson's activity: "I came to New York, and I contacted Velson *** and we put out a third edition of this paper (Shipmates' Voice) he was in charge (of the military apparatus of the Young Communist League) under Peters." The record shows that Velson was in frequent contact with Roy Hudson, one-time Communist commissar of the maritime industry. Velson's former wife was Ruth Young, a well-known Communist, with whom he had spent some time in Moscow. Mr. Velson has had an opportunity to appear before both the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and the House Un-American Activities Committee with reference to these allegations. He has resorted to the fifth amendment in 1. "Have you ever gone under the name of Charles Wilson, 2. "Did you know Roy Hudson, J. Peters, Gladnick?" 4. "In the 1930's were you the national military director 5. "Were you a member of the Communist Party when you were organizing workers at the Brooklyn Navy Yard?" 6. "Were you secretary of the American Committee to Survey Trade Union Conditions in Europe, located at 799 Broadway, New York City, which sent a delegation of American trade unionists to the Soviet Union"? (pp. 6, 7). Jeff Kibre identified himself to the subcommittee as Washington representative of the ILWU. The report describes him as follows: Jeff Kibre, alias Barry Wood, has been identified as a member of the Communist Party by five former members of that organization: Charlotte Darling Adams, Harold J. Ashe, Mrs. Mildred Ashe, Martin Berkeley, and George Oliver Berthelon. When questioned by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee on June 21, 1956, Kibre invoked the fifth amendment in refusing to answer the following questions: 1. "Are you now a member of the Communist Party?" 2. "Have you attended meetings of the Communist Party 3. "Were you a Communist at that time" (1936, 1937)? 5. "Did you use the alias 'Barry Wood' at that time" TEAMSTER CORRUPTION EXPOSED The Teamster Union has the doubtful distinction of having been the reason for establishment of a special committee by the Senate to probe reports of financial derelictions by its officers. The hearings have resulted in court actions against its former president, Dave Beck, and its former vice president, now president, James Hoffa, among others. The AFL-CIO resolution ousting the Teamsters, adopted at its 1957 convention, read in part: On September 25, 1957, the executive council of the AFLCIO, having given full consideration to the report of the ethical practices committee regarding the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, found and concluded that the international brotherhood is dominated, controlled, and substantially influenced in the conduct of its affairs by corrupt |