Reprinted from past issues of the Seafarers LOG.1940
The constitution adopted in 1939 provided for the establishment of two separate districts: the Atlantic District and the Gulf District, with two separate headquarters, one in New York and one in New Orleans, and two separate bookkeeping and financial systems. The membership of the two districts, in a 30-day referendum vote, voted overwhelmingly to amalgamate the two districts. The amalgamation resolution which was adopted in August 1940 provides that the headquarters of the Atlantic and Gulf District will be in Washington, D.C. until the next election, and that all of the financial and bookkeeping work shall be done in that office.
1950
The modern, 18,000-ton SS Olympic Games, first tanker to be switched to American registry since the outbreak of the Korean War, sailed out of Baltimore last week manned by a SIU crew. Prior to the switch the Olympic Games had been flying the Honduran flag under charter to the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company of New York and was hand-led by a Greek crew.
Built at the Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Baltimore in 1948 for the Olympic Oil Lines of Panama, the streamlined tanker is now being operated by the US Petroleum Carriers, an SIU-contracted company.
1960
SIU pickets were lifted from the Canadian tug Melanie Fair after one day of picketing August 3, when the tug’s captain-owner signed an agreement with the union. The tug entered the capes at Norfolk Aug. 2 to tow the hulk of the tanker African Queen across the Atlantic to a shipyard in Antwerp, Belgium. However, while the tug was in Quebec, the captain fired its SIU Canadian District crew, hired a non-union crew in Toronto and flew it to Quebec to man the oceangoing tug.
The SIU Canadian District notified the Norfolk SIU hall of the situation. When the Melanie Fair limped into Norfolk—she had engine room woes on the way—she was met with a picket launch. Round-the-clock picketing of the tug in stream prevented Norfolk harbor tugs from towing the African Queen to the Canadian tug. As a result, the tug owner signed an agreement shortly after noon August 3 and sailed with the African Queen in tow before dark.
1970
The Overseas Alaska, a 62,000 deadweight-ton tanker, launched at Bethlehem Steel Corporation’s Sparrows Point shipyard, is another of the SIU’s contracted vessels. Providing more jobs for the union’s members, the ship will carry oil from Alaska to ports on both coasts of the continental U.S. It is one of the largest vessels capable of navigating the Panama Canal while fully loaded…. Of interest to SIU members will be the single, fully air-conditioned rooms.
###
Printer Friendly Page