The Daily Alaska Empire

TACOMA ILA IS ASSAILED BY BRIDGES
CIO Longshore Boss Says AFL Local's Agreement Is Sell-Out
SEATTLE, June 17 - Charging that the contract signed several months ago by Tacoma's AFL-affiliated International Longshoremen's Association was a "large obstacle in the CMU (CIO) negotiations," Harry Bridges, co-leader of the CMU, declared yesterday his longshoremen will strike September 30 if a satisfactory contract is not signed by that deadline.
He said the Tacoma agreement was "the worst longshore agreement in the nation," and described it as a "company union - a complete sell-out."
In Hostile Mood
Arriving here from New York, Bridges asserted "there'll be no more stalling. If there's no contract, there'll be no work. No more of this business of working while negotiations are stalled along after agreements have expired."
Asked if a nationwide shipping tie-up by the seven unions in the CMU is certain if the longshoremen's and engineers association demands are not met, he asserted: "I can't speak now for all the unions in the CMU. In future action of this kind, but there's no doubt in my mind that we'll get 100 percent support. The CMU is here to stay."
CHARGES ANSWERED
TACOMA, June 19. - Replying to Harry Bridges charges that the Tacoma longshoremen's union (AFL affiliated) has "the worst longshore agreement in the country" last night, Lester E. Clemensen, business agent for the local union, declared "we have in Tacoma as good an agreement with employers as has any union on the coast."
"Our men are satisfied with the setup here and they work under it without friction. As to its being a company union, the membership runs and controls the organization alone, and we think we have as good a union as has Bridges," Clemensen said.