“YOU’RE BETTER off sitting down and let’s get a contract,” stated Harold Daggett, head of the Worldwide Longshoremen’s Affiliation, the dockers’ union, a couple of weeks in the past. If not, he stated, “I’ll cripple you.” This was no empty menace. On October 1st dockers at 36 ports from Texas to Maine walked off the job after their contract expired. The ports’ large cranes, which appear like huge metallic giraffes, stopped loading and unloading. Ships that didn’t get to port in time anchored off shore. A couple of headed to Mexico. “We’re going to indicate these grasping bastards you’ll be able to’t survive with out us,” stated Mr Daggett on the primary day of the strike.
