Embattled maritime workers in New York, who have been picketing the Egyptian ship Cleopatra here for two weeks, defiantly warned the United Arab Republic today that they will continue them picketing until the “Nasser Government changes its policy toward American ships dealing with Israel.”
They told the second highest court in the land–the United States Circuit Court of Appeals–that their action is “directly calculated” to fight the Nasser Government “where it is most sensitive, in its own pocketbook.”
The statement was made in the Circuit Court where attorneys for the Seafarers’ International Union and the International Longshoremen’s Association argued before a three-judge panel for reaffirmation of a lower court’s refusal to issue a temporary injunction forbidding the picketing.
Chief Judge J. Edward Lumbard, sitting in the Circuit Court with Judges Leonard P. Moore and Henry J. Friendly, reserved decision on the motion to reverse the lower court’s opinion. There was no immediate indication as to when the Court will hand down its ruling. Prior to taking the case to the Circuit Court, the attorneys for the Egyptian ship lost three separate actions in the federal courts.
The Khedivial Mail Line of Alexandria, Egypt, which contends that it owns the Cleopatra, today asked the Circuit Court to reverse the U.S. District Court’s refusal to grant the temporary injunction. The attorney for Khedivial, Joseph K. Grainger, asked the Circuit Court not only to reverse the lower court’s ruling, issued Saturday by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Murphy, but also to grant damages for the Cleopatra’s two-week-long immobilization to date.
“Irreparable damage,” amounting to “tens of thousands of dollars,” has been caused to the Alexandria shipping firm through the picketing, Mr. Grainger contended. Furthermore, he told the court, the Cleopatra’s sister ship is due in the New York harbor next month, and the Cleopatra’s inability to unload its cargo may be repeated when the next UAR ship arrives here.
PICKETING OF CLEOPATRA IS A PURE LABOR DISPUTE, COURT IS TOLD
Seymour W. Miller, attorney for the Seafarers, told the court that the action is a pure labor dispute. “More than 100 American ships,” he said, “have been blacklisted by the UAR for trading in Israeli ports. On these ships alone, more than 5, 000 American seamen’s jobs are involved. The Department of Agriculture has stipulated that no charters for carrying U.S. surplus commodities to Egypt will be granted to American ships on the UAR blacklist. Until recently, the Navy Department also had such a rule in effect. To us, this means jobs. We are fighting for jobs.”
Martin Markson, appearing on behalf of the law firm of Waldman and Waldman for the ILA, told the court that the Egyptian motion should be denied, among other reasons, because it is “perfectly clear that the plaintiff” is in court “with unclean hands.”
The Egyptian boycott against American ships trading with Israel, he stated, “constitutes inequitable conduct towards the members of the SIU and the ILA.” He pointed out that American longshoremen suffer loss of work when the UAR discriminates against some American shipping.
Both Mr. Miller and Mr. Markson told the court, however, that it really has no jurisdiction over the entire case. Both argued that Judge Murphy was correct in refusing to assume jurisdiction. They held that, if there is a case at all, it should go either to the National Labor Relations Board or, possibly, to a New York State Court.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
