Members of the Seafarers International Union and of the International Longshoremen’s Association today boycotted an Egyptian passenger-cargo vessel, the Cleopatra, that docked at a New York port. The union men refused to unload the cargo as a protest against the United Arab Republic’s blacklisting of American ships trading with Israel and the UAR’s anti-Israel blockade of the Suez Canal.
The maritime workers picketed the dock at which the ship was berthed, led by Paul Hall, president of the Seafarers Union, and by Thomas Gleason, general organizer of the ILA which is an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations.
The pickets distributed leaflets in which they demanded that the United States Government order the Navy not to purchase oil in any ports where American ships are blacklisted. The maritime workers also demanded that the shipment of government-financed farm surpluses be halted “to any nation which blacklists American shipping.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
