A second federal judge today refused, temporarily, to forbid maritime workers’ picketing of the Egyptian vessel Cleopatra, which has been immobilized at a New York dock for seven days.
In United States District Court here, this morning, Judge Thomas E, Murphy reserved opinion on an application by the Khedivial Mail Line, of Alexandria, Egypt, which sought a preliminary injunction that would have forbidden the picketing. Last Friday. U.S. District Court Judge Edward Weinfeld turned down the Egyptian ship line’s motion for a restraining order against the picketing.
Except for sacks of mail, which the International Longshoremen’s Union allowed its members to unload from the Cleopatra this morning, the rest of the shipment aboard the Cleopatra is still in the vessel’s holds.
An hour and a half argument preceded Judge Murphy’s decision today to reserve ruling. The jurist said he will rule, first of all and specifically, on the contention by two maritime unions involved who insist that the federal court has no jurisdiction in this case. The unions –the Seafarers International Union and the International Longshoremen’s Association–told the court that the picketing is a labor case stemming from a genuine labor grievance and that, therefore, the action is permitted under federal laws as long as it is peaceful.
Joseph K. Grainger, attorney for the Egyptian shipping line, who sought the preliminary injunction, told the court that the unions are picketing the Cleopatra upon the “tenuous claim” of “a so-called blacklist” being practiced against American shipping by the United Arab Republic. He insisted that there was no bona fide labor dispute involved.
EGYPTIAN BOYCOTT CIED; 100 U.S. SHIPS BLACKLISTED BY ARABS
Seymour Waldman, attorney for the I. L. A., and Seymour W.Miller, for the SIU, spelled out the case for the unions. Both told the court that the picketing was being conducted by the SIU, while the ILA is only exercising its right to refuse to cross a picket line run by another union.
Mr. Miller informed the court that “over 100 American ships are now blacklisted by Egypt, and thousands of jobs are involved for American seamen.” Mr. Waldman said: “The Egyptian Government has imposed a strict boycott, not only against the State of Israel but against any ship which deals with Israel. American lines have the choice of trading with Israel or with the Arab states. An American line which continues to observe the traditional maritime policy of free trade with all nations, including Israel, is barred from routes and other cargo-carrying opportunities by both the direct and indirect effects of the Egyptian boycott.
“The action of the SIU in picketing the S.S. Cleopatra, and the refusal of the ILA members to cross that picket line,” Mr. Waldman continued, “represented far more than a protest by outraged American citizens against an outrageously discriminatory, illegal and indeed dangerous policy on the part of Egypt, Directly at stake in this boycott are the Job opportunities of both seamen and longshoremen.
“There is no working condition more important to an employee than the opportunity to work at all. No action affects his economic welfare more directly than that which diminishes his work opportunities and threatens to deprive him of his job.” Mr. Waldman stressed.
The attorney for the Egyptian shipping line implied that there is a “conspiracy” between the two unions, holding that both were doing the picketing. Counsel for the two unions denied the existence of such a conspiracy and challenged the lawyer for the Egyptian firm to prove his claim.
One of the arguments presented by the attorney for the Egyptian line was that the ship is owns by a private company, and not by the Egyptian government. Mr.Miller, however, cited the 1959 edition of the Egyptian Yearbook to prove that the Khedivial Lines were nationalized in 1934, telling the court that no denationalization has been claimed.
(Nearly 3,000 American tourists in Israel for the holiday season today gathered at a reception in Hamlin House in Tel Aviv and adopted a resolution congratulating the New York maritime workers and longshoremen for their boycott of United Arab Republic shipping in New York Harbor.)
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