ORGANIZING VICTORIES MARK BME EARLY YEARS

Organizing Victories Mark Early Years For Brotherhood Of Marine Engineers

Union Medical Plan Began In 1950

      The Brotherhood of Marine Engineers Welfare Plan was launched on Dec. 15, 1950.
      Like its successor, the AMO Medical Plan, the BME Welfare Plan was the finest in the maritime industry, paying an initial death benefit of $500--which rose to $1,500 in less than a year.
      The BME Welfare Plan also paid a $10-a-week hospital benefit, which was later increased to $15 a week.
      The BME Welfare Plan was overseen by a joint union-employer board of trustees. Representing the BME was Charles King, secretary-treasurer Pro-Tem of the union. On March 24, 1952, the BME's trustee position went to Wilbur Dickey, the first president.
      The BME Welfare Plan was administered by a young marine engineer named Raymond T. McKay, who was elected president of the union in 1957. McKay held the union's highest office until his death in August 1993.

      Within weeks of its charter from the Seafarers International Union of North America, the Brotherhood of Marine Engineers was fulfilling its mandate as determined by SIUNA First Vice President Paul Hall--to speak for marine engineers as no other union would or could, and to bring lasting credit to the American Federation of Labor.
      The new union had a full plate--coast-to-coast organizing, working with Hall through the AFL's Maritime Trades Department on such legislative issues as American-flag ship participation in post-war aid to Europe, and with the newly chartered International Transport Workers' Federation to draw appropriate attention to the emerging scandal of U.S.-fed flag-of-convenience shipping and its impact on seafarers worldwide.
      But it was on the organizing front that the BME matured, attracting hundreds of engineers troubled by what they had known of another union--the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association in left-leaning John L. Lewis's Congress of Industrial Organizations, which was formed as radical rival to the AFL in 1937. Dues-paying MEBA members and engineers sailing in non-union fleets were disturbed by the apparent and persuasive influence of communists over the CIO and its unions, which included the unlicensed National Maritime Union as well as the MEBA.
      By late 1949, the BME had collective bargaining agreements with six deep-sea steamship companies, and the union was negotiating with several others--in all, engine officer majorities in 51 dry cargo and tanker fleets had sought BME representation. One of the most significant organizing advances by the BME occurred during head-to-head competition with the MEBA for the exclusive right to represent engineers in the Isbrantsen Line fleet. The showdown began in New York City aboard Isbrandtsen's Sir John Franklin in September 1949.
      Despite appeals from the engineers for a BME contract, the MEBA claimed jurisdiction. When the Franklin docked, the BME declared the ship unorganized. The MEBA responded with a picket line that even the NMU refused to honor. Five days later, the Sir John Franklin was underway with overwhelming BME support in the engine room.
      "The move by the BME was in line with its general policy that the MEBA is a discredited organization, riddled with dissension, dominated by the communists, and no longer representative of the wishes of ship engineers," the SIUNA reported. "An NMU crew and CIO radio operators were aboard, too, their unions having demonstrated their disfavor with the MEBA tactics by dispatching crew members with orders to pass the picket line--a phony, left-wing MEBA demonstration--and go aboard the ship, Thus ended the Franklin incident. The BME subsequently signed a contract with Isbrandtsen."
      Enraged MEBA officials immediately branded NMU members working in the Isbrandtsen fleet "finks" and "scabs." However, NMU President Joe Curran replied: "A trade union (MEBA) that declared itself to be 70 years old ... should certainly have a better method of operation than they presently have down here."
      SIUNA warned that the MEBA would also attempt to "smear" the BME in the wake of the Isbrandtsen victory. "With the BME now a recognized factor on the waterfront, the road is going to get rougher for our affiliate."
      Undaunted, the BME continued to organize, focusing on another major fleet--Isthmian Steamship Co. That drive was long and difficult, but the BME--once more competing against the MEBA--was able to claim another win when it signed a collective bargaining agreement with Isthmian in August 1951. The contract--announced by Charles King, secretary-treasurer pro tem of the BME--covered 250 engineers.
      King told the Seafarers Log that the Isthmian pact had opened "a new era for the Isthmian engineers, who have been bewildered and disgusted over the MEBA leadership's arbitrary strike call in the Isthmian fleet."
      According to the Log account, the BME contract provided Isthmian's engineers with "the highest pay in the industry." The pact also included what the Log described as a "unique" clause giving the BME "the right to reopen the contract to discuss wages or any working conditions at any time."
      Under the agreement, the Isthmian engineers received an immediate 3.62-percent wage increase "and other monetary gains and improvements in working conditions." The Log continued: "The emergence of the Brotherhood of Marine Engineers as the representative body for the engineers in the company came as a result of the MEBA tactics in the Isthmian fleet, whereby the CIO engineers union failed to submit the issue of a strike to the membership before throwing up picket lines and brought down the wrath of the engineers involved.
      "Almost to a man, the engineers refused to accept the strike call and stayed on the ships.
      One consequence was the establishment of the left-leaning Committee of Industrial Organizations within the AFL. Under mineworkers' president John L. Lewis, the CIO--which included the MEBA and the National Maritime Union--withdrew from the AFL in 1938 and began operating as the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
      "The so-called strike won no support from other unions in the maritime industry, with the exception of Harry Bridges and the communist-controlled West Coast longshore outfit.
      "Requests by MEBA men in the Isthmian fleet to the BME for true union representation and a democratic set-up, coupled with a recommendation by the AFL Maritime Trades Department that the BMEstep-up its organizing activity where its representation is needed, brought the Brotherhood of Marine Engineers into the picture.
      "Simultaneously, the AFL Maritime Trades Department said it was unable to support the MEBA 'strike' against Isthmian, in view of the fact that the CIO engineers had only recently violated picket lines of the SIU-affiliated cannery workers during their strike against the Alaska Fishing industry in the Bering Sea area.
      "The complete repudiation of the MEBA leadership and their questionable labor policies is evidenced by the fact that the Isthmian ships are moving--with the engineers aboard."
      MEBA officials lashed out at the BME as "a puppet of the SIU," but the SIU Atlantic & Gulf District responded by noting that the BME had had "solid, all-out support" during the Isthmian beef, not only from the Seafarers and engineers, but from all other unions in the MTD.
      "The MEBA, on the other hand, finds itself totally without support within even the CIO, and has found its only backing from Bridges' non-affiliated longshoremen's union--an alliance that has created considerable suspicion as to motives, particularly since Lee Pressman, one-time legal darling of the Communist Party, is playing a key role in development of MEBA strategy," the SIU A&G said. "The Isthmian situation recalls the MEBA's callous indifference to the welfare of its membership aboard the Isbrandtsen ships almost two years ago, as a result of which MEBA men in that fleet flocked to the Brotherhood of Marine Engineers and have been covered by a BME contract ever since."
      The Isthmian drive was especially significant for another reason--one of the fleet's engineers helping to organize Isthmian for the BME was Ray McKay, who came ashore to serve the new union in several capacities. McKay went on to become president of the union from 1957 until his death in 1993--a remarkable era of growth, stability, and excellence.

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