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THE FISHERMAN
July 12, 1963
Hong Kong Crew Walks Off Ship in Grievance Protest
When the British freighter Lord Codrington tied up at Terminal Dock on July 8 and Vancouver police arrived to take seven of her crew to city jail, longshoremen began asking questions.
The story they got from Chinese crewmen, all from Hong Kong, sent them to the phone to enlist the aid of the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers.
Within hours, the Vancouver labor movement had swung into action to support the grievances of the 32 Chinese crewmen whose contract, violating even the agreement under which British merchant crews work, reads like a record from bygone days when seamen had no organisation and few rights
The Chinese seamen walked off the ship as a group and posted pickets to protest the arrest of their shipmates, who were formallv charged with refusing to obey orders.
Longshoremen, respecting the picket line, refused to begin loading the ship with her cargo of flour for Ceylon.
The Chinese crewmen were housed in the Marble Arch Hotel and a lawyer, Andrew Joe, was engaged to represent them and defend the seven arrested men when they appeared in police court Thursday this week.
With the assistance of Vancouver Labor Council secretary Paddy Ncale, conferences were arranged with representatives of interested unions and with legal representatives of the ship's owners in London, Ships Finance and Management Company Ltd.
The Chinese Benevolent Association called a meeting to discuss financial and other assistance for the Chinese crewmen.
Public response surprised even those seeking to help the crewmen. Individual citizens, reading only the bare outline or the men's grievances in their daily papers, sent letters and money.
56 HOUR WEEK
The agreement signed by crew members on the Lord Codrington hinds them to serve for not more than two years or until the ship's first return to Hong Kong.
Wages range from $320 to $640 a month in Hong Kong dollars— $53.60 to $106.60 in Canadian dollars
DELTA WELDING & MACHINE SHOP
H. JENSEN C. R. S. LIDEN TR. 9-5532 WO. 8-5967 Drum Drives * Winches - Tanks 956t Gunderson Road (Annieville Slough) WO. 8-8244 R.R. 1 New Westminster
at the exchange rate of six Hong Kong dollars to one Canadian.
For these wages deck and engine room workers, other than day workers, are required to work a 56 hour week.
Day workers have an eight hour day Monday to Friday, with six hours Saturday and four hours Sunday when at sea, and five hours Saturday and two hours Sundayi when in port, except for arrival or departure day — then they work an eight hour day. Sunday work is supposed to be confined to routine and sanitary duties.
Above these hours overtime is paid or equivalent time off given at the captain's discretion.
Monthly bonuses of approximately $16.50 Canadian are paid to the No. 1 bosun, No. 1 fireman, chief steward and pumpman, and of $11 Canadian to the carpenter, fitter, quartermaster and chief cook, but only when they are "carrying out their duties to the satisfaction of the master at all times."
Leave is granted at the rate of two days for each complete month on articles and the only holidays when outside the United Kingdom are Christmas Day, Good Friday and Chinese New Year's Day.
"We intend to draw this agreement to the attention of the British Seamen's Union" Neale told The Fisherman this week.
MEALS STOPPED
Crewmen, relating their story, said they signed on at Hong Kong on September 11 last year and flew to Amsterdam and then to Bremen to join the Lord Codrington.
On January 27. when the ship was at Houston, Texas, the chief officer ordered crewmen to work outside on a Sunday in violation of the agreement. The weather was bitterly cold and at the end of four days the men protested, asking for one day off to do their normal Sunday work.
Worsening relations following this protest culminated in the chief officer asking the captain to stop the food rations of 13 crewmen for four meals — over a 24 hour period. The crew promptly demanded to be paid off and returned to Hong Kong.
When the captain refused, the crew sent a letter to the ship's owners in London from whom they received a promise that the captain would be replaced at the next port of call.
A new captain came aboard when the ship docked at Gibraltar on February 23, but it soon became apparent that conditions would not be improved.
"The chief officer continued to force us to work under conditions which violated our agreement," the men explained through an interpreter.
"One carpenter who had been with the ship five months was sent
back to Hong Kong because the chief objected to him. This meant he lost his bonus and had unsatisfactory performance of duties entered as the reason in his seamen's discharge book.
"The chief steward was also sent back. He lost two months' bonus. After that, seven seamen were told they would be sent back."
SETTLEMENT REJECTED
When the Lord Codrington arrived in Vancouver, crew members asked to be paid accumulated overtime money. At first they were refused, but eventually all except the seven men who had been threatened with discharge received some money, though less than the amount they claimed was due to them. The seven were denied any advance.
The action that fired this months long chain of grievances was the arrest of the seven men on charges laid by the captain of refusing to obey orders. As one man, their 25 Chinese shipmates walked off the ship, leaving only their white officers aboard.
An attempt by Neale and other unionists, in conference with lawyers for the men and the ship's owners, to settle the dispute failed when the owners flatly rejected a proposed agreement cabled to them in London.
The agreement proposed withdrawal of the charges, clear discharge of the 32 crewmen without "retribution of any kind," compensation for the seven men jailed, and return of all crewmen to Hong Kong at the Company's expense with full pay to the time of their departure.
CHARGES DISMISSED
Following rejection of the proposed agreement, lawyers for the owners obtained an injunction from Mr. Justice A. E. Lord restraining 25 Chinese crewmen from picketing the Lord Codrington.
The injunction was served on the crewmen Wednesday night and pickets were withdrawn.
On Thursday, as the seven arrested crewmen appeared in Vancouver police court to answer charges of refusing to obey orders, two gangs of longshoremen began loading the freighter.
The owners, however, suffered a setback in their efforts to clear the ship without settling the crew's grievances when Magistrate Lome Jackson handed down his deferred decision- Friday morning.
Upholding the arguments of defence counsel Andrew Joe, he ruled there was no evidence to prove that orders had not been obeyed and dismissed the case. The remaining charges were withdrawn
At Fisherman press time, Neale and other unionists were in conference to decide on labor's next steps in the dispute.
SEAMEN STRIKE Here 25 crewmen of the British freighter Lord Codrington are seen picketing the vessel at Terminal Dock following their walkout July 8 to protest arrest of seven shipmates since acquitted of charges of refusing to obey orders. Vancouver labor movement is helping the seamen in their fight to win redress of their grievances.
HALIBUT LANDINGS
Vancouver
cents large
FRIDAY, JULY 5
Sentinella, 44,100, 18 cents chix (100), 24.4 cents medium (22,000), 24.6 cents large (22,000) Babcock; Frank Ellis', 31,200, 20 cents chix (2.000), 24.9 cents medium (29,000), 24 cents large (200) Seafood Products.
MONDAY, JULY 8 Aleutian, 5,000, 22 cents chix (500), 26.4 cents medium (4,000), 26 cents large (500) Edmunds and Walker: Pacific Ocean, 90,000, 23.7 cents medium (35,000), 24 cents large (55,000) Babcock.
TUESDAY, JULY 9 Haida Chief, 60,000, 24.1 medium (25,000), 23.5 cents (35.000) Canfisco.
THURSDAY, JULY 11 Velma C, 30,500. 13 cents chix (500), 24.2 cents medium (15.000), 24 cents large (15,000) Vancouver Shell; Zapora, 58,000, 24 cents med ium (28.000), 24.1 cents large (30-000) Babcock; Melville, 39,500, 18 cents chix (500), 24.1 cents medium (25,000), 24 cents large (14,000) Canfisco.
Prince Rupert
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26
BC Mac, 120,000, 1,000 chix, 71,000 medium, 48,000 large, selling Co-op. THURSDAY, JUNE 27 Sea Ranger, 67,000, 22.7 cents medium (50,000), 23.8 cents large (17.000) Pacific; Aleutian Queen, 45,500, 19 cents chix (500), 23 cehts medium (30,000), 24 cents large #15,0001 Atlin; Atli, 28,000, 19 cents I chix (3,500), 23.4 cents medium (18,500), 24.4 cents large (6,000) BC Packers.
FRIDAY, JUNE 28
Nanceda, 80,000, 16 cents chix (2,000), 22.1 cents medium (53,000), 23 cents large (25,000) BC Packers; Allaverdy, 52,500, 16 cents chix (500), 22 cents medium (26,000), 23.1 cents large (26,000) Pacific; Unimak, 70,000, 16 cents chix (1,000), 22.1 cents medium (54,000), 23 cents large (15,000) Atlin.
TUESDAY, JULY 2
Arctic I, 17,000, 16 cents chix (1,000), 22.2 cents medium (13,000), 23.5 cents large (3,000) Atlin: Deep Sea, 16,000, 22.2 cents medium (9,000), 23.5 cents large (7,000) Atlin: Miss Georgina, 50,000, 22 cents medium (35,000). 22.9 cents large (15,000) Pacific: Joan W 2, 70,000, 16 cents chix (5,000) 21.7 cents medium (58,000), 22.7 cents large (7,000) Nelson; Good Partner, 65,000, 22.1 cents medium (30,000), 23 cents large (35,000) BC Packers; Mother 3, 40,000, 16 cents chix (3,0001, 22.3 cents medium (34,000), 24.3 cents large (3,000) BC Packers; Dollina 2, 55,000, 22.1 cents medium (25,000), 23 cents large (30,000) Booth; Attu, 96,000. 22 cents medium (50,000), 23 cents large (46,000) BC Packers; Caamano Sound, 90,-000, 21.8 cents medium (50,000), 23.1 cents large (40,000) Atlin.
Frisco (US) 16,000, 15 cents chix (1,000), 20 cents medium (11,000), 22 cents large (4,000) Nelson. WEDNESDAY, JULY 3
Loyal 2, 52.000, 21.5 cents medium (36,000), 22.5 cents large (18,-00), BC Packers; P Doreen, 22,000, 16 cents chix* (1,000), 21.5 cents medium (13,000), 22.5 cents large (8,000) Babcock; Brooks Bay, 90.000, 21.5 cents medium (45,000), 22.1 cents
large (45,000) Atlin; White Hope, 20,000, 16 cents chix (500), 21.6 cents medium (13,000), 22.5 cents large (6,500) Nelson.
THURSDAY, JULY 4
Silver Viking, 85,000, 21 cents medium (40,000), cents large (45,-000) Nelson; Relief, 11,000, 18 cents chix (4,500), 23.5 cents medium (6,500) Babcock; BC Producer, 26,-000, 18 cents chix (500), 22.1 cents medium (21,000), 23 cents large (4,500) Pacific; Masonic, 95,000, 16 cents chix (1,000), 21 cents medium (54,000), 21 cents large (40,000) BC Packers.
FRIDAY, JULY 5
Alaska Queen, 88,000, 21.2 cents medium (44,000), 22.1 cents large (44,000) BC Packers; Waterfall, 64,-000, 18 cents chix (8,000), 21.4 cents medium (48,000), 22.5 cents large (8,000) BC Packers; Kaare 2, 54,-000. 17 cents chix (500), 21.1 cents medium (33,500), 22.3 cents large (20,000) Pacific.
MONDAY, JULY 8
Nord, 22,000, 18 cents chix (4,000), 22.3 cents medium (14,000), 23.5 cents large (4,000) Pacific.
Arden (US) 9,500, 15 cents chix (500), 20.5 cents medium (6,000), 21.5 cents large (3,000) Babcock.
Seattle
New Queen, 89,000, 18 cents chix (500), 22.9 cents medium 42,500), 24 cents large (46,000) SFS.
Central Alaska
Ocean Pride, 55,000; Dominator, 27,000; Kaare, 73,000; Carina 1, 61.-000; Western Girl, 53,000; Miss Jean, 45,000: Midnight Sun, 46,000; Linda, 63,000; Skardale. 73,000.
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