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Line. So there wasn't anything he didn't know about longshore work. He was a skilled workman, but he had no standing as a negotiator because they didn't have any shop stewards, or any negotiating agreements. There was no such thing as negotiation.

He said that on the whole the company had treated the men decently, but this “slingload” business had come along and the Moore-McCormack had adopted the same “slingload” as everybody else in the port had. They had to do it. If one did it, they all would do it. They also hadn't made any wage adjustment.

At any rate, we got favorable reports. McGrady telepboned back to say that, “We've got a group now we think we can do business with. It's the first group that's turned up that you can make head or tail of. We're calling other groups in tomorrow to try to get this group together.”

So they called them in. It was the first ray of light. It was a kind of consistent scheme that they had. The other groups from the other docks, or some of them, would agree. They formed a larger committee. Gradually it appeared that this fellow Bridges was always on whatever larger committee they formed. That they all thought very natural because hewas the spokesman. He was the