The world's greatest seaport lay 90% idle last week, New York's usual chorus of hooting ships reduced to an occasional lonely wail.
Immediate events leading to this paralysis began Oct. 11, when Joe Ryan, burly boss of the International Longshoremen's Association (A.F.L.), made a happy announcement: the union had voted, 2-1, to ratify a new two-year contract. That certainly didn't sound as if a strike was coming, but that was just what it meant on the New York waterfront.
A Union Divided. Time after time since World War II, a substantial number of men who load and unload ships have left the...
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