Three weeks ago the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the union-run hiring hall, as operated by most of the big maritime unions, is in effect a closed shop and thus illegal under the Taft-Hartley Act. Nobody in the shipping industry cheered the decision; few wanted it.
The hiring hall had become the great stabilizer of maritime employment. Before the unions began setting them up in the mid-'30s, hiring of seamen and longshoremen had been a racket; men were obliged to buy jobs and kick back part of their wages. As the unions...
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