This one predates my time in the industry by a little over a decade, but it used to come up a lot under the breath of old timers on the tugs. Does anyone have any stories about this strike? I heard tales of people shooting flaming arrows into passing trash barges and beat downs at the front gates of tug companies because of scabs headed into the yards to work the boats. What did they strike over and how did they manage to lose so bad, and what did they lose that they had before?
Even 10-15 years later no one wanted to admit they supported the strike (that I ever met) and there were still ENORMOUS grudges on some of the boats over the events of this strike. I was never able to learn too much about it other than muttered insults and folklore.
Not to be trivial in response, but here is a search result that seems to answer some of your questions.
The 1988 tugboat strike in the New York-New Jersey harbor was a major labor dispute involving Local 333 of the International Longshoremenās Association (ILA) against nine towing companies, sparked by demands for significant wage/benefit cuts (40-62%) and job losses (750). The strike, beginning February 16, 1988, crippled port operations, halting coal, fuel, and garbage transport, with workers protesting managementās union-busting tactics and seeking better pay, though it dragged on for months.
Causes: Management sought large concessions (pay cuts up to 62%, eliminating weekend overtime, reducing paid holidays from 10 to 4) and workforce reductions (up to 750 jobs), while the union wanted to maintain existing benefits.
Impact: Severe disruption to vital port functions, affecting coal, fuel, and garbage shipments; the Coast Guard had to manage increased traffic and incidents, like a tanker collision.
Duration: The dispute was lengthy, described as one of the longest and bitterest in the harborās history, with some companies continuing to hire replacements and the overall conflict persisting for years in various forms.
Outcomes & Significance:
Negotiations: The strike saw intense negotiations, with the union accusing companies of āunion-bustingā tactics, while management sources confirmed concession demands but disputed the severity.
Resolution (Partial): By June 1988, some companies settled, offering substantial pay raises over several years, but the conflict highlighted deep divisions and the changing landscape of the maritime industry. Legacy: The strike underscored the difficult economic pressures on the industry and the determination of workers to resist large-scale concessions, becoming a landmark labor conflict in New Yorkās maritime history.
And here is a link to a NYT article at the time: Tug Strike
About 10 years before my time as well but the guys I worked with used to say some of it was over management wanting to get rid of the cooks. They told stories of guys hiding in the wetlands of Staten Island shooting at the tugs. The Company I worked for had an in-house union so they werent affected by it. Iām sure thereās a whole lt more to the story but thats what I remember.
It predates me as well, but Iāve heard tons of stories from the old timers in NY Harbor regarding this. The most interesting was that a rifle round went through the pilot house window of an Eklof Marine tug right near the end of the strike.
Ditto on being before my time but Iāve heard the stories from 2 different paradigms & they pretty much matched up. I first heard about the NY Harbor Strike in the mid 90ās when I started my career on the Mississippi & GoM. I worked a few years with a guy who was a scab tankerman from New Orleans & a couple of years around a former scab engineer. They had plenty of stories of finding barges & tugs so sabotaged they were surprised no one was killed. The 2 worst ones was a stem on a gate valve on the barge was partially cut through with a hazsaw. It allowed the valve to be half closed before snapping right off. The other was of a generator being rewired to go to ground to deck framing as soon as it was started. They said they had to be bussed into the docks by security & no one could drive their vehicles to work because out of state tagged vehicles would be vandalized. In 2007 I went to work for the company that was Eklof Marine. The mariners there said nearly all the tug companies contracts expired at the same time, the companies mostly anticipated a shutdown & had scabs in hotels ready to work on Day 1.The NYāers claimed the southern boat operators were used to soft muddy bottoms & would poke holes in the bottoms of the barges/tugs trying to nudge into rocks. I believed that. Some of the guys I worked with were former shipped-in scabs who stuck with it. I was told the strike didnāt work & eventually everyone still in working shape/age went back to work only for other companies to save face. If Local 333 was anywhere near the same in 1988 as it was when I worked for them ā07-'10 I understand why the strike failed. I wouldnāt trust those people to mow my yard if they offered to do it for free.
I was working in Alaska at the time, however, I knew a few nonunion guys that had been trying to break into NY tugboat jobs for years that finally got their chance.
Local 333 had fantastic wages and benefits (like the Longshoremen), but it was impossible for anyone without connections to break in to 333. You could join and pay dues, but never get a job.
As I understand it, it didnāt start out as a strike, it started as a lockout by the NY tug companies who brought in replacement mariners from the Bayou.
Local 333 never recovered and turned into a disaster of a union in the ownerās pockets with low wages and benefits. Eventually, it was voted out and replaced by a new division of MMP Inland (another crap union). The employees at one or company became a new union, the Richmond Terrace Bargaining Unit.
The strike gave mariners and tug companies from the Bayou a foothold in NY, and they are still there today.
Very few NY tugboat mariners can afford to live in NY today on maritime union wages. They are mostly 14/14 commuters from rural areas of the East Coast.
Almost 40 years later, there are still a lot of old NY Local 333 mariners with hard feelings about the strike. They consider everyone else a scab.
Youāre spot on here. I started in NY in ā96 and there were (much fewer now) a lot of bitter mariners. RTBU came out of K-Sea, I have no idea how theyāre doing. A lot of the current fleet problems stem from the wage suppression that came from the strike and the wreckage that was 333.
I was there, pretty fresh out of school. Long Story. I worked for Tom Moran, then onto the tugs. It was a rough start to the US merchant marine. Too many stories to tell, most are unbelievable these days. The most important point I would interject was, it was a ālockoutā not a strike, at least initially. Their law firm had Knuckles Security pull everyone off the boats in one night. They came with dogs. They bragged about never losing an operational hour. Then came the pre-hired and oriented guys from the busted oil patch. What a messā¦ I was so naiveā¦ There were flares onto tows, cinder blocks from bridge, molotovs into open engine rooms, shots firedā¦ PM me sometime Shooter, if you have specific questions.
Iām embarrassed by how dumb I was, but I got to the Moran yard, not knowing how lucky I was not to get spotted as a scab along my way, with my seabag. I moved into the gang focsle with three inches of water across the deck AND I STAYED. A little while later that evening we headed to Fresh Kills to pick up some scows and we came within a boat length of a collision with an oncoming light boatā¦ hard over with a big stern bellā¦ Because the captain -who seemed like a decent guy, but had to scab against his union brothers because his wife JUST had another baby, which got his car torched- was getting a break dancing lesson in the wheelhouse with the overhead light onā¦ That was my first couple of hours and it went on like that through the fall and winter, 'til I quit April first, with no notice. Every day was a variation of the sameā¦This was before drug testing, or when it started, actually. I lived with my coonass, and other unemployable, mates through one unbelievable day after another, doing the garbage. I got out of school, as a top of the class nautical nerd. Hoping I was going places. But there was literally no place to go back then. The union books were closed. Iām still at seaā¦ right now, worlds awayā¦ counting my blessings. Stay safe.
I probably should have been much clearer, I was curious if anyone here in the forums was around for this and saw firsthand what was going on and if any of the folklore (as it seemed at the time) with regards to violence was actually true. I read a few articles that outlined the strike online, but one of them was poorly written and contradicted itself a few times to the point where I thought it was a student research paper made public.
I didnāt know deckhands at that time, nearly 40 years ago, were making $175 per day. I had heard (from older guys) that prior to this madness deckhands lived very well, making pretty good money. The wages didnāt change much by the time I came along. In fact, most deckhands were making $100 to $120 per day where I was. This was a bit of an eye opening read.
Yep, the tugboat owners and the people that hire them decided it was a good time to divide and conquer the unions.It was the the beginning of a growing gap between the wages of workers and management which is now at an all time high. Remember this was shortly after Reagan destroyed the ATC union and made himself a hero to the big money guys and which put fear in all unions that the right to organize and represent was tenuous at best.