The Shipping Union’s Legal Ambush
Sailors' union activists attempt to use state court writs to challenge the legality of non-union, foreign-recruited crews aboard a ship in Port Townsend.
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There will probably be a conflict of authority between the state courts and the Federal authorities tomorrow concerning the crew of the ship Empire. Seven seamen, who the Sailors' Union alleges were shipped in Victoria and brought into the United States in violation of the alien contract labor law, are aboard the Empire. They were regularly signed before United States Shipping Commissioner Bash for the voyage to France. It now transpires that they regret their action, and the Coast Seamen's Union, to further their interests in the fight against the ship owners, have sued out writs of habeas corpus directed to the master of the Empire, commanding him to bring his crew into the superior court tomorrow. The captain is afraid to bring the crew ashore, fearing they may escape or that union sailors would forcibly rescue them, and it is stated he will ignore the writ and the jurisdiction of the superior court.
“This is but another attempt to bind down the ocean with a packthread.”
This 1893 labor conflict over the jurisdiction of courts in maritime disputes echoes contemporary debates regarding the intersection of federal, state, and private maritime labor law. Today, as then, the Port of Seattle remains a contested ground for international shipping labor rights.
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