Letter to the Attorney General Directing Him To Petition for an Injunction in the Maritime Industry Labor Dispute.
Dear Mr. Katzenbach:
On September 30, 1964, by virtue of the authority vested in me by Section 206 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947 (29 U.S.C. 176), I issued Executive Order No. 11181 creating a Board of Inquiry to inquire into issues involved in labor disputes between employers (or associations by which such employers are represented in collective bargaining conferences) who are (1) steamship companies or who are engaged as operators or agents for ships engaged in service from or to Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports from Searsport, Maine, to Brownsville, Texas, or from or to other ports of the United States or its territories or possessions, (2) contracting stevedores, (3) contracting marine carpenters, (4) lighterage operators, or (5) other employers engaged in related or associated pier activities and certain of their employees represented by the International Longshoremen's Association, AFLCIO.
On October 1, 1964, I received the Board's written report in the matter. A copy of that report is attached hereto.
In my opinion, these unresolved labor disputes have resulted in an actual or threatened strike affecting a substantial part of the maritime industry of the United States, an industry engaged in trade, commerce, transportation, transmission or communication among the several States and with foreign nations, which strike, if permitted to continue, will imperil the national health and safety.
Therefore, in order to remove a peril to the national health and safety and to secure a resumption of trade, commerce, transportation, transmission or communication among the several States and with foreign nations, I direct you, pursuant to the provisions of Section 208 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, to petition in the name of the United States any District Court of the United States having jurisdiction of the parties to enjoin the continuance of such strike and for such other relief as may in your judgment be necessary or appropriate.
Sincerely,
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
[The Honorable Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, Acting Attorney General, Washington, D.C.]
Note: On October 1 the Acting Attorney General sought and obtained in the District Court for the Southern District of New York a temporary injunction, to expire on December 20, 1964, against continuation of the strike. On November 30 the Board of Inquiry reported to the President that no agreement had been reached but that the parties had affirmed a willingness to negotiate as extensively as necessary to achieve a settlement before the expiration of the injunction. An agreement was reached on December 16 covering the Port of New York, but it was rejected by the longshoremen. On January 11, 1965, a strike began affecting ports from Maine to Texas.
The Board's reports of October 1 and November 30, 1964, were made available through the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Letter to the Attorney General Directing Him To Petition for an Injunction in the Maritime Industry Labor Dispute. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/242593