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Statement by the President Upon Creating a Board of Inquiry in the Longshoremen's Strike.

October 01, 1962

THE STRIKE at midnight last night by the International Longshoremen's Association has tied up shipping in all ports on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, from Maine to Texas.

I am advised by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service that negotiations between the union and the companies involved have failed thus far to result in an agreement on any important issue in dispute. A settlement of this dispute in the immediate future, therefore, is unlikely.

While the ILA has indicated its willingness to load and unload full military cargoes, under certain conditions, this strike will prevent the handling of all other cargoes at the ports involved, cutting our vital shipping lifelines to all parts of the world.

Puerto Rico will be especially hard hit because of its primary reliance on shipping connections with the mainland.

If this strike is allowed to continue for any length of time, its effects will have such grave and far reaching repercussions on our total domestic economy and upon our ability to meet our urgent commitments around the world that the national interest would be gravely jeopardized.

In my opinion, the immediate threat presented by a continuation of this strike to the national health and safety requires that the emergency provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act be invoked without delay. Therefore, I am appointing a Board of Inquiry to look into and to report to me on the facts surrounding the strike on or before Thursday, October 4-

In addition to its immediate responsibility under Title II of the Taft-Hartley Act, I am requesting the members of the Board of Inquiry to work with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in mediation efforts to resolve this dispute.

As members of the Board of Inquiry, I am appointing: Mr. Robben W. Fleming, Urbana, Illinois, Chairman

Mr. Vernon H. Jensen, Ithaca, New York

Mr. Robert L. Stutz, Storrs, Connecticut

All members of the Board are experienced in the labor-management field as arbitrators and mediators.

John F. Kennedy, Statement by the President Upon Creating a Board of Inquiry in the Longshoremen's Strike. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/235724

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