10 T il K C U B A U E V I E W 



pons !<• Il:iviiii:i wvvr not disctdit iinuMl until tlic IimiIxt wms pr;i<t iially lull uf 

 v»'ss«'ls :Mul it li»'rnin>' cvhU'iit tlint tin- striki' would iif :i lun;.'. dniuii nut atTair. At 

 tlu' pn'sfut tluH' tiuT*' an' n'lKirti-d to lu' over titty vessels lien' ol various classes 

 ]oa«led with p'liefal <aip>. lumber, eoal, ete. 



Ill the iiieaiitiiiie the shilt|)iii^' iiitefesls have held almost daily meetiii;;s to con- 

 sider the strike situation and joint (•onfi'reiices have luvn held between their repre- 

 seiitativi's and those of the sirikinj; labor uiuoiis, but as stated above, the demands 

 of the strikers, which we will not attempt to detail here, are so exa^'serated that 

 the shipiiiiiL' interests could not consi«ler comiilyinir with them. 



It mi^ht lu- of interest to meiuion here that the labor in tlic liarlinr could iimb- 

 nbly be tloiii' by a couple of thousand workmen were they to wttrk in the maimer 

 they should. However, as this labor, which may be considered as mainly unskilled, 

 has .-ilways received hi^dier wafies than other chtsses of unskilled labor, it has 

 offered an attractive tield to such workmen. The labor leaders have realized this 

 and with a view to increasing' their orjraiiizations to the larjrest number possible, 

 have been usinj; every endeavor to build up the membership of their various iniions 

 ai-i-<irdinf:ly. As a result of their efforts, we believe their claim is that at the present 

 time tlu're are enrolled about ltt,0(!(> men in the different unions of harbor workmen. 

 If. as refernMl to above, this work could be done with only a couple of thousand 

 nuMi. it will be sivii that it is imi»ossible to give daily work to the larjrer number 

 iiientioiuMl. Therefore, in order to apportion the bay work so that all members of 

 the ditTereiii unions may make a livinjr, the average laborer secures only a couple 

 of days work a week. To support hini.self and family during this period, it is 

 necessary for the unions to t-iideavor to force their employers to pay such a scale 

 of wages that what is received for a few days work will enable the working man 

 to live during the entire week, which, however, is not a logical or .lUst position on 

 their part. 



I>uring the lirst couple <»f weeks of the strike, prior to the time that the Itotarians 

 by their splendid initiative had assisted the merchants in helping themselves, due 

 to the fact that no foodstuffs were being taken away from the wharves, a con.siderable 

 shortage <if food existtnl in Havana with the result that profiteering in prices im- 

 mediately bi'gan to t:ike place. During this period the milkmen also declared a strike, 

 as they were not ssitislied with the prices they were receiving for their product, in 

 view of the high cost of feed, etc.. and there was practically no milk delivered in 

 Havana for a few di'.ys. This .shortage of milk would not have been felt so acutely 

 under normal conditions, as its lack could have been .supplied by evaporated and 

 condensed milk. However, as stocks of these were practically exhausted on account 

 of the harbor striki', there was considerable discomfort caused by this shortage, until 

 a satisfactory solution of the milkmen's strike was reached after it had been in 

 effect a few days. 



Abov«' we have refern-d only to the pre.judice suffered in connection with the 

 Importation of shiiimeiits into Hav.-ina. but we should not fail to mention that these 

 same conditions obtain as regards export shipments. Havana is not a large sugar 

 shipping port, but it is the principal point for exporting fruit and vegetables. There 

 are praitically no pineapples being shipped at this sea.son and not a large amount 

 of citrus fruit. However, it is the height of the season for the forwarding of vege- 

 tal>les both from districts tributary to Havana and from the Isle of I'ines, where 

 a large amount of garden truck is grown for northern shipment during the winter. 

 The citrus fruits can be held over for a considerable period, but not so with the 

 vegetables, and as a result the growers of vegetables are suffering lieavy losses. 



In order to avoid congestion at Havana, it was proposed to divert some of the 

 cargoes now here to other f'ul)an ports for unloading, Init as it was I'ealized that 

 this would proliably only result in a strike of harbor workmen at these points, as 

 had been the case in previous similar Havana strikes, the idea was not carried out, 

 while in fact there have been minor strikes at some of these ports. The employers 



