Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
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Islanders, recalling the six-month dock strike in 1949, began wondering today just how they’ll fare in the event of another tie-up.
A dock strike this month would be complicated by the fact that shipping has been tied up twice earlier this year by strikes of merchant seamen’s unions.
Here’s the picture as it looks today:
FOOD SUPPLIES
Island food retailers say their warehouses have been re-stocked since the June-July and October maritime tie-ups, and have about three to four weeks’ food supplies on hand in case of an I.L.W.U. dock strike.
If the scheduled strike should be short, “I don’t think there’s a lot to worry about,” said a spokesman for one food chain.
“Everything’s in pretty good shape except for holiday items,” said another major grocer.
He explained that nuts and candies, normally ordered, were held up to make room for shipment of essentials.
CHRISTMAS MERCHANDISE
A shipping strike would find Hawaii’s merchants with only 60 to 75 per cent of their normal Christmas shopping needs on hand.
A survey of Oahu merchants this morning indicated that they still have not caught up with shortages brought on by the maritime tie-up in June-July and October.
It will be “touch and go” whether goods now on order reach the Islands before the strike deadline, one merchant said.
A spokesman for the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce’s Retail Board said that normally nearly all of Hawaii’s Christmas merchandise imports arrive by the middle of November.
SHIPPING
Hawaii’s longshore activities are in a shaky status today, but Matson Navigation Company — principal cargo shipper between Hawaii and the Mainland — says it will continue to operate under normal schedules for the time being.
A Matson spokesman said today freighter operations will continue as scheduled unless requests for cargo space suddenly increase in anticipation of a strike.
The company’s plans will depend on the strike situation.
