Boatnerd Discussion Forum

hayhugh2 wrote:1979 Strike: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 30,2512362

That newspaper was from 1964

pcolachap wrote:Was this a miners strike or AMO/MEBA? Mike

The strike was by members of the grain millers union, who work at the grain elevators.

Was this a miners strike or AMO/MEBA? Mike

1979 Strike: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 30,2512362

Back during the Grain Millers strike in the late 1970s (1978?) the ocean goes piled up at Duluth. I believe by the end there were something over 30 ships at anchor. The Minneapolis Tribune ran a photo of the scene taken from somewhere up on the hill above the Arial Bridge. I have the clipping somewhere, but no idea where to even start looking.

Over the past 30 years I've seen probably a dozen or more boats at anchor at certain times of the year, usually during the fall grain rushes of the early '80s or when ice jammed the harbor entrances or when an accident elsewhere in the Seaway system caused traffic backups. Generally, boats are handled on a first-arrived, first-served basis, although that can vary if a dock doesn't have enough cargo to load a particular boat but can load another (a particular type of grain, for instance, or pellets from a specific mine), or depending on an agreement among owners, masters and/or dock operators.

This past April there were more ships than that waiting to get into the harbor. Of course it was due to ice rather than dock space.

I remember seeing as many as 5 ships off the Duluth piers waiting dock space at times. Does anyone recall ever seeing more than 5 at once? Who gets first priority to load in that situation?