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STAT.]

PUBLIC LAW 252-AUG. 12, 1953

Public Law 252

541 CHAPTER 407

AN ACT Granting the consent of Congress to a compact between the State of New Jersey and the State of New York known as the Waterfront Commission Compact, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the consent of Congress is hereby given to the compact set forth below to all of its terms and provisions, and to the carrying out and effectuation of said compact, and enactments in furtherance thereof: THE W A T E R F R O N T COMMISSION COMPACT B E T W E E N THE STATES OF N E W YORK AND N E W J E R S E Y AS A U T H O R I Z E D BY C H A P T E R 882 A S A M E N D E D BY C H A P T E R 883 O F THE L A W S O F THE S T A T E OF N E W YORK O F 1953, AND BY C H A P T E R 202 AS A M E N D E D BY C H A P T E R 203 O F THE L A W S O F THE S T A T E OF N E W J E R S E Y O F 1953. ARTICLE I FINDINGS A N D DECLARATIONS

1. The States of New Jersey and New York hereby find and declare that the conditions under which waterfront labor is employed within the Port of New York district are depressing and degrading to such labor, resulting from the lack of any systematic method of hiring, the lack of adequate information as to the availability of employment, corrupt hiring practices and the fact that persons conducting such hiring are frequently criminals and persons notoriously lacking in moral character and integrity and neither responsive or responsible to the employers nor to the uncoerced will of the majority of the members of the labor organizations of the employees; that as a result waterfront laborers suffer from iregularity of employment, fear and insecurity, inadequate earnings, an unduly high accident rate, subjection to borrowing at usurious rates of interest, exploitation and extortion as the price of securing employment and a loss of respect for the law; that not only does there result a destruction of the dignity of an important segment of American labor, but a direct encouragement of crime which imposes a levy of greatly increased costs on food, fuel and other necessaries handled in and through the Port of New York district. 2. The States of New Jersey and New York hereby find and declare that many of the evils above described result not only from the causes above described but from the practices of public loaders at piers and other waterfront terminals; that such public loaders serve no valid economic purpose and operate as parasites exacting a high and unwarranted toll on the flow of commerce in and through the Port of New York district, and have used force and engaged in discriminatory and coercive practices including extortion against persons not desiring to employ them; and that the function of loading and unloading trucks and other land vehicles at piers and other waterfront terminals can and should be performed, as in every other major American port, without the evils and abuses of the public loader system, and by the carriers of freight by water, stevedores and operators of such piers and other waterfront terminals or the operators of such trucks or other land vehicles. 27000 O - 53 - 37

August 12, 1953 [S. 2383]

Waterfront Con^ mission Compact. N e w Y o r k and New J e r s e y.

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