LABOR, INDUSTRY AND GOVERNMENT COOPERATED IN RANSOM OPERATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100380067-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 7, 2000
• Sequence Number: 67
• Publication Date: December 27, 1962
• Content Type: NSPR

iside Labor CPYRGHT FOIAb3b
Labor, Industry and Government
Coon,
CPYRG T
By Tofbusiness. R RIF 1F I planes. And lpomeone teephoned the Farrell
'0 Lines, which nsuaily runs ships to Africa. It
n - !pt laborof transport. ?' pplied the now ftufted African Pilot, a modi-
cience, of govehall . coordinated a tied C-4 with a crew of 52. Fifteen steamship
ilian air fleet, rt ds over 200 , lines agreed to pay'all of the ship's operating
rtes, some . `?0 ,,, la#a - saito~ -ion costs. Now came the men, including a crew from
roremen truckers, railfflari one of?' e the National Maritime Union.", ? .
cration' Ransign began
i'Iy in the wok' of Dee.
Inte-11ige t * rces told
White House that Walt,
stro Rae tI ed ta'. o' -
ange 1,113 prisoners It , y at tae sfret ter eases
for fo
rt for so?ne.$53 n fl,ioh worth
drugs, medical supplies
special foods, The cost
the rescue -m"euver was
at over $2 million.
Nobody tf listed Castro. But
e word, also came from the
Russians. Few, tru ed them, either. But the
massive rescue m neuver was launched by
Bob. Kennedy. He w told it would take some
four months to deli r the strangest ransom in
history to -the Cuba soviet.
A $ ~ , QN committee was set. up
insi'd`e c bevernnme it. In one fashion or anoth-
er the Justice Dep rtment, `the.,Labor-Depart -
u,ent, the Commer e Department, the Slate
Department and eve the Treasury Department
I were involved. And, f course, the White House
nnd' e~intel ernes, ., . ?
c' a%,1ec ive w to put together this huge
amount of material without invt wing the gov-
e:rament officially. e decision was to coordi-
nate this publicly t rough the Red Cross.
To each its own, ' effect, was the operational
slogan inside the -goernmenl action group. One
department contactc .1 the railroads - 26 of
them were needed immediately, including the
vital but tiny Port Everglades Belt Railway.
This is the swit ,'n.- Udine wh ch shutfts the
cars from the amain ire tp the dock. Soon some
la refrigerator cars and 40 box card R-
&64,;-signed to haul the r n_ojn rotft cltias'fis tar tiff
as Indianapolis, At apta, Louisv111C; TVetw ' Clii
cans and St. Jose pi, Mo. ?' `
Then someone e nta.cted Pan American for
THEN A SPECIAL problem arose. Labor was
needed- to load those planes anti the ship. Civil-
ian rnone,j~,had to bE 'raised for this operation,
too. A gotee rtent agency contacted AFL-CIO
president George Meany. He called on Paul Hall,
the Paul Bunyanestlue seaferers' chief, who don-
,bles as president of the AFL-CIO Maritime
'Trades Dept. Ije in turn worked w th the depart
ment's exec444ve secretary -- treasurer, Peter
McGav1ii.
?'hey reckoned they'd need from 300 to 500
men iniruedialy to work round the clock. But
who would pay for their labor? In the F or t
Latirierdale area, -for example, there was no
sttiedoring firm of alze to pick up the tab as had
the, steamship lines and the railroads and the
truckers wfio were hauling stuff to the rails.
Furthermore, br W Meany and Hall and
McGavln wanted labor to stand shoulder to
shoulder with' industry ant government in Op-
eration fla:soiti. So t>lfe labor leaders began re
crusting the cargo handlerg.
THJS:-WAS A man - sized jab. At least 16
gangs" -of 20 each were needed to load the
African. Pilot. Others were required for the,
planes being sent in by Pon American. Soon the
aircraft loaders and The 1d rgshoreertten were "on
deck." They agreed to work night and day at
straight time. Teddy Gleason general organizer
of_'the International Longshoremen's Associa-
tion, got, the men together. The cost came to
$15,000. The Maritime Trades, Department got the
money up swiftly. By the weekend the 15th load-
ing waslalsnc st cotrupleted, well ahead of sched-
ule':
At noti did anyone know - anyone from
the White IKaatse to the house of labor and the
houses of business - whether Castro would
keep his ward, But our people gave of their
time, their talents, their shoulders, their holi-
day hours on the chance they could get the
ydi'tngsters from Cuba back to an adopted honi9
bi t"hristinas. 7
Approved For Release 2000/06/13 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000100380067-3