Atlantic Basin Iron Works

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The Atlantic Basin Iron Works was an ironworks that operated in Brooklyn, New York in the early to mid-20th century. It is probably best remembered today for its contribution to the American shipbuilding program in World War II.

Little information is available concerning the company's origins, but one source indicates it may have been in existence prior to 1918.^[1] During World War II, the company specialized in ship conversion and repair, and like most US shipyards at the time, it was heavily contracted for work by the US Army, US Navy and Maritime Commission.

[edit] Company seizure

The company's owner, Bernard A. Moran, was strongly anti-union and had defied attempts by the CIO's Marine and Shipbuilding Workers Union to secure a contract with the company since November 1938. His approach became problematic during the war after the Roosevelt administration's War Labor Board ordered Moran under its broad war powers to sign a union security (maintenance-of-membership) contract. In spite of warnings that he might lose all his government contracts or have his company seized, Moran remained intransigent, and after three months of legal wrangling, the government made good on its threat and seized the company in September 1943, taking direct control of its management.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Protest in Brooklyn, Time magazine, July 23, 1943
• WLB Crackdown, Time magazine, September 6, 1943.
• Compulsory Labor in a National Emergency - Professor Michael H. LeRoy, University of Illinois.