 When the men refused to work, the ship's officers cut off food and water until they gave in.Beatings and other inhumane treatment were also common in other cases, and continued well after the supposed abolition of such brutality.Less than a year after the birth of the ISU, Furuseth was involved in a meeting in Chicago, Illinois, in which a federation of maritime unions called the "National Union of Seamen of America" was created.