Unexpectedly it was not a large, well-organized union but a comparatively small one, the National Seamen's and Firemen's Union (NSFU), which orchestrated a strike that closed down all the major ports in the country. The seamen's union only had a relatively small following, but the seamen had a big grievance; between 1896 and 1910 seamen's wages increased by 7–8 per cent, while other workers' wages grew by 10 per cent. Due to the rise in the cost of living the seamen were worse off, as the value of real wages fell by 4 per cent during this period. The long-voyage seamen had little opportunity for combination; they were only on shore for short periods of time and were spread out over the ports of the country. Nevertheless Havelock Wilson, the President of the Union, had fought for a decade for the rights of the seamen, but the ship owners, through their powerful strikebreaking organization the Shipping Federation, always defeated them. The Federation insisted on the principle of freedom of contract and the right to employ only those who would accept its ticket and work with other crew members, whether unionized or not. There was little that the NSFU could do in the face of such an omnipresent organization as the Shipping Federation, which had registry offices in all the principal ports of the country and the capacity to move free labour anywhere.