------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 3, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
PORT WORKERS IN MAJOR LABOR SHOWDOWN By Nancy Mitchell A major labor showdown is brewing in 29 ports on the West Coast. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union--the ILWU--represents 10,500 West Coast workers. It's a strong union and has won good wages and benefits that really set the standard for what workers should enjoy. The union's contract was up July 1 and it is facing strong opposition from the bosses: the Pacific Maritime Association and its wicked little front group, the West Coast Waterfront Coalition--a grouping of Payless, The Gap, Home Depot, Wal- Mart and others who import an estimated $300 billion worth of goods a year through West Coast ports from their sweatshops abroad. Add to this distasteful mix the Bush administration, which is threatening government intervention on the side of the bosses. A couple of days into negotiations, Jim Spinoza--the president of ILWU--was contacted by Homeland Security head Tom Ridge, who said the government may consider this an issue of national security. Meaning what? That they have to protect us from the port workers? I don't think so. Yet they're threatening anything from Taft-Hartley legislation against the union to bringing in troops to unload the ships. The port workers' struggle is part of the fight-back against the Bush regime's endless war. They're using the war to bomb workers around the world and they're using it here at home against immigrant workers, militant workers and the labor movement. What is this contract struggle really about? The real crux of the issue is the bosses' introduction of new technology. Through computerizing what the union clerks now do, the bosses are trying to outsource jobs and essentially take control of hiring, which would lead to the withering away of union jobs. The bosses say the union is anti-technology. The real issue is who is going to control the technology? Will it make work easier or the workweek shorter? If we let the bosses control it, they'll always use it against the workers and to increase their own profits. The fate of the ILWU affects all workers. The port workers' struggle is also part of the struggle against corporate globalization. We need to expose the role of the Waterfront Coalition--The Gap and Wal-Mart--in trying to break the ILWU and their super-exploitation of oppressed workers around the world. This is a fighting union that began with a struggle against racist hiring and police repression. When few people knew who Nelson Mandela was, the ILWU refused to unload cargo from South Africa and played a decisive role in defeating apartheid. They have stood against U.S. intervention from El Salvador to Iraq. During the 1995 newspaper strike in San Francisco, not one newspaper moved through the ports. They shut down the ports for Mumia Abu-Jamal in 1999 and they did it again during the protests against the World Trade Organization. We and others have been working with the ILWU to build labor and community support and change the balance of class forces with rallies up and down the West Coast. The AFL-CIO and the Teamsters have recognized the importance of this struggle and have actively taken on solidarity campaigns with the ILWU. In the Bay Area in particular, the ANSWER coalition-- Act Now to Stop War & End Racism--has been working very closely with ILWU Local 10 and the port workers' solidarity committee. Together with others, we are also organizing a leafleting campaign on the West Coast to let the public know what the corporations in the Waterfront Coalition are doing to break the union and oppress workers. This is a campaign we want to spread eastward to add pressure on the bosses. Things are extremely tense. There could be a lockout or a slowdown or a strike at any time. And if that happens where will we be? On the picket line! - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
