------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 31, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
DOCK WORKERS FIGHT BACK: WHY ILWU WON'T BE BUSH'S PATCO By Milt Neidenberg The Taft-Hartley injunction issued on Oct. 8 has deepened the crisis on the docks. In a double whammy aimed at the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, first the Pacific Maritime Association locked out the union's 10,500 members, and then the Bush administration stepped in illegally to force them back to work for 80 days without a contract. Well into the injunction's second week, problems continue to ratchet up. Although some goods are trickling through, gridlock, congestion and confusion continue to plague the maritime industry. The class struggle is heating up, too. Negotiations between the PMA and the union are to resume soon. The ILWU attributes the crisis on the docks to the snarls created by the lockout. Increased productivity vs. safety continues to be the issue in the ongoing war with the PMA. The docks are unsafe. Before the lockout, the union shut down the Port of Los Angeles for 30 minutes, responding to congestion, speedup and dangerous conditions. It reminded the PMA that five workers had been killed over the previous seven months. Since the injunction, accidents have sent several workers to the hospital. To alleviate the crisis, the union has begun a campaign to pressure the PMA to hire and train more workers to move the cargo. The PMA has rejected the proposal. CARGO PILES UP ON DOCKS The Oct. 16 Wall Street Journal echoed the bosses' line in an article headlined "Port Operators Accuse Dockworkers of Slowdown." However, ILWU spokesperson Steve Stallone vehemently denies the PMA charges. He says the problem is that "the incoming cargo far outpaces the outbound capacity of trains and trucks." In the same article the Journal admitted, "Union Pacific Railroad, the nation's largest railroad, has announced an allocation plan that limits dock customers to the same amount of space they used 30 days earlier." This is a blow to the PMA and the West Coast Waterfront Coalition, which represents transnational corporations that do business in Asia. Railroads are a key mover of cargo containers, which are loaded piggy-back onto freight trains. The American Trucking Association recommended to the PMA that terminal operators extend the hours the truck gates are open, as trucks continue to be backed up for miles. Estimates are that over 200 ships are waiting in and around the 29 West Coast ports--over 100 ships outside Los Angeles and Long Beach alone. This means transoceanic ships are also backed up in their home ports abroad. Terminals are packed sky-high with containers that have no place to go. These problems have been created by the PMA lockout. The PMA strategy is to frame the union in order to get a court order forcing the rank and file to work faster at the risk of safety from the federal judge who issued the temporary injunction. The ILWU also faces the threat of intervention by the military. In sworn testimony read at the Oct. 7 hearing on a Taft-Hartley injunction, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld injected the government's war plans against Iraq. His affidavit stated: "The Department of Defense increasingly relies upon commercial items and practices to meet its requirements ... raw materials, medical supplies, replacement parts and components, as well as everyday subsistence needs of our armed forces, are just some of the essential military cargo provided by commercial contractors." The Department of Defense has contracts with many shipping companies to carry "essential military cargo." For example, Maersk Sealand, a powerful PMA member, is the world's biggest shipping corporation. The corporation is one of the main contractors for the U.S. military. Many of its ships sail to the Middle East, continually carrying military cargo. Dock workers in Copenhagen, Denmark, have demonstrated at the company's headquarters there in sympathy with the ILWU. RUMSFELD WANTS WAR ON BACKS OF WORKERS Rumsfeld's ultimatum broadens the military's role on the docks. His affidavit declares that the Department of Defense "increasingly relies upon commercial items and practices." Their frenzied preparations for war will inevitably increase inhuman speedup and take a heavy toll on the health and safety of the rank and file. The ILWU is determined to resist and make safety its top priority. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has announced that safety is the number-one issue for labor. It would be timely if the labor federation were to organize a National Workers' Safety Day to back up the ILWU. It would send a message to the Bush administration that the organized labor movement is prepared to take independent mass action to defend these embattled workers. The threat from the Defense Department to control the ports sets a dangerous and illegal precedent that should concern all those forces opposed to the pre-emptive attack on Iraq planned by the Pentagon and Bush. The Pentagon uses commercial shippers to transport 95 percent of its military supplies. In fiscal 2003, which began on Oct. 1, the Pentagon budget is expected to total almost $400 billion. The main beneficiaries in the military- industrial complex are Lockheed Martin, Northrop, Raytheon and General Dynamics--dominant players whose profits have tripled since 1990. While Wall Street tycoons are ripping off billions of dollars before their companies go belly-up, millions in the multinational work force--organized and unorganized--are losing their jobs, unemployment insurance, pensions, health benefits and decent education. Homelessness is on the rise. Racism and immigrant bashing are increasing at an alarming rate. Workers are being driven into the ranks of the permanently unemployed and poor who are flooding the food banks, church pantries and charities to survive. They will become a powerful sector of the growing anti-war movement, bringing grievances about their economic hardships and their numbers into the streets. They, like most of those polled, do not support a war against Iraq. They will be the catalyst for a sector of the organized labor movement to break away from the pro-war policies of most of the AFL-CIO leaders. And it is already happening. Many members of organized labor throughout the country, and a significant number of AFL-CIO central labor councils, have endorsed the Oct. 26 mobilization against the war on Iraq. The list is growing daily, and can be found on the ANSWER coalition web site: www.internationalanswer.org. An historic regroupment is in the making. History has confirmed repeatedly that all profound economic and social change begins from below. The Oct. 26 anti-war demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco will be a giant stride in this development. The ILWU is fighting on many fronts and needs the support of the anti-war movement. 'THERE WON'T BE ANOTHER PATCO' When ILWU President James Spinosa emerged from the injunction hearing to join a militant demonstration outside, a reporter asked him if he thought the ILWU would become another PATCO--the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization that was broken up by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Spinosa was heard to say over the chants, "You don't know our union if you think we'll be another PATCO." The air controllers had gone on strike on Aug. 3, 1981. Within 48 hours Reagan fired over 11,000. Lacking a serious fightback and with hardly any support, PATCO and the strike were broken. The labor movement suffered a major defeat. The ILWU will not repeat this history. This union has won major strikes and gained respect both here and abroad for its support of labor and progressive struggles too numerous to mention. The ILWU has a critical role to play in the development of a united front as the war deepens and the capitalist crisis widens. It is an integral player in the growing worldwide class struggle. The dock workers are now on the front lines of this class war. They have already taken casualties--deaths and injuries of their members--as they fight to preserve their jobs, control of their hiring hall, and a safe work environment in the face of brutal enemies such as the PMA, the transnational companies and now the military. This is a proud and progressive union with a rich history of struggle, a union born and nurtured in the historic San Francisco 1934 general strike. There will be no PATCO in the stormy days ahead. - 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. 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