------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Sept. 5, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
UNION SHOWS ITS MUSCLE: LONGSHORE WORKERS STAND UP TO BUSH, BOSSES By Milt Neidenberg Retired Teamster Class warfare is heating up on the West Coast docks, even though the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has not yet taken a strike authorization vote. Since July 1, when its contract expired, negotiations have gone nowhere. The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), emboldened by crass anti-union intervention by the Bush administration and backed up by a powerful conglomerate of global shipping companies, trade associations and retailers called the West Coast Waterfront Coalition, is hell bent on breaking up the union. WORKERS TO REVELERS: 'CONTRACT NOW!' All this has fired up the rank and file. When Maersk Sealand, the largest shipping company in the world, opened a new facility in Los Angeles on Aug. 15, nearly 2,000 militant longshore workers and their supporters were outside. The company had built a huge wall of shipping containers to protect its opulent guests as they celebrated the opening of the largest terminal in the world. Nevertheless, the revelers could hear the demonstrators roar their demands: "What do we want? CONTRACT! When do we want it? NOW!" Two small planes flew low trailing banners: "ILWU wants a contract now." Eight boats with similar banners moved close to shore, gunning their engines as they passed near two Coast Guard ships and two Port Police boats protecting the extravagant affair. Simultaneously, the Danish dockworkers' union delivered a protest letter to the company's headquarters in Copenhagen. The longshore rank and file remember well that last year when Maersk moved over 58,000 shipping containers from a port facility, it used scab drivers in violation of the ILWU contract. Maersk, a hard-liner, is one of the most powerful international ship owners represented by the PMA, which is demanding outrageous concessions from the ILWU. The day following the bold action at the Aug. 15 terminal opening, hundreds of longshore workers and their supporters packed a joint state legislative hearing on federal intervention into the port labor negotiations. One after another, union speakers--Teamsters, Machinists and others-- weighed in against the Bush administration for its union- busting threats against the ILWU. 'BUSH HAS AN AGENDA TO CRUSH UNIONS' Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Executive Secretary- Treasurer Miguel Contreras summed up the anger of the labor movement: "From day one Bush had an agenda to crush unions. ... No president should be allowed to rob American workers of their best weapon ... the right to strike." These protest demonstrations are not isolated events. The ILWU has a rich and profound history in the class struggle, dating back to July 5, 1934--"Bloody Thursday"--when San Francisco police attacked a longshore picket line, killing two workers and injuring hundreds more. Ten days later the great historic San Francisco General Strike completely shut down the Bay Area. It was led by then ILWU president, the indomitable Harry Bridges. The legacy of those years was expressed eloquently at a commemoration this summer in San Francisco, which drew overflow crowds. At the ILWU Local 10 hall, President Richard Mead captured the spirit of those days of sacrifice, courage and struggle. "And here we are today, living testament that they did not suffer or die in vain. ... This very hiring hall is a monument to their struggle." (ILWU Dispatcher, vol. 60, no. 6) ILWU International President James Spinosa, in the same issue of the Dispatcher, reported that he and other union officials had been threatened by the Bush administration just a few days into the negotiations with the PMA. Spinosa was referring to a secret White House task force, which includes top officials from the departments of Defense and Labor, the Office of Homeland Security and the Council of Economic Advisors. His report to the 10,500 ILWU members was headlined, "Get Bush out of our negotiations." Spinosa expressed anger over a warning to the union from the task force that if a work stoppage, slowdown or job action of any kind were to take place, the Bush administration might invoke the Taft-Hartley Act or pass special legislation to restrict the union's right to bargain collectively. It even threatened to break up industry-wide bargaining and mobilize the National Guard onto the docks. The PMA has stiffened its proposals since the Bush threats. It demands the right to outsource union work, using technological innovations that would cost thousands of longshore jobs. It arrogantly insists on the right to break up the hiring-hall practices of the union, initiate massive cuts in health care and safety requirements--in an industry with a high rate of occupational fatalities and permanent injuries--and wipe out other benefits won over years of struggle. The ILWU continues to fight back. It broke off negotiations for a three-week period and mobilized members and supporters to challenge this arrogance of power. ILWU REACHES OUT AND FINDS ALLIES The strategy of the union is to change the balance of class forces by reaching out to its labor affiliates and broader forces in the mass movement. On Aug. 12 the ILWU coordinated a series of rallies and demonstrations up and down the West Coast. Thousands took to the streets in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tacoma and elsewhere to send the Bush administration a powerful message. These protests confirmed that the solidarity movement is growing by leaps and bounds, both here and abroad. In a July 30 memo to all the organizers of the Aug. 12 actions, the ILWU national coordinator had stated: "We are preparing for a long struggle to win a quality contract directly impacting more than 15,000 families in 29 communities in three states." Back in June, ILWU President Spinosa had told the administration, "Union rights are not a national security threat. There will be no productive bargaining until your administration gets out of our business." The spreading of street actions is not good news for the Bush administration, the PMA or the West Coast Waterfront Coalition. In a memo dated June 4--almost a month before the contract expired--the WCWC released the minutes of a meeting with the Bush task force and top maritime officials. It urged the Bush administration to pressure the union to stay at the negotiations to get the concessions it wanted. It emphasized over and over again its fear "that the union was counting on delay and the use of the slowdown to induce shippers to put pressure on PMA to fold on virtually all the issues as they did in 1999." Worldwide shippers depend on computerized minimum inventories and on-time deliveries that cut labor costs. Competition and their insatiable drive for profits make them vulnerable to a long and protracted struggle. BOSSES AFRAID OF 'WORK TO RULES' These bosses demand more and more productivity and inhuman speedup. An article in the July 4 Los Angeles Times by Nancy Cleeland gave a true picture of the waterfront. Headlined "Workers Told--Faster, Faster," it described "job speedup" as a source of injury and illness because it brings "exhaustion and pain" and creates "a health and safety crisis." On July 12 the Local 10 Stewards Council Bulletin commented, "Longshore workers didn't need to read the LA Times article. We are living that grim reality." The stewards reminded the members of the Pacific Coast Marine Safety Code and cited many of the rules that the employers violate day in and day out. They called on their members to work according to those rules--which would slow down production. "Take your 15- minute relief period, and your 10-minute wash-up time before lunch and before you finish your eight-hour shift." The bosses don't like it, but working by the rules is merely invoking the law. If 10,500 ILWU members rallied around the strategy of "work to rules," it might just bring the PMA to its senses and force it to bargain in good faith. It would also be a strong response to the Bush administration, showing that the workplace is ILWU turf. Most important, the ILWU struggle has proved that a union's influence can grow as it exposes the politics of the "war on terrorism" and "national security" as really a war against union labor, the unorganized, impoverished and oppressed workers. - 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]>
