Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
December 7th Conference Against Union-Busting & Taft-Hartley
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
We urge you to support and participate in the all-day December 7 National
Labor Conference Against Taft-Hartley and Union-Busting, which will be
held at Mission High School in San Francisco.
The conference has been widely endorsed by Bay Area trade unions and
central labor councils [see list of endorsers below]. Among the panelists
at the conference there will be officers of the ILWU, Teamsters Joint
Council 7, San Francisco and Alameda County Labor Councils -- as well
delegations and/or representatives from Local 1422 in Charleston, S.C.,
the Liverpool dockers, the striking UK Fire Brigades Union, and the
Brazilian Unified Trade Union Confederation (CUT). [For more on the CUT
representative's Bay Area tour, see separate OWC posting.]
We have received numerous phone calls asking us if this conference is
still taking place given the tentative agreement reached between the ILWU
and the Pacific Maritime Association.
Our answer -- echoing the viewpoint of the officers of ILWU Local 10 and
the Portworkers Solidarity committee, both of which initiated this
conference -- is that this December 7th conference is more necessary than
ever.
As you may know, the newly established Homeland Security Department will
eliminate union rights for 170,000 government workers. In addition, the
Bush administration has just announced its intention to privatize 850,000
additional federal jobs. Plans are also under way to disband the
Government Printing Office, thereby breaking the printing unions and
dealing a frontal blow to the democratic rights of the American people,
who will now be deprived of receiving the full accounts of all government
deliberations. And the list of attacks goes on and on.
The U.S. labor movement has characterized these administration decisions
as an "all-out war on the labor movement." So, yes, more than
ever it is necessary to build a united labor fightback against this
union-busting war on workers.
Nor should working people fall for the Bush propaganda that the
Taft-Hartley injunction played a positive role in the negotiations between
the ILWU and PMA -- as administration spokespersons have declared. The
situation here is far more complex.
First of all, this was not a Taft-Hartley injunction against a striking
union. Taft-Hartley was invoked against the PMA bosses, which locked out
the union workers and, in the process, disrupted the U.S. economy and
caused substantial losses to the PMA's corporate allies. There was no
strike.
Though the agreement is tentative and has yet to be ratified by the ILWU
membership -- a process that begins December 9th with the ILWU's longshore
caucus -- and while the details of the contract have not been disclosed
publicly, a few things already can be said, based on newspaper reports and
information provided by the union.
The PMA overplayed its hand, causing significant public rifts among its
affiliates and corporate allies -- just as the ILWU remained firm and as
labor came out forcefully in defense of the ILWU. The union spokespersons
have pointed out that the PMA, because of fissures within its own
corporate ranks, was forced to accept the bulk of the union's terms --
which is why the union has characterized the agreement as a
"victory."
Of course, The Wall Street Journal and the PMA are also hailing the
tentative agreement as a breakthrough for their side -- which would
indicate that in the process of the negotiations, the union negotiators
may have included language that would never have been included had there
not been a Taft-Hartley injunction and a government threat of militarizing
the docks and busting the union should the union refuse any concessions
and decide to strike.
At any rate, it will be up to the ILWU membership -- and them alone -- to
discuss and evaluate the tentative contract agreement and vote either to
accept or reject it. It is impossible to say at this point what the
outcome of this vote will be.
But whatever the outcome of the vote by the ILWU rank and file, it will be
necessary for the labor movement as a whole to draw the correct lessons
from this longshore battle and to educate working people about the true
and pernicious role of Taft-Hartley -- not just yesterday, but in this
recent contract battle between the ILWU and the PMA as well.
Without a doubt, George W. Bush will seek to use this recent invoking of
Taft-Hartley as a precedent in future labor contract battles. Already,
administration spokespersons have stated it may be necessary to invoke
Taft-Hartley if the UAW's negotiations with the auto manufacturers founder
next year.
This is why the December 7th conference is so necessary; it can help set
the record straight about the government's anti-labor role in this entire
contract dispute -- thereby eliminating any and all confusion fostered by
the government and the employers on this matter.
For all these reasons, we urge you to attend this conference -- which is
open to all unionists and activists (and not just delegates from unions or
labor organizations). We also urge you to attend the evening
transportation workers' solidarity rally the evening of December 7th at
the ILWU Local 10 hall.
You will find below information about the conference (and evening rally),
including conference workshops, endorsers and the initial Conference Call.
Please send in your registration form ASAP to the address indicated below.
Also, if you would like to receive an attractive PDF flyer for the
conference (for distribution to your union and co-workers or friends),
please send us a note at <ilcinfo@earthlink.net>.
Thanks, and looking forward to seeing you on December 7th.
In solidarity,
Alan Benjamin,
on behalf of the
OWC Continuations Committee
********************
CONFERENCE TIME & PLACE
* Date:
Saturday, December 7th
* Place of Daytime Conference:
Mission High School
3750 - 18th Street (corner of Dolores St.)
Mission District
San Francisco
(five blocks from 16th & Mission BART station)
* Time & Place of Evening Transport Workers Rally:
7:30 p.m. at ILWU Local 10 Auditorium
400 North Point (& Mason)
in Fisherman's Wharf district
********************
Schedule & Workshops
9:00 a.m.: Registration
9:30: Welcome & Intros, and conference focus
10:00: Plenary Session: Keynote Speakers
11:00 - 12:30 p.m. -- Workshops
Session 1
(final list of panelists will be announced shortly)
* History of Taft-Hartley & How To Fight It
* Labor and The War
* Repression of The Labor Movement & Immigrants
* Union-Busting, Privatization & Deregulation at Home
* Technology & Its Impact on The Workplace
12:30 p.m.: Lunch (sandwiches & refreshments provided)
Videos & Working Groups
2:00 - 3:30 p.m. -- Workshops Session 2
* A Labor Media Strategy To Fight Corporate
Propaganda
* Organizing The Unorganized
* The Community & Labor
* Labor & The Fight Against FTAA
* The ILWU, Internationalism & the Global Struggle
3:30 - 5:00 p.m.: Closing Plenary Session: Reports from Workshops &
Proposals For Action
********************
INITIAL LIST OF CONFERENCE ENDORSERS
ILWU International
ILWU Local 10
San Francisco Labor Council
Alameda Labor Council
South Bay Labor Council
IBT Joint Council 7
SF Maritime Trades Port Council
ILA1422, Charleston, South Carolina
IBU-ILWU Bay Area Chapter
MEBA
ATU 1555
GCIU Local 4
NALC 214
UTW-CWA
CWA9423
UA393
SUP
BART Chapter SEIU 790
Labor Committee For Peace & Justice
Alliance For Sustainable Jobs & Environment
Port Workers Solidarity Committee
Global Exchange
SF LCLAA
OPEIU Local 3
OWC Continuations Committee
**********
Registration Fee: $25 per person (though no one will be turned away for
lack of funds)
Please Send Registrations/Endorsements & To Get More Information
Contact
Portworkers Solidarity Committee (PSC)
P.O.Box 15086
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 820-3927
Email solidarity1934_2002@hotmail.com
www.portsolidarity2002.org
*******************
A Call For Action! National Labor Conference Against Taft-Hartley &
Union-Busting December 7, 2002, in San Francisco
Dear Brothers & Sisters,
We invite you and your union to participate with us in a national labor
conference on Saturday, December 7, 2002 in San Francisco.
The use of the Taft-Hartley Act by the Bush administration against the
International Longshore and Warehouse Union is a shot across the bow for
organized labor. Following an 11-day lockout initiated by the Pacific
Maritime Association, the government is now acting as an enforcer for
these union-busters. The Bush crew admits it was having private meetings
with some of the biggest "union-free" corporations in America to
plan strategy on how to defeat the ILWU.
But the ILWU is not the only target. According to The Wall Street Journal
(October 11, 2002), the Bush administration is considering the possibility
of invoking Taft-Hartley against the United Auto Workers union when their
contracts expire next year. The same is true for many other unions. They
will seek to justify this because of their war plans in Iraq.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka lambasted the administration's
use of Taft-Hartley: "If all employers know the administration will
rush in with Taft-Hartley to give them what they want," Trumka
stated, "they'll plot and scheme together, they'll figure out what to
do, and then the [collective-bargaining] process will be gutted. The
employers won't come and bargain in good faith because there is no
incentive to."
When Taft-Hartley was first passed in 1947, Phillip Murray of the CIO,
called it "a Slave Labor Act." This was no exaggeration. Jim
Spinosa, president of the ILWU, has pointed out that, "We fully
expect PMA to use all the anti-union provisions of the Taft-Hartley
injunction. ... Taft-Hartley gives them 80 days of free shots at the
union, and we expect the employers will be dragging us to court daily,
trying to bankrupt the union and throw our leaders in jail."
The Bush cabal is now intent on busting the ILWU, just as Reagan did with
the PATCO union in 1981. Bush is already seeking to eliminate union rights
for 170,000 federal workers with his union-busting "Homeland
Security" Department, forcing major wage and contract concessions on
tens of thousands of airline workers, including binding "baseball
arbitrations." He is intent on taking away every right and condition
won by labor during the last 50 years.
Bush also intends to use his drive toward war to justify outlawing strike
action. The proposed Maritime Security Act and other such repressive
measures are aimed at weakening and destroying organized labor. When the
war starts in Iraq, he may seek to militarize the docks to break the ILWU.
He has now thrown down the gauntlet to all of organized labor.
The QUESTION is what will organized labor and the communities do to answer
this challenge?
Only with your help and that of your union can we avoid being sitting
ducks as the Bush administration plans to break our unions. At our
conference, we plan to discuss and lay out a fight-back strategy that
includes education, media strategies and action to defend the ILWU and
other unions that come under attack. This will include the fight against
union-busting (not only with the Taft-Hartley in maritime but other
transportation industries), privatization, contracting-out and the
struggle to organize the millions of unorganized workers.
We need to prepare now to go on the offensive. We cannot allow the ILWU to
be picked off and then for Bush to go after the next union. We plan to
have workshops on Taft-Hartley, the Maritime Security Act, Developing A
Labor Media Campaign, Organizing the Unorganized and Immigrant Workers,
and how to develop a strategy to take on these robber barons. We need to
be ready now for action when the Taft-Hartley injunction against the
longshore workers expires. We also need to learn the lessons of the
successful fight for the Charleston 5 in South Carolina, and build on this
not only nationally but internationally.
You and your union can play an important part in this effort. Please
endorse this conference and send delegates. Also a financial contribution
to make this conference a success is absolutely critical.
We are also planning to have a Northern California Transportation Workers
Solidarity Rally on the evening of December 7 and hope you can attend this
as well. The conference will be held at Mission High School in San
Francisco, and the evening rally will be held at ILWU Local 10.
Please let us know if you can endorse this conference and how many
delegates will be attending. We are asking for a registration of $25 per
participant. Also please let contact us if you are interested in getting
regular information on the battle against Taft-Hartley and union-busting
and if you want to be on our email list.