Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
ILWU Urgently Needs Labor Solidarity!
Linda Chavez Thompson at an ILWU Support Rally
Update on Conference Against Union-Busting & Taft-Hartley
National Labor Conference Against
Taft-Hartley & Union-Busting
(December 7, 2002, in San Francisco) **FLYER
IN PDF**
The Taft-Hartley Act: Why the American Labor Movement Called it a "Slave Labor Bill" by Jerry Gordon
Ports accuse dockworkers of slowdown; Union blames productivity dropoff on safety concerns
National Security, or War on Workers?
Port Meeting May Stir Fairness Debate Bush Aides Briefed Business, Not Labor
Solidarity Statements Sent to October 10th International Rally
Report on International Solidarity Rally Action with ILWU Targets Employer/Government Offensive
ILWU Denounces Taft-Hartley as
Anti-Union Employer-Government Collusion (10/9)
Statement by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer
Richard L. Trumka on Taft-Hartley Injunction (10/8)
International Labor Solidarity Rally Thursday, October 10th
**PDF version of Rally Flyer Print and Distribute!**
Federal Judge Issues Taft-Hartley Injunction to End Lockout (10/8)
Emergency Protest at Federal Court Building in SF: No to Taft-Hartley! No to the Injunction! (10/8)
Portworkers Solidarity Resolution on Feinstein's support of the use of Taft-Hartley against ILWU (10/3)
Report
on 10/5 Emergency
ILWU Picketline Rally (10/5)
SF
Labor Council Call to Support ILWU Picket Lines (9/30/02)
Letter
from Walter Johnson to PMA (9/30)
Press
Release: ILWU Pres. James Spinosa Speaks (9/30)
Report
and Presentation from the Four-Day Tour of France by ILWU Local 10
Secretary-Treasurer (9/27)
PMA
Management Myths, Union Facts
ILWU Urgently Needs Labor Solidarity Article by Jerry Gordon
Defend Union Security: Support the ILWU Resolution passed by SEIU Local 715, (7/16)
A Waterfront Strike? Article by Jack Heyman
Resolution Against Government Control of
Unions Endorsed by Labor Party National Convention (July 25-28)
ILWU Urgently Needs Labor Solidarity
By JERRY GORDON
Over the past several years, shippers around the world have targeted
dockworkers' unions for extinction. We have seen this in England,
Australia, Japan and elsewhere. Now it is the dockworkers on the West
Coast of the U.S. who are under sharp attack. A labor war is looming there
which, if won, could lead to a real resurgence in the flagging fortunes of
the organized labor movement.
Some 10,600 dock workers are represented by the International Longshore
and Warehouse Union (ILWU). The union's contract with the Pacific Maritime
Association (PMA) expired July 1 and the contract has been extended since
then on a day-to-day-basis. The parties now are at a total impasse.
The PMA is seeking to install new technology to speed cargo handling and
cut 400 jobs, computerize the union's hiring hall bringing it under PMA
control, remove hundreds of workers from the bargaining unit, outsource
work, and shift some of the costs of health care benefits now paid
exclusively by the employer onto the backs of the workers.
As important as these issues are, they are being overshadowed by the
federal government's aggressive intervention to prevent a strike. The 29
West Coast ports handle $300 billion worth of cargo a year and the
government is determined that there will be no disruption of work at any
of them.
The government has laid down the gauntlet to the workers in no uncertain
terms: either cave in to the PMA demands or face any of a number of
threatened measures, including a Taft-Hartley injunction forcing the
workers to remain on the job for at least 90 days; possible new
legislation placing the union under the Railway Labor Act, which would
allow the government to impose a contract if the union does not agree to
the employer's terms; replacing striking workers with Navy personnel; and
militarizing the ports with the National Guard called in to maintain
order. Overall, the government would like nothing better than to put an
end to coastwise bargaining and render the ILWU impotent.
All of the government's bare-knuckled threats are being justified in the
name of "national security." Since September 11, Bush has been
saying that the U.S. is at war and the war won't end until all forms of
terrorism are extinguished on a global basis. To promote that war,
undermining unions has become the order of the day.
Well before negotiations began, the PMA was busy forging the West Coast
Waterfront Coalition with companies like Wal-Mart, Nike, Target, Best Buy,
K-Mart, The Gap, Home Depot, Payless Shoes and other mega-corporations. On
the other side, the AFL-CIO adopted a strongly worded resolution pledging
all-out support to the dock workers. For their part, the Teamsters have
promised not to transport any cargo to or from a struck port and to join
the ILWU's picket lines.
What is happening today is in many respects reminiscent of the 1981
Professional Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) strike, which Reagan broke.
Many people vividly recall union leaders in that strike being led away in
handcuffs and chains. Democratic Party politicians at the time went along,
with scarcely a whimper of protest. The AFL-CIO failed to mount a serious
solidarity campaign and the PATCO union was busted.
More will be needed this time around to stave off a crushing defeat. The
dock workers are a militant bunch with a fighting tradition dating back to
their struggle in 1934, resulting in a general strike in San Francisco.
They are poised to fight but they will need all the help they can get from
the rest of the labor movement, not only in the United States but from
around the world.
This is an extraordinary moment for the U.S. labor movement - one that
poses the gravest dangers to its survival but also one offering the
greatest opportunities for revitalization and a historic demonstration of
labor's latent power. The need now is to respond in an appropriate
fashion, as the AFL-CIO did last year when it established a national task
force to coordinate support for the Charleston, South Carolina longshore
workers, beating back the frame-up conspiracy directed against five of
their members. Also needed is a speaking tour of ILWU members across the
country; publication of a fact sheet on the crisis and its distribution by
the millions; emergency trade union conventions and conferences to place
all of labor on record in solidarity with the ILWU; special outreach to
dock workers, trade unions and labor parties in other countries calling
for worldwide backing; the most massive marches, rallies, and
mobilizations; financial assistance to the dock workers; and whatever else
it takes to see this struggle through to a successful conclusion.