Support builds for longshore workers
San Francisco Labor Council condemns use of Coast Guard against
ILWU
In solidarity with ILWU: A call to action to working
people
By Cheryl LaBash
Jan 11, 2012
The San Francisco Labor Council on Jan. 9 unanimously condemned military
escort for the union-busting international grain and food cartel EGT,
headed by Bunge Ltd. at the Port of Longview, Wash. Read the
resolution.
In a Jan. 2 resolution, the executive board of the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Central
Labor Council unanimously called on “friends of labor and the 99%
everywhere to come to the aid of ILWU [International Longshore and Warehouse
Union] Local 21 … [and] participate in a community and labor protest in
Longview, Washington, of the first EGT grain ship.”
International grain cartel EGT is attempting to break a coastwide grain
terminal agreement, held by the ILWU, that was won after years of militant
struggle by the union.
Occupy movements up and down the Pacific Coast — including a caravan
from Oakland, Calif., nearly 700 miles to the south — are already
organizing a quick-response mobilization to “meet and greet” this
latest provocation, supported by the San Francisco Labor Council. Expected
soon, the exact date of the ship’s arrival is being kept secret by EGT in
an attempt to deter protest. Labor for Palestine has also issued a statement
supporting the ILWU.
Supporters are undaunted by ILWU International President Bob
McEllrath’s report, in a Jan. 3 letter to members, that EGT has enlisted
an “armed” U.S. Coast Guard escort, using small vessels and
helicopters, for that anticipated ship. This act of intimidation violates the
Coast Guard’s public procedures: “Under no circumstances will the
Coast Guard exercise its authority for the purpose of favoring any party to a
maritime labor controversy.” (http://tinyurl.com/7tsrb2s)
EGT is using the police, the courts — which have levied fines
exceeding $300,000 on the union — the commercial media and now a Coast
Guard armed escort to craft a false perception that EGT is the victim of
militant longshore workers and their allies from the Occupy movement. In the
background looms the threat of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, a tool of the 1% that
tries to strip away any effective tool for unions to fight for justice.
In reality, it is the ILWU and the working class as a whole that are under
attack in Longview. The same conditions as in Longview spurred the state
Capitol occupation and mass struggle in Wisconsin, which echoed the mass
rebellions in Tunisia and Egypt’s Tahrir Square.
EGT has sued the Port of Longview in federal court to resolve its issues. A
hearing is scheduled for March. Although workers are told to file grievances,
National Labor Relations Board complaints and lawsuits to “let the
system” work, EGT isn’t waiting for a court ruling in its favor.
EGT aims to go to court with the ILWU’s coastwide agreement already
shattered, clearing the path for the other international grain profiteers to
oust the union when an unusually short, one-year contract ends later this
year.
EGT is pushing the trains and now a ship to realize the profit from its $200
million investment in the port terminal — on public land and with public
tax breaks. A equally massive EGT construction in Montana is to supply the
terminal with the agribusiness giant’s grain.
The labor movement in the Pacific Northwest continues to fight the
anti-worker and blatantly anti-ILWU thrust of EGT at every step, from massive
rallies protesting the construction of the terminal by low-wage workers to
blocking the trains supplying grain. A joint leaflet by ILWU Locals 10 and 21
issued on Jan. 4 commends Longview sisters and brothers for “doing their
part. Under a police reign of terror Local 21, with only 225 members, has 220
arrests for defending ILWU jurisdiction.”
Juries acquitted defendants in the first two cases that came to trial.
TDN.com reports that on Dec. 19, ILWU member Shelly Ann Porter was found not
guilty of fourth-degree assault against EGT manager Gerry Gibson. Porter had
slapped Gibson’s hand to prevent him from snapping an unwanted photo of
her. On Dec. 30, ILWU member Kelly Palmer was acquitted of disorderly conduct
in only 12 minutes. That same day, trespass charges were also dropped in nine
cases resulting from protests on the train tracks.
But it was the Occupy Wall Street movement that lasered attention on this
crucial West Coast labor battle and the port truckers’ organizing efforts
— as Goldman Sachs and EGT/Bunge Ltd., representatives of the 1%, waged
war on these port workers. Occupy movements organized the massive community
pickets that shut down and disrupted terminals up and down the West Coast on
Dec. 12, as well as earlier actions interrupting the just-in-time profit stream
at the port of Oakland. The call from Occupy Oakland spoke plainly: “We
want to disrupt the profits of the 1% and to show solidarity with those in the
99% who are under direct attack by corporate tyranny.” (See call at
workers.org)
Occupy blunts Taft-Hartley
In the Longview call to action, Kyle Mackey, secretary-treasurer of the
Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Counties Central Labor Council, quotes Harry Bridges, the
leader of the 1934 San Francisco general strike: “The most important word
in the language of the working class is solidarity.”
This is precisely what the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act tries to outlaw: the right
of workers to join together for mutual aide against the capitalists.
Taft-Hartley leaves corporations free from any of the harsh penalties
threatened and used against unions, including injunctions, jail, fines and
“cooling off” periods, to let the bosses reorganize during a
strike. It allows the bosses to get mutual aid from the banks and other
corporations while unions are prohibited from mass picketing, sympathy strikes
or secondary boycotts — for example, boycotting EGT parent
company’s oil products or other consumer goods. “It acts to
frighten conservative leaders and also to restrain militants.” (See
Chapter 15, “Low-Wage Capitalism”)
However, the Occupy movement is a powerful working-class ally that is
busting through the encrustation of laws and rulings that tip the class
struggle scale overwhelmingly in favor of the rule of the 1%.
The ILWU — targeted by the 1%
The ILWU’s motto is “An injury to one is an injury to
all.” This unity underlies the strength of the ILWU — a rank and
file, bottom up, democratic union — and its coastwide contract. It is the
strength of the historic Local 10, where Bridges won the 1934 San Francisco
general strike by bringing African-American workers into the union as
equals.
Local 10, the conscience of the ILWU and the labor movement, acts on the
understanding that the issues of apartheid in South Africa, military
dictatorships in Latin America, the U.S. wars of conquest in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the killing of Gaza flotilla participants by the Israeli military,
and the constant battle against racism and discrimination are working-class
issues and must be addressed by the labor movement.
San Francisco Labor Council condemns use of Coast
Guard against ILWU
Jan 11, 2012
The labor movement answers the latest anti-worker
provocation in the Pacific Northwest with the use of the military to support
the international grain cartel headed by Bunge Ltd. A massive mobilization on
short notice — welcomed by the union movement and supported by the Occupy
movement — is planned in Longview, Wash., to aid the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union.
San Francisco Labor Council Resolution
– Adopted Jan. 9, 2012, by unanimous vote
Condemn Use of U.S. Military to Escort
Scab Grain Ship in Longview, Wash.
Whereas, EGT, a joint venture led by multinational grain
giant Bunge, agreed to hire union Longshoremen when accepting millions in
taxpayer funds to build a huge new grain exporting terminal at the Port of
Longview, Wash., but once the terminal was built has tried to void its contract
and refused to hire ILWU [International Longshore and Warehouse Union] labor.
With the use of brutal police and courts and 220 arrests in the 225-member ILWU
Local 21, EGT has managed to get enough scab grain across picket lines into the
new terminal that EGT appears poised to load a ship soon in violation of their
agreement with the port; and
Whereas, a solidarity caravan of thousands of union members
and community activists — endorsed by ILWU Locals 10 and 21, the S.F.
[San Francisco] and Cowlitz[-Wahkiakum] County (Longview) labor councils and
many others – is being organized to support our brothers and sisters in
Longview, for an emergency mass protest when requested to do so, to confront
union-busting by Wall Street on the Waterfront; and
Whereas, according to Longshore & Shipping News, within
a month, the empty grain ship will be escorted by armed U.S. Coast Guard
vessels and helicopters, from the mouth of the Columbia River to the EGT
facility. The Coast Guard is an integral part of the U.S. Armed Forces,
operating under the Department of Homeland Security (except when engaged in
combat operations abroad, as it did in Iraq, when it operates under the Navy);
and
Whereas, this is the first known use of the US military to
intervene in a labor dispute on the side of management in 40 years – not
since the Great 1970 Postal Strike when President Nixon called out the Army and
National Guard in an (unsuccessful) attempt to break the strike. The use of the
Armed Forces against labor unions is something you expect to see in a police
state. This is part of a disturbing trend where the U.S. military, acting as
enforcers for the 1%, is poised to be used against our own people, as
exemplified by the new law allowing the military to imprison U.S. citizens
indefinitely without trial; and
Whereas, now the U.S. military, which has been oppressing,
bombing and threatening other nations [a military that’s paid for with
the workers’ taxes] is now being used against us, against American
working people and our unions. To quote ILWU international President McEllrath:
“ILWU’s labor dispute with EGT is symbolic of what is wrong in the
United States today. Corporations, no matter how harmful their conduct to
society, enjoy full state and federal protection while workers and the middle
class get treated as criminals for trying to protect their jobs and
communities.”
Therefore be it Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor
Council condemn in the strongest terms the announced use of U.S. Armed Forces
(Coast Guard) to provide an armed sea and air escort for the empty grain ship,
which is due to call at the new EGT grain terminal, Port of Longview,
Washington, to load scab grain for export to Asia. We condemn this use of the
military as part of a union-busting campaign to lower the cost of labor on the
waterfront and destroy the union;
And be it further Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor
Council join with allies in other cities on the West Coast to participate in
any press conferences and demonstrations that are organized to denounce this
use of the military to intervene in a labor dispute on the side of Wall Street
on the Waterfront;
And be it finally Resolved, that the Council circulate this
resolution to affiliated unions, Bay Area labor councils, the California Labor
Federation, as well as labor bodies in Oregon and Washington, for concurrence
and action, and urge labor leaders including Richard Trumka [president of the
AFL-CIO] and Mary Kay Henry [president of Service Employees Local 1199] to take
a strong stand against this brazen assault on our labor rights and civil
liberties.
In solidarity with ILWU:A call to action to working
people
Jan 11, 2012 9:56 PM
Kyle Mackey, Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Central Labor Council
Secretary-Treasurer issued this Call to Action to accompany the Jan. 2
resolution by that labor body. He answers the question, Why support the ILWU,
showing in detail the likely chain of events at stake.
A Call to Action: It is estimated, sometime in late January or early
February the [scab] EGT facility at the port of Longview will receive its first
grain ship to be loaded at its berth. The name and timing of this ship will
undoubtedly be kept secret until the last possible moment. It is likely there
will be a few days to as little as 24 hours notice of when the ship will dock.
Notification will be given via the Internet and any other relevant means of
networking throughout the country.
We are imploring all able working class people willing to take time out of
his or her own lives, to come to Longview, Wash. for a historic protest.
This is the time for workers everywhere to take a stand. Unions and the
working class standard of living that have benefited from collective bargaining
for so long are in danger of being extracted completely. You can see this
systematically taking place over the last 30 years or longer, and especially in
recent times. Unions have lost ground over this period of time due to unjust
anti-labor laws, corporate influence on the government, and complacency on the
part of organized labor among other reasons.
We recognize the danger of and view the government attack on collective
bargaining of public employees as a warning shot to labor as a whole. Wisconsin
was ground zero and the spark that awoke the sleeping giant that is labor.
Workers are beginning to remember there is indeed strength in numbers,
regardless of how many unjust laws are made to divide us.
We have not been pacified long enough as to give up our constitutional
rights or to give up all the gains our forefathers fought and died to achieve
over the last hundred years. People inherently ask WHY? Why should I or others
come to the aid of the ILWU? Why should I care, and what does it matter if this
ship gets loaded and they lose this struggle?
The ILWU has a proud history of being arguably the strongest labor union in
the world for almost 80 years. The secret of this success lies in the bottom
up, rank and file democratic structure. This empowers and involves every
member. And the intelligence and foresight of the leaders who knew without
unity on the entire west coast and unity with the working class, there was no
strength.
EGT is attempting to break the ILWU. EGT is operating on public port
property where the ILWU [members] have worked for decades. [EGT is] in
violation of their lease agreement, which states that the ILWU is to be the
workforce on port property. Longshoremen have done work in port grain elevators
before the ILWU was formed [in the 1930s]. If EGT succeeds, they will have
essentially broken the ILWU.
First, they will set a precedent that work on public port docks is no longer
automatically Longshore jurisdiction. Then within less than a year, when the
northwest grain handlers agreement is set to be negotiated, all the other grain
elevators will seek to either go non-ILWU or will seek to match the eroded
standard EGT creates. Shortly thereafter in 2014, the ILWU will negotiate its
master contract with the Pacific Maritime Association. If they lose, you can
bet the PMA will take notice and hit hard.
Most importantly to note is that grain accounts for 30% of the ILWU health
and welfare package. If you lose a third of your bargaining power and your
traditional jurisdiction on port property, what are you left with? Either no
ILWU, or a union that would resemble nothing like what it once was. There would
be little or no collective power up and down the west coast, and no way to
fight for social justice or defend the working class, just as the ILWU has done
for so long, in its entrenched and strategic position at the gates of
international commerce.
Longshoremen have traditionally been a rough and tough bunch, but they
always make sure to educate their members on the importance of history, unity
and the power of collective bargaining. People nowadays forget or have not been
taught their own history, they forget what it means to cross a picket line, and
become a scab the rest of their life. For 30 years or more we have been sliding
downhill, while some would argue unions have outlived their time. The reality
is unions are the last defense when the imperfect system of checks and balances
within our government fails to serve the interests of the workers.
The class struggle never really goes away. Right now the rich and the ruling
class are attempting to deal a blow that labor might never recover from. The
ILWU has always been the vanguard of labor everywhere. Today, the ILWU’s
value of “An Injury to One Is an Injury to All” couldn’t be
any more pertinent for all organizations. So please, if you believe in a better
future for the 99% of us that work for a living, do what you can to support
ILWU Local 21.
“The most important word in the language of the working class is
solidarity.”– Harry Bridges
In solidarity,
Kyle Mackey
Secretary/Treasurer Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Counties Central Labor Council and ILWU
Local 21 member
