Dockworkers Denounce Bush, Demand Decent Contract Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News That Doesn't Fit DOCKWORKERS DENOUNCE BUSH, DEMAND DECENT CONTRACT by Jon Hillson LONG BEACH, CA, August 13 (NY Transfer)--Against the drumbeat of mounting threats from Washington should they strike -- including the use of national guard troops to keep the docks functioning -- thousands of members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) took to the streets in demonstrations at port cities up and down the West Coast August 12. The ILWU's contract with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), the boss organization, expired July 1. "What do we want?" thousands of dockworkers chanted through downtown Long Beach which, with San Pedro/Los Angeles, is the largest port in the United States. "Contract!" came the collective reply. "When do we want it?" the unionists shouted. "Now!" they responded. The Long Beach Press Telegram estimated that nearly 3,000 marched in the action, which was joined by hundreds of workers from area unions in a show of solidarity that reflected growing recognition of the stakes in this contest pitting labor against the employing class and the government bearing down on the 10,000 members of the ILWU in 29 West Coast ports, including Vancouver. Ports from San Diego to Seattle account for up to eight percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. The Los Angeles/Long Beach waterfront unloaded 35 percent of that last year, altogether over $113 billion worth of commodities and products. Such goods are then distributed by the rail and trucking industries to destinations across the United States. This underscores the national scope any job action taken by the strategically powerful ILWU would have. The ILWU contingent marched behind a banner reading "an injury to one is an injury to all," held by an array of younger and older workers who were Black, Latino, white, male, and female -- an expression of the increasingly diverse waterfront work force and the gains of previous struggles for affirmative action in hiring waged by minority and female workers. The spirited ILWU ranks were joined by Service International Local 790 dockworkers, whose contract with the PMA has also expired, and non-union truck drivers whose union-organizing drive is backed by the ILWU. The PMA initially insisted on cutbacks in the ILWU health program, described by many dockworkers as the most comprehensive in the U.S. labor movement, and the elimination of over 2,000 jobs through introduction of new technology. With the direct backing of the Bush administration, including the threat of imposing the back-to-work Taft-Hartley Act -- not used since 1978 by then-President Carter against striking coal miners -- the bosses have demanded even more concessions from the union. Rank-and-file anger against government intervention and the union-busting aims it serves was expressed in chants and placards. "Dockworkers to Bush: Butt Out" was the front-page headline in the Press Telegram. A fact sheet distributed by the ILWU explains that "corporations are using the tragedy of September 11 as a pretext to go after unions. They want to make people afraid of fighting for their rights -- Tom Ridge, Homeland Security chief, even threatened the union with government intervention. The only security the PMA is concerned about is the security of their profits -- and they will do anything to try to make workers pay." Officials of the Bush administration have claimed an ILWU strike would be intolerable, because "we are at war." "Don't let the administration turn its 'endless war' against the workers!" stated the ILWU leaflet promoting the August 12 marches. "Real national security is our jobs and healthcare, not attacks on immigrant and workers rights." But right now, that "endless war" is being turned against working people in the United States, something which many rank-and-file dockworkers find increasingly obvious. This understanding showed itself as ILWU members and their union allies cheered loudest and longest for the most radical words from speakers -- union officials, Democratic party politicians, and lawyers -- on the stage. "Just remember who we are fighting," said George Kuvakas, a 58-year member of the ILWU and president of its retiree group, "a war lord named George W. Bush." A roar went up. "Let's send a message to George Bush, that if you take on the ILWU, you are taking on the American people, all of American labor. If you want to challenge the entire labor movement, the let's get it on," ILWU Local 13 president Ramon Ponce de Leon told the crowd, to cheers. Mention of the U.S. president's name, the question of troops, and "homeland security" brought choruses of booing from the throng. A top ILWU official explained that concessions offered by the union had, negotiators thought, "given [the PMA] all it wanted. But now they want more." This includes jurisdiction over new jobs caused by the introduction of technology. "They want to give us money and have us walk away," the official said -- a reference to a buyout for control of jobs, after layoffs. The crowd broke into a boisterous chant of "hell no, we won't go!" Other speakers offered patriotic themes -- "we are Americans workers fighting for American jobs and American values" -- in the belief that such rhetoric will slow the assault of the government and the bosses on workers rights. But struggles will be won not through declarations of who waves a bigger flag, but by reaching out broadly to working people for solidarity and standing up to the super-rich, their kept politicians, and laws they design to tie up unions in red tape and endless legal action while the bosses assault labor's fundamental rights. Bush will not "butt out" of the negotiations which, like all traditional "labor-management" routines, are being turned upside down by the deepening U.S. economic crisis and Washington's march toward a massive intervention in Iraq aimed at "regime change." So-called homeland security is a government weapon in the hands of the employers to further the union-busting they must carry out to slash benefits and drive down wages to rescue plummeting profits. This is why Democrats and Republicans in congress are busily at work fashioning a "Maritime Security Bill" which would impose harsh, intrusive scrutiny for new employees on the docks, subject current workers to greater control and surveillance, and increase cop and Coast Guard vigilance of waterfront workers. Of a piece with the anti-democratic USA Patriot Law, these measures use demagogy about "fighting terrorism" to construct a web of anti-labor law aimed at gutting constitutional rights and civil liberties when working people urgently need them -- during a period of heightened employer attacks, when exercising the right to speak, assemble, and organize is critical. For decades, the structure, method and leadership of U.S. unions have been softened up by relative peace and apparent prosperity -- for some. This period is over. Unions that don't adjust to war and depression and the kind of struggle-oriented leadership they require will simply be crushed. The tense character of the ILWU negotiations, the hardened stance of the Bush administration and the role of "homeland security" is a wake-up call for what's coming. Unions will be crushed, reorganized, and rebuilt, insofar as rank-and-file fighters step up to meet this new and unavoidable challenge to labor's ranks. The fact that workers from the SEIU, Justice for Janitors, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists, ironworkers, movie technicians, Communications Workers of American, Teamsters, and others marched alongside the ILWU ranks is a modest sign of potential labor and community solidarity that can be tapped in a determined fight-back in defense of the dockworkers. Many ILWU members are beginning to see, as one middle-aged member said during the march, "we're on the front lines for everybody." "Are you ready to fight?" an ILWU member shouted through a bullhorn to the bloc of union militants turning into downtown Long Beach. "Yes!" responded row upon row of rank-and-filers, the sound of their reply echoing off buildings as many onlookers cheered. With negotiations resuming on August 13 after a three-week break, this assertion will be tested to the maximum in the labor's first face-to-face confrontation with Washington's war-makers on the home front. -30- Copyright (c) 2002 by Jon Hillson and NY Transfer News. Non-profit redistribution without alteration is permitted and encouraged. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytlab-08.14.02-12:37:09-25508