ON THE PICKET LINE
By Mary Owen
South Carolina: Longshore picketers face
felony charges, jail
A crucial struggle is unfolding to defend five Charleston,
S.C., longshore workers who face possible imprisonment on
state criminal charges from a struggle against the use of
non-union crews.
The workers are members of the International
Longshoremen's Association. The charges arose one year ago,
after a pitched battle on the docks the night of Jan. 19-20,
2000.
These five and 150 other workers were heading toward a
planned picket against a scab ship. A massive contingent of
police attacked them. The workers fought back.
The trials of the Charleston 5 could begin as early as
February.
The South Carolina and national AFL-CIO have begun an
international campaign to defend the workers and their
unions--Clerks and Checkers Local 1771 and Longshore Local
1422--whose membership is overwhelmingly African
American.
"This is a very compelling case, one that brings together
all the issues--voice at work and the right to organize,
issues of racial justice and issues of democracy," said Bill
Fletcher, assistant to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and the
federation's liaison to the campaign.
The Charleston struggle against scab ships began on Oct.
1, 1999 when Nordana Lines told longshore locals that they
planned to sever their 23-year ties with the union and use
non-union replacements on their ships. The locals responded
with picket lines that delayed some Nordana ships.
Last Jan. 19-20, the state of South Carolina--a "right to
work" state with the country's lowest unionization
rate--launched a repressive, anti-union offensive. To protect
the right of Nordana Line and Winyah Stevedoring to employ
scab non-union labor, the state sent in 600 police in full
riot gear. Some were on horseback, some in armored vehicles.
Others circled in helicopters overhead or floated in patrol
boats near the terminal.
As added provocation, the police mustered at the terminal
and in front of the union's hall nearby.
That evening, as the workers headed toward the terminal to
exercise their legal right to picket, the police pushed them
back. A cop ran out of formation and clubbed Local 1422
President Ken Riley on the head, and a fight began. As is
typical in cases of police assault, the cops arrested some of
the victims--eight longshore workers who police charged with
misdemeanor trespassing.
State Attorney General Charlie Condon then took over the
case, upping the charges to "felony rioting." A judge
dismissed the charges at a preliminary hearing, but Condon
went to a grand jury and got felony riot indictments against
the Charleston 5.
Condon says he intends to prosecute the workers
vigorously. His plans for them, he says, include "jail, jail
and more jail." In addition, although Nordana settled with
the union in April, the company that supplied the scabs sued
the Longshore locals and 27 picketing workers for $1.5
million in financial losses.
"It's no coincidence that the racist police attack took
place around the time that 47,000 people--mainly African
American--marched to demand that the confederate flag be torn
from the top of the South Carolina capitol," said Larry
Holmes, co-founder of Workfairness, which organizes workfare
workers in New York. "The powers that be would like to push
back these militant longshore workers because they represent
a strong, anti-racist current tying the labor movement with
the community. That's why we need to step up to defend the
Charleston 5."
Donna Dewitt, president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO,
said the march against the confederate flag "scared the
Republicans to death in this state." As a result, she said,
"They're using the long-shore union as an example because
they are strong leaders and the state doesn't want others to
see them that way."
The AFL-CIO campaign will seek the acquittal of the
Charleston 5 and complete vindication of the 27 workers and
their locals in the lawsuit. Organizers say the campaign
--which will create Charleston 5 defense committees
nationwide--will also build a strong case for workers' rights
and expose the racist efforts of the state to limit Black
power in South Carolina.
"Local 1422 is a largely African American local, a very
important segment of the Charleston community," said
Fletcher. "It is significant that they are under attack
because they are living proof that unionization is the best
anti-poverty program ever created."
Charleston 5 defense committees will reach out to
community, civil-rights, religious, political and academic
organizations and activists to help raise money for the
workers' defense and take part in an international day of
action when the trial begins.
"Anyone who wants to fight racism and stand up for the
rights of workers to organize should get behind the defense
of these workers," said Johnnie Stevens, who organizes
green-grocery and other low-wage workers with UNITE Local
169.
For more information readers can go to www.ilwu.org and
click on "Charle ston 5 Information" at the top of the home
page. Readers can also send checks payable to "Dockworkers
Defense Fund" to Campaign for Workers' Rights in South
Carolina, P.O. Box 21777, Charleston, SC 29413 or to
Dockworkers Defense Fund, attn: Robert J. Ford, 910 Morrison
Drive, Charleston, SC 29403.
Crown settlement ends five-year lockout
After a steadfast five-year campaign that rallied support
from labor, civil-rights, religious and environmental
activists in the United States and worldwide, locked-out oil
workers at Crown Central Petroleum have ratified a union
contract. The 252 workers, members of the Paper,
Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy, were locked out by
Crown in Pasadena, Texas, near Houston on Feb. 5, 1996.
Their new agreement, ratified Jan. 17, provides a wage
increase of 11.5 percent in the first 13 months, with
additional increases based on upcoming oil industry
bargaining. The contract also protects seniority rights and
preserves jobs and the union contract if the
100,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery is sold.
"Our locked-out members stood tall for five years," said
PACE Local 4-277 Secretary-Treasurer Joe Campbell. "We
express our deep thanks to our international union for its
financial support and successful campaign, and to our PACE
members and locals who contri buted generously to our
hardship fund."
Local 4-277 President Mack Hickerson expressed the
workers' appreciation to "the thousands of labor,
civil-rights, religious and environmental activists who
rallied around our cause and gave life to our campaign."
The union also had high praise for the Norwegian oil
workers' union NOPEF and the 20-million-strong International
Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers'
Unions (ICEM) for their solidarity.
NOPEF President Lars Myhre, who chairs ICEM's energy
section, had pressured oil transnational Statoil about
Crown's dismal labor record, prompting Statoil to cancel its
refining deal with Crown. This forced Crown to reach a
settlement with the locked-out workers in hopes of recouping
the Statiol contract--which accounts for 35 percent of its
Pasadena operation.
"Lars Myhre's visit to our locked-out workers in Pasadena,
Texas, and his acts of international solidarity will long be
remembered," said PACE Executive Vice President Robert
Wages.
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