Hands off ILWU Local 10!
Labor defends dockworkers’ solidarity with Wisconsin struggle
By
Cheryl LaBash
Published Apr 20, 2011 9:16 PM
Mobilize! That is the way the San Francisco Labor Council is answering the
Pacific Maritime Association’s attack on the International Longshore and
Warehouse Union Local 10. In a unanimous resolution, the SFLC called for mass
action at the PMA’s San Francisco headquarters on April 25 and
established a broad defense committee for the union and its members.
The PMA is seeking to punish ILWU Local 10 for its members’ rank-and-file
job action on April 4. The AFL-CIO had called for a National Day of Action on
that date in support of Wisconsin workers. ILWU Local 10 volunteered not to go
to work. Without their labor power, nothing moved for 24 hours in the ports of
San Francisco and Oakland, Calif.
Intimidation won’t work
ILWU Local 10’s job action is part of a bigger fight for all workers, and
it’s an important issue for the labor movement. By dragging this strong
union before an arbitrator and a federal court judge, the PMA is trying to send
a message to all workers to stay in line.
The PMA says that it is OK to have rallies, demonstrations and prayer vigils.
It is OK to lobby, recall and vote. The PMA even told the union local that it
is OK to shut down ports, but that type of action must be planned with them in
order to suit the bosses.
The wheels of capitalism routinely roll on, squeezing the workers and
unemployed even harder to make up for the bosses’ losses from the global
capitalist economic collapse. However, when the pain of the working class
results in a united job action that pinches the profit stream, it really gets
attention.
ILWU Local 10 opened up a second front in solidarity with Wisconsin workers,
and California’s labor movement is saying that the resulting intimidation
by the bosses won’t work and is taking action to prove it, starting on
April 25.
Everyone can defend ILWU Local 10
As a first step for workers beyond California’s Bay Area, the Bail Out
the People Movement began an online letter campaign to PMA president and CEO,
James C. McKenna. It demands that the “PMA drop all retaliatory actions
including its suit against ILWU Local 10 and its members for exercising their
right to show support for Wisconsin’s public workers and to commemorate
Rev. Dr. King Jr.’s assassination [on] the AFL-CIO’s National Day
of Action on April 4.
“We commend the brave longshore workers who showed the way by acting with
conscience on April 4. We believe that ‘An injury to one is an injury to
all!’” BOPM encourages everyone to sign on to this appeal at
www.bailoutpeople.org/ilwu.shtml.
Additionally, they ask that community members, students and other activists
turn that letter into a petition and take it to protests against school
closings and budget cuts. They ask union members to take the SFLC resolution to
union meetings, and supporters to take it to their churches, block clubs or
other organizations and ask for a letter of support to stand with ILWU Local 10
on April 25. (See Resolutions at sflaborcouncil.org)
PMA: Union buster
Although the anti-working-class offensive focuses on public workers in
Wisconsin, Michigan and other states, the rights of every worker — and
all union and broader social benefits for the working class — are in the
bosses and bankers’ cross hairs right now.
On April 12 ILWU members and supporters occupied the PMA office in Oakland,
Calif., for several hours. They held a sit-in in the boardroom to highlight the
PMA’s refusal to negotiate with the union. That bosses’ association
aims to destroy the solidarity of the coast-wide contract in order to weaken
the West Coast dockworkers’ union. According to the Labor Video Project,
the PMA even brought nonunion crews into the San Diego port as part of their
anti-union campaign.
On April 25 at 11 a.m. join the mass action to support ILWU Local 10 at the PMA
San Francisco headquarters at 555 Market St.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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