Speaking of good news

I've been meaning to write about this for days now and I'm finally getting to it.

Back in March I wrote about the intent of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to stage a one-shift work stoppage on May 1, essentially shutting down ports all along the west coast for eight hours, to protest the Iraq War. The bosses made various threats to deter it, including getting an arbitrator to twice order the union to tell its members to report to work as usual.

It didn't work: Although the union couldn't formally support the action, everyone understood the reality of the necessary legal technicalities involved and the difference between, so to speak, de jure and de facto support, and went ahead anyway. As a result,

[c]ranes and forklifts stood still from Seattle to San Diego, and ships were stalled at sea as workers held rallies up and down the coast to blame the war for distracting public attention and money from domestic needs like health care and education.

“We’re loyal to America, and we won’t stand by while our country, our troops and our economy are being destroyed by a war that’s bankrupting us to the tune of $3 trillion,” the president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Bob McEllrath, said in a written statement. “It’s time to stand up, and we’re doing our part today.”

The port bosses and the shipping companies, of course, unwilling or unable to attribute the action to anything other than selfishness and determined to downplay it as an expression of opposition to the war by which those corporations profit, claimed it was all a negotiating ploy.

[Pacific Maritime Association]'s [Steve] Getzug said the action came two months prior to the expiration of the current labor agreement.

"Today's actions raised the question of whether this was an attempt to leverage contract negotiations," he said in a statement.

This despite the facts that the long lead time to prepare and the time-limited nature of the protest meant the economic cost would be limited and the effect on shipping at most one of minor inconvenience. This was a not an economic strike, it was principled act of conviction. Which is why, I suppose, the PMA couldn't understand it.

The bosses' claim of other motivations was also belied by the support received from other unions and protestors.

In many cases, dock workers were joined at port entrances or at rallies by other groups protesting the war or frustrated by economic issues or immigration policies. ...

On the Seattle waterfront, members of the United Auto Workers and the Service Employees International Union mixed with self-described socialists while many of the scores of police officers on the scene ate box lunches and petted their horses.

In Oakland, Calif., some truckers who said they were angry about high gas prices decided not to cross picket lines at the port. ...

Kevin Schroeder, director of [ILWU] Local 13’s political action committee, said, “The children of middle-class people are over there dying, so we decided to do something. We are fortunate enough to be in an organization that has a platform to do something.”

And do something they did, and thanks and expressions of solidarity go to them, along with praise for not being intimidated.

Footnote: The General Union of Dock Workers in Iraq sent a message of support and announced an intention to shut down the ports of Umm Qasr and Khor Alzubair for one hour in solidarity with the ILWU, which considering their situation is considerably more remarkable than the ILWU's protest and makes the limp support it received from the rest of the US labor movement that much more pathetic.

The Maritime Union of New Zealand also sent a message of solidarity.

Another Footnote: The picture at the top comes from this link to the post about the action at Left I on the News.