You have to respect someone who takes it upon himself to stand up for a cause, even one you don’t necessarily agree with. Too many people are content to let issues slip by without a murmur. It’s admirable when someone is willing to speak out on matters of principle.
But respect and admiration fade quickly when it turns out the person taking the stand is breaking his word and trampling on the rights of others in the process.
That’s what’s happening on the West Coast waterfront. It’s not a picture that should make anyone proud.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents West Coast dockworkers, has a proud history of speaking out. It was born in the trenches of the labor-management struggles of the 1930s, following a historic strike in which two workers were killed and more than 100 injured. Since its earliest days, it has been a fierce and effective advocate for its membership.
Through the years the ILWU also has been an earnest supporter of a variety of social causes beyond the waterfront, too, ranging from anti-war efforts to protesting apartheid to condemning globalization. It’s never been afraid to exercise its First Amendment rights.
Unfortunately, the ILWU doesn’t limit itself to exercising its free-speech rights on its own time. In fact, the union has been putting its employers and their customers on hold while it airs its social conscience; only four months ago, for example, it shut down West Coast ports while its members participated in a day of protests at the World Trade Organization summit in Seattle.
And that not only drags other parties into ILWU causes regardless of what those parties think or want, but it also violates the union’s collective-bargaining agreement with the maritime companies that employ its members, a contract in which the ILWU promises not to strike or call a work stoppage except in cases of imminent safety or health hazards, “onerous work loads” or bona-fide picket lines of other unions.
Worse, the ILWU wants its employers to continue turning the other cheek to such conduct. Action for social justice, ILWU President Brian McWilliams told an audience of transportation people at the International Trade Club of Southern California the other day, “is our legacy.”
“Don’t stand in front of the train,” the labor leader said. “We just ask that you look the other way.”
The way things work, however, employers and shippers get hit by the ILWU social-action train whether or not they look the other way.
Work stoppages – even when the union gives employers advance notice – disrupt schedules and snarl intricate and far-reaching supply chains. They sap productivity and add unexpected costs at all levels. It costs a vessel operator up to $50,000 a day when a container ship lies idle; the relative burden can be even greater on self-employed harbor truck drivers who only get paid when they haul a container. Importers, exporters and businesses that depend on just-in-time delivery bear extra costs, too. And there’s a negative impact on the reputation and competitive position of West Coast ports.
It’s commendable for the ILWU to speak out on its own time. It’s fine for ILWU members to sacrifice their wages to make a statement.
But it’s not right for the union to unilaterally sacrifice the time, money and efforts of everyone else in the intermodal chain in causes that have no direct relation to the waterfront workplace, causes over which people in the intermodal chain have no say.
The ILWU signed a contract with the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents port employers, that includes a no-strike, no-lockout, no-work-stoppage clause. The ILWU no doubt expects the employers to live up to the commitments they made in the contract – and the employers certainly should.
But the employers have a right to expect the ILWU to keep its word, too. They don’t seem very interested in insisting on that. But they have the right to expect it.
