In an unprecedented attack on the ILWU, the Journal of Commerce (JoC), the mouthpiece of the maritime companies, has intervened in our internal union elections to favor one candidate over another for International President. Maritime bosses are reportedly (JoC June 5-11) upset “by the ILWU’s democratic structure” and recent labor solidarity actions on the docks. They favor Jim Spinosa in the hope that he will help them to 1) bring “stability” and improve productivity, in part, by putting an end to solidarity actions and 2) deliver deals which undermine the longshore contract (PCLCD) – the grievance machinery and the dispatch hall. Both were cited in the article.
Thanks to our union democracy, Caucus delegates voted to maintain the integrity of Section 17 of the PCLCD, the grievance procedures, by rejecting the Spinosa/ILWU lawyers’ tentative deal with PMA to circumvent it on discrimination cases. Union democracy also prevailed in Los Angeles when the rank and file of Local 13 voted overwhelmingly against a PMA/Local officials’ plan to implement an automated dispatch system. Too bad for PMA and the JoC, but that’s how union democracy works.
The employers’ propaganda machine, the JoC, has been busy working overtime publishing several editorials and articles on our union in the last couple of months. They’re cranking out lie after lie trying to drag ILWU’s banner in the mud. They claim falsely that younger longshore workers aren’t concerned about labor solidarity, just their paychecks which average, they say, $100,000 a year! That’s a double lie!
When McWilliams led the West Coast shutdown and Seattle protest against the WTO last November, that powerful action was immensely popular with ALL ILWU members young and old, black and white, men and women. The JoC even misquoted ILWU local officials to lend their lies an air of credibilty.
Also longshore members enthusiastically supported the Liverpool dockers who raised the clarion call for labor solidarity arousing longshoremen around the world against union-busting attacks by international capital. The Neptune Jade case grew out of a solidarity action in Oakland for the Liverpool dockers. When defendant Robert Irminger (the picket captain who was being scapegoated by the PMA in a vicious anti-ILWU court suit) requested support, International President McWilliams, International Vice President Spinosa and the Coast Committeemen, in a rare display of unity, agreed to call on the rank and file to shutdown the coast, if necessary, to win that struggle. None ever doubted that the rank and file would come to their union’s defense.
Of the ILWU officials named in the JoC fraudulent hit piece, not one has yet publicly claimed they were misquoted. Better yet, they should repudiate this anti-union crap which passes as journalism and demand the JoC stay out of our internal union affairs.
After reading Spinosa’s election statement in the latest issue of the Dispatcher, ILWU’s newspaper, it is clear why he hasn’t renounced the article. Spinosa echoes PMA head Miniace, citing “the spirit of cooperation and unity” between the employers and the union while PMA continues to attack the ILWU in court, in port after port.
Just last month in an LA “lovefest” entitled “Town Hall Meeting”, Miniace and Spinosa shared the podium cooing about “cooperation”. At the same time, PMA companies are moving clerks’ computerized work inland away from the waterfront and have Local 13 members in court for job actions. So much for “cooperation”!
And on the question of technology Spinosa keeps begging for the employers to “take us along” like we’re a dog on a leash instead of equals to our adversaries and fighting for our jobs. Spinosa has been consistently weak on internationalism, not even mentioning the word in the last few Coast Committee reports. Given the intensification of corporate attacks and increased union-busting in the globalized economy, you’d think he’d at least allude to international labor solidarity in passing. Not so, if your main concern is a “spirit of cooperation” with your employer. Not surprisingly, although 2/3 of the ILWU is not in longshore, Spinosa has expressed no interest in organizing other workers that have historically been regarded as our flank. Remember the “March Inland”?
I have been critical of McWilliams many times before, but I believe that the continuation of ILWU’s class struggle history that grew out of the ’34 strike is at stake in this election. McWilliams’ program will allow the opportunity for members of all ILWU divisions to organize key struggles. His opponent’s, Spinosa, won’t. That’s why I’m supporting McWilliams. I am asking ILWU members concerned about defending our union, other workers and the oppressed through international labor solidarity and social justice struggles to vote for McWilliams.
I experienced the high point of my 42 years in the organized labor movement at the last Caucus in Portland when delegates rose to give me a standing ovation in recognition of my contribution to the ILWU in the Neptune Jade struggle. The fact of the matter is we wouldn’t have won that struggle if Brian McWilliams hadn’t come down to Local 10 to ask members to attend the courthouse protest rally July 22, 1997, effectively shutting down the port of Oakland. It was after that action that PMA began to back off. McWilliams understands that employers’ attacks can be turned into labor victories by flexing our union muscle collectively.
(labor donated)
Jack Heyman #8780
