Phil Hellesto and I visited the two picket sites yesterday. . . the dock and the Kaiser smelter. At Terminal 7 was the bulk-carrier,“Cupid Feather”. The longshoremen working that ship had been displaying a commendable concern for ALL safety and environmental considerations regarding the handling of that cargo. The ship had been at the dock for a couple of weeks now, with several more weeks predicted. On Saturday morning a group of about 70 picketeers converged at Terminal 7. Immediately, they were surrounded by a similiar number of Tacoma cops, many in the all too familiar RoboCop gear. . . agressively flaunting ther long clubs. Overhead was the Tacoma Air Force.
There were two arrests for “criminal trespass”: Steelworkers District 11 organizer John Youngdahl, and IBU-ILWU activist Brian Wiles. The longshoremen stopped working, citing the “unsafe work site” provision in their contract. This will go into arbitration today or tomorrow. In the meantime, the dockside picketeer are under an Injunction, limiting the picketeers to a small number of USWA members only.
At the Kaiser smelter, we spoke with the picketeers there. They had been there a long time and looked ready to remain there for as long as it takes. They also read that letter of ILA’s Bowers with great interest. The plant, initially manned by out of state professional strikebreakers, isn’t doing that well. . . . Kaiser seems to be sustained mainly by the “Solidarity” of fellow Corporate Sharks. A lot of the present workers came from Maxxam timber workers [see Ken Shelton’s posting] and were working that smelter under a “Do it or else!” ultimatum. But few inside have the necessary skills to operate a modern smelter. Boeing [a recent convert to Shark-ism ] is NOT happy with the quality of the aluminum Kaiser now delivers, but has kept silent so far. . . a stockholder fueled protest is expected there.
I’ll be at the hall later today and ask our officials to contact the USWA and find out how we can best offer support. For starters, we could show up at the smelter site and relieve those USWA people to go to the dock site. And, at that site, we can show our MEBA placards & banners in support.
Fraternally,
Paul Norman
