Steelworkers need our help again – urgently! Locked Out Kaiser Aluminum workers and their allies have been picketing the cargo ship Cupid Feather for two weeks, blocking supplies of alumina raw material to the Kaiser Tacoma and Mead plants. As a result, production has been cut in half. Kaiser and its owner MAXXAM (the notorious timber clear cutter, too) has been hurting.
The pickets have been stopping ILWU longshoremen, who are sympathetic, from unloading the ships. But the ILWU can only honor the picket line if it is big enough to satisfy their arbitrator. Recently the picket line has gotten thin. The arbitrator ruled the ILWU must cross. So the Steelworkers are calling all supporters down to the picket line at 2205 Sitcum Way off E.11th and Thorn. Those in the Seattle area, please get down there and get others to go – this is a 24 hour picket so we need lots of help. For more information, contact USWA at 253-272-4748.
This is a critical battle for all labor and for all opposition to the multinationals. If we can shut down Kaiser, running with scabs, it will show the way to win strikes all over the country by cutting off supplies to struck or locked out plants. Help now in the Battle of Tacoma!
Eric Lerner, Workers Democracy Network
