We have seen what the globalized steamship and stevedoring companies view as the future of the world’s docks—a deunionized and casual labor force moving more and more cargo at less and less costs.
We’ve seen it not only in Third World countries like Brazil and Mexico. We’ve seen it in Britain with the elimination of the Liverpool dockers, the country’s last remaining union longshore workers. We’ve seen it in Australia with the 1998 attempt to bust the Maritime Union of Australia and the unrelenting attacks on it continuing today. But now that attack has hit American shores, strategically targeted to land an anti-union beachhead.
They’ve picked Charleston, South Carolina, and it’s not hard to see why. The Port of Charleston is the second largest port on the eastern seaboard, after the New York-New Jersey port. It has the size and volume of cargo to have a significant impact on the industry.
South Carolina is also one of the most rightwing, anti-worker states in the country. It has some of the strongest “right-to-work” laws and the lowest unionization rate in the country at 3. 8 percent. South Carolina—where the ruling politicians like to fly the Confederate flag on the state capitol—is not known as particularly racially tolerant, and the longshore local at Charleston, ILA Local 1422, is more than 99 percent African American.
In other words, they’ve picked this fight in a place where they hold a distinct local advantage.
As The Dispatcher has reported, one shipping company—Nordana Lines—unilaterally decided to start using non-union labor to work its ships in Charleston after 23 years of using ILA workers. The union—as it should—responded with picket lines that affected work on two of the next three Nordana calls in Charleston. That’s when the state’s law enforcement agencies decided these uppity unionists needed to be put on their place.
The next time Nordana had a ship call on Charleston—Jan. 20, 2000—it had an official welcoming committee. Some 600 riot-equipped police in armored vehicles, on horseback, in helicopters and patrol boats came out to protect the “right” of 20 scabs to work unobstructed by pickets. They set up at the terminal and just 150 yards from the union hall. Someone was looking for a fight.
When on the picket line the local’s president, Ken Riley, was clubbed on the head by a cop, it happened. Now the state Attorney General’s office is prosecuting four longshore workers and one clerk on felony “inciting to riot” charges. These workers face up to five years in jail for exercising their legal right to picket in defense of their jobs. On top of that—in a move similar to what we faced with the Neptune Jade situation a few years ago—the stevedoring company that hired the scabs is suing the locals, their presidents and 27 individual union members for $1. 5 million in financial losses allegedly caused by the picket line.
If they can get away with this, we are looking at our future. Just like in Australia, they start with the dockworkers—because that’s where worker strength in the economy is—before they go after the rest of the union movement.
Already the ILWU membership has recognized the threat. Last spring the Longshore Division donated more than $100,000 to the Charleston 5 defense fund. Since the incident San Francisco Local 10 officers have visited Charleston and walked picket lines with the longshore workers. Solidarity is knowing your interests are the same as other workers.
The civil suit on damages continues to slowly work its way through the court system. But the criminal case against the Charleston 5 is expected to go to trial as early as mid-January. The South Carolina AFL-CIO and the national AFL-CIO are now working together to build an international campaign demanding the criminal charges be dropped and the civil suit for monetary damages thrown out.
This is a cause the ILWU must back with all the enthusiasm and muscle we recently put into the Liverpool Dockers struggle and the WTO protests because the consequences of our losing is both fights combined—global capitalism strengthened and expanded by busting longshore unions. So the ILWU has already begun working with the campaign to set up local defense committees in our port areas.
The defense committees will try to bring in community organizations, civil rights groups, religious and academic institutions, and other political activists to be ready to take part in a national day of action when the criminal trial begins and to help raise money for the defense fund. (Donations should be sent to: Dockworkers Defense Fund /910 Morrison Drive / Charleston, SC 29403 / Attn: Robert J. Ford). Because the Charleston defense attorneys at this point expect a court date sometime in February or March and the campaign’s strategy is to take action on the first day of the trial, local areas need to start organizing their defense committees as soon as possible.
The International is prepared to assist local areas setting up defense committees with advice and organizing materials. I have appointed International Communications Director Steve Stallone to coordinate the ILWU’s efforts in support of the Charleston longshore workers along the Coast.
You can reach him at the International’s San Francisco office at 415-775-0533 or email him at stevestallone@ilwu.org
