Perry Collins
Winyah Stevedoring
2735 Front Street
Georgetown, SC 29440
Dear Mr. Collins:
We are writing to express our outrage at your company’s continuing efforts to sue ILA Locals 1442 and 1771, their presidents and 27 individual members for your alleged financial losses incurred during the picketing of the Nordana ship Skodsborg Jan. 20, 2000. Your company bears responsibility for the picket line occurring by hiring scab labor to perform the work that is historically the jurisdiction of Locals 1422 and 1771. It is the most basic responsibility of a union to picket in defense of its members’ jobs and livelihoods. To turn around and sue the union and its members for an action you instigated is both cynical and unconscionable.
We demand that your company immediately drop its lawsuit against the locals and their members. These hard-working members of the Charleston community and their families have already unjustly and needlessly suffered the anxiety of facing bankruptcy.
We add our voice to the growing chorus of labor organizations, civil rights groups and social justice advocates demanding an end to the harassment of this lawsuit.
