COLUMBIA, S. C. – Thousands of union dockworkers urged the state attorney general Saturday to drop charges against five longshoremen accused of instigating a riot while protesting a shipping line’s use of nonunion labor.
About 4,000 protesters turned out at South Carolina’s Statehouse, some waving colorful banners and signs that read “Justice for the Charleston 5.”
“We send a message to all union-busters in Charleston who are trying to bankrupt the longshore workers and send five of them to jail. Our message is this: We know what you’re up to and you’re not going to get away with it,” said Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, which co-sponsored the rally.
Attorney General Charlie Condon said he would not be “bullied or intimidated” into dropping the charges.
“The right to work in South Carolina will be protected as long as I am attorney general. We will not tolerate the work of a mob,” Condon said.
At the Port of Charleston in January 2000, members of the International Longshoremen’s Association marched to a terminal where a freighter owned by the Danish company Nordana Line was being unloaded by nonunion workers. Police used dogs and smoke grenades to break up the ensuing riot. Ten people were injured.
A magistrate who watched a videotape of the riot dropped the charges, but the attorney general’s office later took the case to a Charleston County grand jury that indicted the five men.
Elijah Ford Jr. , Kenneth Jefferson, Rickey Simmons, Jason Edgerton and Peter Washington Jr. were charged with riot and conspiracy to riot.
Family members and relatives said the five longshoremen have been under house arrest for more than a year and are only permitted to work and attend union meetings.
Franklin Washington said his father, Peter, was unable to attend his recent baptism and was barred from attending a memorial service for Franklin’s grandmother in April.
“There’s a lot of pressure on him. He can’t even drive his kids to the mall,” the 18-year-old said.
