SIU should be in dock with ILA
Racketeering case against ILA
Stop Bush’s takeover of ILA
Brother Robert,
I just read your message that was posted on the ILWUlist by Gregory Butler, who has been posting stuff on various discussion group websites favorable to the fed’s move to takeover the ILA. You regretted that the Seafarerers’ International Union (SIU) wasn’t named in the governments’ suit because of its connection to the mob. Actually your regret is contradicted in your concluding paragraph: “We believe that the Government continues to give them a pass because it is in their best interest to have a subservient work force, instead of an unruly bunch of Rank and Filers. We also know, for a fact, that the SIU and the CIA have been (and may be still) bedmates. How much this affects our ability to get this union cleaned up is anyones guess, and we may never know. ”
When you say “we” are you referring to the Seamen’s Justice Center? I’m a rank-and-file longshoreman, who used to sail on National Maritime Union (NMU) ships in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, so I know a little about the scandalous role of the SIU. They’ve scabbed on strikes by the ILA’s tugboat and barge Local 333 and also against the Inlandboatmen’s Union (IBU) here on the West Coast. They even have a phoney offshore “union” set up, I think, in the West Indies to sign lucrative contracts with shipowners of “flag of convenience” ships, usually manned by seamen from third world countries. The shipowners earn superprofits by evading real union wages, working conditions and benefits, while the phoney SIU outfit fills its coffers from the bosses’ superexploitation of third world sailors.
So why don’t the feds go after them? The big business government (i. e. shipowners, banks, etc.) profit from this system. Calling in the federal government to clean up things is like asking the fox to guard the chicken coop. Look at the ILA suit. The feds cast a wide net, naming all top ILA officers, including those they know are not involved in any corruption rackets and install a “trustee” to run the union. They accuse some officers of siphoning off money from benefit funds, but leave untouched the bigger scandal, the master contract, which these same officers negotiated. Why? Because it was a 6-year concessionary contract that will profit shipowners and stevedoring companies to the tune of 100’s of millions of dollars. The feds, first and foremost, want stability or labor peace on the waterfront to enforce a contract beneficial to the maritime bosses. Like you say they don’t want an “unruly bunch of rank and filers” in power.
Your point about the 1950’s Canadian Seamens’ Union is well-taken. I just saw a film last night entitled “Betrayed: The Story of Canadian Merchant Seamen” about the CSU strike after WWII. Canadian filmmaker Elaine Briere presented the film followed by a talk as part of Labor Fest here in San Francisco. It’s a celebration, rich in workers’ culture, for the month of July. (You can get a VHS or DVD copy from the filmmaker by emailing her at ebriere@telus.net.) The story of the CSU is instructive when looking at the class nature of government. The liberal Canadian government, at the behest of shipowners of the fourth largest fleet in the world, sought to bust the strike by the “red-led” CSU. To do this they enlisted the “services” of top SIU goon Hal Banks from the U. S. According to filmmaker Briere, it was a bloody job for the labor gangster Banks. When it was over, the worldwide strike was busted, the seamen’s union was broken and the shipowners began to flag out the ships to phoney offshore registries, a “legal” capitalist con game that has plagued sailors’ unions around the world since then.
The terrible part of this story is that other unions participated along with the shipowners’ and their governments in these attacks. In the U. S. during the anti-communist witchhunt AFL maritime unions cannabalized other maritime unions and even their own members, some of whom tried to support the Canadian seamen. In the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific (SUP), members in the port of Seattle (led by business agent Mahoney) who dared to show solidarity were purged from the union. In the CIO’s Marine, Cooks and Stewards (MCS) its president Hugh Bryson was sent to prison, accused of having attended a Communist Party meeting. Much like the SIU bloodying the Canadian Seamens’ Union, the MCS was attacked by other maritime unions doing the dirty work for the shipowners and the government. When the bloodletting was over, the integrated MCS was destroyed by the lilly white West Coast maritime unions. Some of its officers, like Secretary-Treasurer Joe Johnson, the first black to be elected to an international position in the U. S. maritime unions, found a safe haven in the ILWU. Joe used to recite with vigor the great speeches by abolitionist Frederick Douglas at ILWU Local 10’s Bloody Thursday commemorations. Jimmy Herman, later to succeed Harry Bridges as ILWU President, also was a victim of the anti-red purges, who found his way to the ILWU. Bill Bailey, “the Kid from Hoboken”, expelled from the Marine Firemen’s Union, was one of the few who ever got his book back. These divisive purges were a tragic chapter in maritime labor history and happened in synch with and opened the way for the passing of Taft-Hartley and the shipowners’ using runaway flags or flags of convenience to evade the unions.
So when someone tells you that they’re using the feds to “clean up” the union, remember the real role of the government is to “clean out” the most militant maritime unions. To paraphrase the English historian Toynbee, if we don’t learn from history we’re bound to repeat it.......... and with an impending split in the AFL-CIO it’s a dangerous step to take.
Jack Heyman
