Below are excerpts from an October 17, 1997 Press
Release by the ILWU:

"The ILWU resolutely denounces the Federal Maritime Commission's
decision to ban Japanese ships from American ports and detain those
still berthed here...

"The FMC's ban results from American shipping companies' attempts to
avoid existing labor agreements in Japan that protect union dock workers
in the "prior consultation" system of loading and unloading ships in
their ports. The system gives organized labor a say in how their ports
are run and also protects the good wages, benefits and working
conditions the unions have fought hard over decades to achieve. In
retaliation the U.S. government is using its power to try to bust the
dock workers' unions in Japan and replace those union workers with
others paid lower wages and subjected to substandard working conditions.

"...If the Japanese used economic sanctions to try to force Congress to
repeal the Jones Act (which protects American maritime interests by
requiring ships going from an American port to another American port to
be American-owned, -built and -crewed) the U.S. government would go
ballistic.

"International shipping comapnies are attempting to privatize ports and
bust dock worker unions just as they did in Liverpool and we will stand
up for our Japanese brothers and sisters just as we have for the
Liverpool dockers."