An edited version of this article appeared in the October 29 , 1997
Opinion section of the Journal of Commerce
The news media has been abuzz with threats of the Coast Guard "blockading" Japanese ships from U.S. ports and the $4,000,000 in fines imposed by the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC). The American public was surprised by this "showdown" over docking in Japanese ports. On October 27, the FMC boasted of an agreement and acceptance of a $1.5 million settlement. Like a "virtual tsunami", it swept ashore with much clamor, in the end, receding without even parting a mooring line.
The wrath of the FMC was directed at the Japan Harbor Transportation Association (JHTA), the stevedoring employers' group, accused of enforcing complex, self-serving regulations and "arcane, " work rules" that raise costs and put U.S. shipowners at a "disadvantage". Also, the JHTA reputedly has links to Japanese yakuza crime syndicates. To all this, the Japanese transport ministry has historically turned a blind eye, including FMC demands for Japanese port reform.
The press, meanwhile, spun a simple tale: "U. S. shipowners and their government fight under the "free trade" banner against Japan's stevedoring system mired in corporate corruption, crime and cronyism." But the reality lies much deeper.
But a closer look suggests Japanese dockworkers are part of an increasingly vocal global movemet defending social benefits and working conditions in the face of deregulation.
First, it is misleading to identify the two shipping companies, American President Lines (APL) and Sea-land Service-- whose bidding the FMC did-- as "American". APL has been acquired by Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines and Sea-land has placed new containerships under the Marshall Islands' flag to circumvent U.S. taxes and unions. Furthermore, U.S. occupation forces after World War II helped set up Japan's stevedoring system. Employers turned to the yakuza in the 1960's to stop the Zenkowan dockworkers' union from organizing militant strikes to improve conditions. In fact, Zenkowan has a progressive record opposing the yakuza and the Vietnam War and supporting international labor solidarity. Japanese deregulation would create new non-JHTA-licensed stevedoring companies with nonunion workforces and undercut jobs and freely negotiated labor agreements. No wonder the National Council of Dockworkers' Unions of Japan called a nationwide strike March 12 involving some 56,000 dockers, signaling a shot across the bow. The London-based International Transport Workers Federation supported Japanese dockers with calls for FMC Commissioner Harold Creel's resignation. Japanese shipowners stand to benefit from port reform, and most support the U. S. push, but behind the scenes-- afraid that overt support for deregulation could anger JHTA and the unions,w hose reaction to any "port reforms" remains to be seen. Although the media has focused on the FMC's brash bantering about "protectionism", barely a word is heard about the position of the European Union, which initially agreed that Japan's port practices were discriminatory, then after investigating dropped its complaint.
In the heat of the impending "trade war", West Coast maritime unions joined the battle. Brian McWilliams International Longshore and Warehouse Union president, and Gunnar Lundeberg, Sailors' Union of the Pacific president, resolutely denounced the FMC's jingoistic antics on CNN-TV and supported the Japanese dockworkers. Citing U.S. hypocrisy, they asked viewers to imagine Japan applying sanctions to repeal the "protectionist" Jones' Act requiring domestic cargo traveling between U.S. ports be carried aboard U.S.-flagged vessels.
The ILWU has a long and proud history of opposing Washington starting with the 1934 West Coast maritime strike and its birth three years later as a breakaway from the conservative East Coast International Longshoremen's Association. In the 1930's the ILWU refused to load scrap steel destined for imperial Japan's war in China. In 1960, it stopped working Japanese ships in support of striking Japanese dockers. And in the 1970's it boycotted military cargo to Chile's bloody junta and again in 1981 to El Salvador's military dictatorship. In 1992, President Nelson Mandela, who had been imprisoned because of CIA complicity with the apartheid regime, cited ILWU longshoremen's refusal to unload South African cargo as the "spark that reignited the anti-apartheid movement." Today, the ILWU is in the forefront of an international campaign in solidarity with 500 sacked Liverpool dockers who have become a symbol and inspiration in labor's struggle against deregulation. Liverpool was one of the last union ports in Britain after Thatcher privatized the docks in 1989. They've been waging an uphill battle not only against their employer, Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, but against Blair's "New Labour" government and the Transport and General Workers Union President Bill Morris who is trying to disappear the dispute by not officially sanctioning the strike. Just last week, after two years on the picket line and with their resolve as solid as ever, dockers rejected the latest company offer by a 2-1 margin.
According to Stephen S. Roach, chief economist and director of global economics for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, a "worker backlash" is developing in the U.S., "saying 'no' to years of corporate cost cutting that has been directed primarily at the nation's labor force." This same social phenomenon is expanding internationally. Confronted by global shipping alliances and government campaigns to deregulate ports, dockworkers are beginning to flex their muscle by coordinating their supportive actions internationally. Inspired by longshoremen in Oakland and Vancouver, who refused to cross a picket line of Liverpool dockers' supporters Japanese dockers announced this month that they will boycott cargo from ports run by Liverpool employer Mersey Docks until striking Liverpool dockers are reinstated.
Clearly, Japanese dockworkers have become a key player in labor's international
drive to defend social benefits and working conditions in the face of deregulation.
Despite FMC's claims of "victory", it is doubtful that the mighty
dockworkers' unions will allow their hard-fought gains to be taken away
without a fight.
Jack Heyman is an Executive Board member of the San Francisco longshore
union.
Jack Heyman @ 1997
