Feb.18, 1998
A showdown is brewing on the Coast instigated by PMA's new head Joe Miniace who wants to "teach us a lesson" about how unions should be run. This guy, who cut his teeth in the HMO industry, that became quite profitable by axing nurses' jobs and patient care, has taken away ILWU "lifetime benefits" and is now trying to force longshore workers to cross picket lines. The vampiric PMA is out for blood, suing ILWU locals in LA, Seattle, and Portland for millions of dollars. Now they're going for the jugular here in Oakland.
By attacking us over the right to honor a picket line against the Neptune Jade in solidarity with the Liverpool dockers, they have unwittingly built a broad united front behind the ILWU. Why? Because a picket line is so basic to the defense of the union movement that we have been able to rally support from Bay Area Labor Councils to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to unions around the world, to prominent people in politics, literature, the arts and academia. Across the country people are angry at the PMA's legal strategy, especially the witch hunting tactics of demanding our union meeting minutes, dispatch records, faxes, letters, etc. And they've ordered the defendants to "name names" of picketers, organizers and any union or political organization they've been members of. Sounds like the government's legal lynch mobs against Harry Bridges all over again! We must not allow PMA to get away with it!
"Hammerin' Hank" Graham has been one of the most effective Local 10 BA's in a long time and now PMA is trying to nail him because of the Neptune Jade action. Local 10 Executive Board member Jack Heyman, a Neptune Jade defendant, has been active in ILWU international solidarity work for 14 years. That's why the companies are trying to frame them. PMA has departed from the practise of using the grievance procedure to settle disputes with the union. Instead, the greedy and litigious PMA is seeking to mold the ILWU into a tamed, company union by threatening our officials, like Graham in Oakland and Vukich in Seattle with lawsuits. The '96 Longshore Caucus resolved to defend the union against such attacks. A contemptuous Miniace likes to call this intimidation "making the union accountable".
"Accountable" to whom? The PMA? The PMA refused to honor the last contract before the ink was dry! To whom were the maritime companies "accountable" when they unilaterally knocked thousands of ship clerks and longshoremen out of agreed upon payable hours. Longshore workers see it as employer cheating. Furthermore, these same "American" maritime companies have been bilking the public out of millions of dollars in taxes by putting their ships under foreign registry (flags of convenience). Seamen on these ships often live and work under modern, but deplorable slave-like conditions because unions are declared taboo by these same shipowners.
"Accountable" for what? Our solidarity actions? The ILWU has a proud tradition of international solidarity, most notably our exemplary actions against the bloody apartheid regime for which Nelson Mandela commended the ILWU. Recently, our support for the heroic Liverpool dockworkers was part of an international campaign to save the last dockworkers' union in Britain. In the end that effort failed, not because their international strategy was flawed, but because the leadership of their union, the Transport and General Workers Union, and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) did not provide the real support that unions like the ILWU and others did. What the Liverpool dockers said is true: "Shipowners organize on a global basis and so must labor, if we are to survive."
Because the ILWU is a coastwise union, we are in a strong position to defend against employer attacks. The PMA's lawsuits- against those who picket and those who honor picket lines- is an attack against all trade unionists and defenders of freedom. It shows tremendous support that members up and down the Coast are sending contingents with their union banners to march in Oakland. It would send an even more powerful message to Miniace and the PMA if longshore workers and clerks rally and march in front of PMA headquarters in your area Thursday, February 26 demanding: "DROP THE LAWSUITS AGAINST THE ILWU AND THE NEPTUNE JADE DEFENDANTS!". It's the same enemy, same fight! Let's teach Miniace and the PMA a lesson in union "accountability" they won't forget:
AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!
(partial list)
Jack Heyman #8780 Local 10, S.F.
Brian McDonald #8875 Local 10, S.F.
Jack Mulcahy #82013 Local 8, Portland
Pat Vukich #56347 (past pres. and IEB) Local 19, Seattle
Shaun (Jack) Maloney #55310 (ret.) past pres. Local 19, Seattle
