November 30, 1998
Contacts:
Robert Irminger 415-285-3935 bobirm@igc.org
Jack Heyman 510-531-4717 jhook@jps.net
In a stunning victory for the labor movement and its supporters, the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents global shipowner and stevedore companies, announced it is dropping all of its suits in the Neptune Jade dispute. The suits, which had become a cause celebre internationally, grew out of a solidarity action in September 1997, initiated on the Oakland docks in support of 500 fired Liverpool, England dockworkers.
When the ship sailed for Vancouver, Canada and then Kobe and Yokohama, Japan with its scab cargo still onboard, dockworkers there also refused to unload the ship. Alarmed by the IMF and World Bank-initiated deregulation and privatization schemes which have undermined unions around the world, waterfront workers are now recognizing the importance of co-ordinating labor support efforts internationally, like the Neptune Jade action.
Commenting on the PMA's capitulation, longshore union activist Jack Heyman said, "The Liverpool dockers may have lost their battle, but the class war against union-busting privatization and casualization of labor goes on. And the lesson that we have taken to heart from Liverpool's struggle is that by organizing internationally maritime workers can defend themselves against the attacks of the global shipowners. The Neptune Jade victory is a shining example of that."
The PMA slapped a punitive damage suit, potentially for hundreds of thousands of dollars, against labor activist picketers and also sued the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, whose members honored the picket line and refused to work the Neptune Jade. Initially named as defendants were ILWU members Jack Heyman, Robert Irminger, the picket captain, the Labor Party (Golden Gate chapter). Named as defendants, but not properly served were the Laney College Labor Studies Club and the Peace and Freedom Party. Resurrecting the McCarthyite witchhunt, the PMA demanded that defendants "name names" and turn over union records and correspondence concerning picketers and organizers of the Neptune Jade demonstration. In March, California Superior Court Judge Henry Needham, Jr. dismissed all but Irminger's case.
The PMA has agreed to drop its suits against all of the Neptune Jade defendants, Robert Irminger, Jack Heyman, the Labor Party, the ILWU International and ILWU Locals 10 and 34. In exchange, the union gives up nothing. In the settlement brokered by ILWU International President Brian McWilliams, Heyman has agreed to drop his malicious prosecution countersuit against the PMA. With its legal attacks the PMA unwittingly stirred up a hornet's nest not only within the labor movement but amongst those concerned with democratic rights.
The case gained widespread support from dockworkers' unions the world over, as well as from Oakland mayor-elect Jerry Brown, himself a demonstrator. A "Victory Party" will be held Friday December 4 at 7:00 P.M. at the Longshore Union (ILWU Local 10, 400 North Point, San Francisco). On December 5, British rockstar Billy Bragg, will be singing at a fundraiser concert, for the Neptune Jade Defense Committee at Maritime Hall in San Francisco, the proceeds of which will now go to the families of the Liverpool dockers in time for the holiday season.
Perhaps, the most compelling incentive for PMA to drop the case is fear of dock actions on the West Coast with contract negotiations looming on the horizon. On the morning of July 22, angry longshoreworkers shut down the Port of Oakland and rallied in front of the courthouse, protesting the PMA's attempt to force the ILWU to turn over its union records. The judge upheld the union's position.
"For the arrogant Miniace, who has frequently vowed to hold 'accountable' both the union and the labor activists on the picket line, this is a humiliating defeat," said picket captain Robert Irminger.
