Vancouver Dockers
“Turning the Tide With Union Pride”

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Friday March 12 7:30 - 8 pm
Monday March 15 1:30 - 2 pm (R)
Monday March 15 8:30 - 9:00 pm (R)

This week . . . a full length report on the recent protest, led by rank and file dockworkers, which shut down the port of Vancouver for 8 hours. Nearly 1200 members and supporters of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) rallied February 2 1999 at Portside Park in dowtown Vancouver. They were protesting attempts by maritime employers to contract out union work and erode ILWU jurisdiction: part of the same “globalization” agenda responsible for recent attacks on dockers in Liverpool England and in Australia. This is despite the fact that the Port of Vancouver is now one of the most efficient and productive in the world, and the second largest in North America in terms of tonnage handled. Vancouver ILWU members are fighting back and are determined to “turn the tide with union pride”.

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Letter from Vancouver

2 Feb

Dear Greg,

Sorry that I haven’t been in touch with you sooner about about today’s “occurrence”. Anyway we held a demonstration, with well over one thousand people in attendance to protest the fact that Sultran has violated the Mechanization and Manpower (M&M) agreement which was drawn up in 1963 between our Union,the ILWU and the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association, the BCMEA.

In addition to having an extremely lucky break in the cloud cover,which blessed us with almost ideal light for photography, there was a very good cross-sampling of other union leaders.

What I felt as a result of today’s action, was the “Globalization” ie lower wages scam is just beginning to get its just publicity.

Apparently, March 16th is set for the re-appearance of our pensioners in court.

I am sure that these unofficial de facto work stoppages are making the other employers wild at Sultran! In order to continue this process we shall have to appear en masse at the process when the Local 518 Table Officers and Members are incarcerated. Likewise, for the pensioners.

Momentum appears to be building!

Fraternally,

Peter Bell

Long Hot Summer in Vancouver

Waterfront Worker Vol 2 No. 1

[2/2/99, Vancouver B.C.] The port of Vancouver came to an abrupt halt when 1,200 longshoremen decided to spend the day in the park instead of going to work. They were there in support of ILWU Local 518 (samplers and testers) and other ILWU members who are in a vicious jurisdictional dispute with the employer. The conflict began last year when Sultrans, a consortium of multi-national oil companies ousted two ILWU companies and brought in non-union CertiSpec to do sampling and testing work on sulfur ships. According to the B.C.M.E.A. and the W.F.E.A. (Canada’s equivalent to our P.M.A.) it’s simply a matter of competitiveness. But the union sees it differently. Brother Rick Rondpre, President of Local 500 (longshore) stated it most succinctly when he said “Our jurisdiction is not for sale to the lowest bidder”.

The rally in the park was put on by a recently formed coalition known as the Jurisdiction Defense Committee. The JDC is a combination of public and union activists who joined together to fight a number of recent attacks by the employer involving jurisdiction. The JDC’s agenda consists of four demands:

  1. The ILWU rank and file through the JDC demands cargo sampling and testing responsibilities be returned immediately to the members of ILWU Local 518. [Members who picketed in August and subsequently charged and convicted of contempt of court along with ILWU pensioners who are awaiting trial must be left alone. All charges and sentencing must be withdrawn].
  2. The ILWU rank and file through the JDC demands employers immediately cease in the hiring of outside foremen, and return to the historically proven policy of taking foremen, already highly qualified in all aspects of the industry, from the ranks of the ILWU.
  3. The ILWU rank and file through the JDC demands the practice of hiring outsiders to do maintenance work cease immediately. [From 1994 to 1998 75,000 hours of work were lost to contracting out. In 1998 alone 41,000 hours of work were lost.]
  4. The ILWU rank and file through the JDC demands traditional ILWU rail work at Vancouver Wharves Ltd. remain under the Union’s jurisdiction.

Speakers at the rally emphasized the promises made back in the 1960’s by the employers. In exchange for increased automation and work-force reduction Union security was guaranteed. “If there is only one button left to push on the waterfront, it will be pushed by an ILWU member”. But Bob Wilds, president of the B.C. Maritime Employers Association said he wasn’t around in the 1960’s when these promises were made and he doesn’t think it applies to today’s situation. Wilds also said the employer’s association will assess the cost of the shutdown and send the Union a bill.

The employer’s argument of cost efficiency and competitiveness does not hold up under scrutiny. All the work recently contracted out had for centuries been performed by ILWU personnel without any problems of competitiveness. In the case of the sampling and testing work the bid put in by the company using ILWU workers was lower than that put in by the non-union outfit. The union leadership and the rank and file see these moves by the employer as direct attacks in an effort to do away with the union. Local 518 Secretary-Treasurer Marion Chorney surmised, “Unless the employers wake up, it’s going to be a long hot summer on the Vancouver waterfront.”