Brothers and Sisters:
The Puget Sound Region of the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific (IBU), Marine Division of the ILWU, has formed a WTO Mobilization Committee. It is a rank-and-file committee, and is chaired by Sec.-Treas. Terri Mast. Its purpose is to educate the IBU and ILWU’s local members about the threat the WTO poses to workers and to try and motivate members to come out for the Nov. 30 march and rally. We are building toward what will hopefully be the largest IBU/ILWU contingent on a labor march in recent memory.
One of the Committee’s main goals is to line up housing for ILWU & IBU members who will be traveling from up and down the Coast to attend the protests. We are asking members with spare room in their homes to billet folks, and we are also preparing to open the hall up for a big slumber party.
If you are an ILWU member in need of accommodations in or near Seattle during the demonstrations (the hotels are already booked solid!), please contact WTO Mobilization Committee representatives (IBU National Secretary Treasurer) Terri Mast or (Puget Sound Towboat Patrolmen/B.A.) Jeff Engels at the IBU office in Seattle. The toll free number is 1-800-IBU-ILWU. Or e-mail me and I will pass on the information.
Please indicate the number of people in your party, whether you will need to be picked up at the airport, how long you plan to stay, etc., and we will try to hook you up with a place to stay.
For further info, please see my article, published in the Oct./Nov. edition of the Puget Sound IBU newsletter. I am forwarding this along under a separate e-mail.
On behalf of the Committee, I encourage and invite one and all to make the trip to Seattle. This is our one chance to try and stop the multinational corporations from using world trade standards to nullify world labor and environmental standards. Make your voice heard.
In solidarity,
Brian Wiles for the IBU’s WTO Mobilization Committee
