> Thursday, February 26, 1998 > > COLUMN LEFT / ALEXANDER COCKBURN > > Will a Tsunami of Suits Sink Dockworkers? > > The Pacific Maritime Assn. is targeting union locals and picket > sympathizers to break solidarity. > > By ALEXANDER COCKBURN > > Jack Heyman, a member of Local 10 of the International Longshore and > Warehouse Union in San Francisco, faces the possibility of being fined > hundreds of thousands, maybe millions in damages because he honored a > picket line. He's also threatened with being permanently barred from doing > his job. Members of the Laney College Labor Studies Club in Oakland face > the same financial sanction because the club's banner was seen at the same > picket line. The Peace and Freedom Party faces such fines for similar > reasons. > > All these people and groups are also being harassed to name all > participants in the protest and to reveal all their past political and > union associations. > > What provoked this assault? > > In the fall of 1997, there was a protest in the port of Oakland against a > container ship called the Neptune Jade chartered by a Singapore company. > The reason for the protest was the ship's British cargo. Back in 1995, the > Mersey Docks and Harbor company in Liverpool fired 500 men when they > refused to cross a picket line set up by their work mates, some of whom had > been fired earlier for having tried to fight employers' attempts to > sabotage a labor agreement. Liverpool was at the time the last organized > port in the Britain with a collective bargaining agreement. The fight > sparked a big response by dockworkers all over the world. There were > pickets from Vancouver south to Long Beach and across the Pacific to Japan > and Australia. Unable to discharge its cargo in Oakland, the Neptune Jade > traveled to Vancouver, then Yokohama, then Kobe. At each stop, the dockers > said no. > > It was a reaction that might surprise some in this era when organized labor > has been so much on the defensive. But worldwide, even in these dour times, > the dockworkers have had a huge political effect. When Nelson Mandela > visited the United States in 1991, he made a particular point of thanking > ILWU workers for solidarity actions in the 1970s and 1980s--refusing to > handle South African cargo, for example--which he said had been crucial in > "reigniting" the spark of anti-apartheid action in the U.S. > > While in theory the men in charge of the employers' Pacific Maritime Assn. > might be against apartheid, they were, and are, even more fiercely opposed > to anything that inhibits their capacity to move cargo as swiftly and > cheaply as possible. Such is the logic of business that prefers casual > dockers to union workers, or cowed union workers to organized folk standing > up for their rights. In the wake of the Neptune Jade protest, the PMA has > brought lawsuits against the ILWU and the picketers, designed to send a > simple message: Acts of worker solidarity will not be tolerated. Again and > again, the PMA has gone to court in a program of intimidation in the form > of multimillion-dollar damage suits and associated legal maneuvers against > individual workers and sympathetic outsiders as well as the unions. > > The drive-them-to-the-wall strategy of the PMA is the work of Joseph > Miniace, who came two years ago from outside the industry--from the health > care sector. Miniace tells the Journal of Commerce that all he wants is the > unions to be "accountable." He talks about "win-win" situations in > reorganizing the dispatch halls in the interests of competition and > efficiency. > > If there's one thing workers have learned these last 20 years when most > workers' wages have remained static, it is that a win-win plan from > management means a sure loss for workers. The Longshore workers, precisely > because they're tough and well-organized, make good money--though not > nearly as good as Miniace's. > > The PMA continues to seek damages for a 1995 coast-wide strike in support > of two Seattle officials of the ILWU who, the union says, were unfairly > disciplined on the job. The PMA has already won a federal injunction > forcing the union in the Port of Oakland to cross solidarity picket lines. > And the PMA is readying McCarthy-style probes against anyone who might defy > them. > > Part of the bedrock of freedom is the right to strike, though the right to > honor a picket line was eroded as long ago as the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. > Nonetheless, the dockworkers have always found ways to act in support of > causes such as fighting apartheid. But if the PMA's lawsuits stick, the > union will be busted, which is Miniace's obvious aim. Unless all workers > see the importance of this struggle, the right to set up and honor picket > lines, the very survival of the labor movement is at stake. > > - - - > > Alexander Cockburn Writes for the Nation and Other Publications > > Copyright Los Angeles Times >
