Bay Area: ILWU, No Facscists In San Francisco

Massive turnout shuts down fascists in Boston

There will be an organizing meeting Tuesday Aug. 22 at 7PM for all those unions, organizations and individuals interested in participating in the march to stop the fascists at Crissy Field on Aug. 26. We will meet in the Henry Schmidt room; 400 North Point Street, San Francisco near Fisherman’s Wharf. Please spread the word. We need a big turnout to build a spirited march. We have important decisions to be made. ILWU motion is below.

Racists Want Charlottesville Terror Here – It’s Up to Us to Stop It!

LONGSHORE WORKERS: 

SHUT DOWN THE FASCISTS!

We, longshore workers, support the call to action for our union to take the lead for the working class, to stop a deadly threat to the rights and the lives of us all. 

This weekend, fascist groups plan to stage rallies that threaten to repeat the racist terror of Charlottesville in the Bay Area. We’ve shut down the port against racism, war and police repression. Longshore workers have got the power, and we will not allow labor-hating white supremacists to bring their lynch mob terror here.

On Saturday, August 26 at 10AM, we will assemble at Marina Green (between Crissy Field and Fort Mason) and march to stop the fascist provocation at Crissy Field. We’re calling on all ILWU members, other unions and supporters to be there. Stop these racist killers from killing again. If not now, when? If not here, where? We have the power. Let’s use it!

On August 26, the fascist group that calls itself “Patriot Prayer” plans to hold a rally on Crissy Field. On August 27, several fascist groups plan a rally in Berkeley. What this means was shown in Portland on May 26: a Nazi who attended a “Patriot Prayer” rally the previous month killed two men for standing up against his racist threats to two young women. On June 4, members of 14 unions in Portland mobilized in the struggle to stop the fascists drawn by “Patriot Prayer”.

Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12 showed again that the fascists are not about “free speech.” The rally by Nazis, KKK and other white supremacists led directly to the murder of Heather Heyer and injuries to dozens of courageous anti-racist counter-protesters. Some of the same Nazis plan to come to the Bay Area this weekend. Meanwhile, Trump obscenely praises “good” fascists and “beautiful” statues of bloody Confede­rate slave masters. 

And now the fascists want to bring their race-terror here? We say: Hell no! Who do these fascist creeps think they’re messing with? SF is a union town. Let’s bring out the whole Bay Area labor movement, with defenders of African American, Asian, Latino, gay, lesbian, women’s and immigrant rights, to stop the fascists. 

To do this, we must rely on our own power as workers – not phony “friend of labor” politicians of both bosses’ parties. Their pleas for Trump’s Department of the Interior to deny a permit for Crissy Field are a diversion. Any bans, especially in a port city, could be used against workers fighting for their rights. But as the Portland Painters said in a solidarity message, when we use our “power as workers to take action against the fascists on August 26^th, that will be a call to action of workers and oppressed people throughout this country.”

Now’s the time to stand up for all that ILWU has fought for, as opponents of racism and oppression. We can’t let these racists and fascists keep on killing. Enough is enough. Let’s join together in unity and in strength to put our union resolution into action. On August 26, 

DON’T WORK! SHUT THE PORT DOWN AND THE FASCISTS TOO!

Anthony Leviege #9576                       Jack Heyman #8780 (ret.)

August 21, 2017

 *************

ILWU Motion Passed on August 17, 2017Whereas, the fascists, the KKK, Nazis and other white supremacists rallied and marched by torchlight in Charlottesville, whipping up lynch mob terror with racist, anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic slogans, and

Whereas, that attack resulted in one anti-racist counter demonstrator murdered and many others injured when one of the fascist bullies ran them down with a car, and

Whereas, President Trump’s whitewashing this violent, deadly fascist and racist attack saying “both sides are to blame”, and his attacking anti-racists for opposing Confederate statues that honor slavery adds fuel to the fire of racist violence, and

Whereas, the Klan, Nazis and other racist terrorists represent a deadly threat to African Americans, Latinos and immigrants, as well as Muslims, Jews, LGBTQ people among many others, and directly to members of our union and the labor movement as a whole, and

Whereas, the fascist “Patriot Prayer” group that staged violent racist provocations in Portland, Oregon and elsewhere, attracting Nazi and other violent white supremacists, has announced it will rally on Crissy Field on Saturday August 26, and

Whereas, far from a matter of “free speech”, the racist and fascist provocations are a deadly menace as shown in Portland on May 26 when a Nazi murdered two men and almost killed a third for defending two young African American women he was menacing; and our sisters and brothers in the Portland labor movement answered racist terror with the power of workers solidarity, mobilizing members of 14 unions against the fascist/racist rally there on June 4, and

Whereas, ILWU Local 10 has a long and proud history of standing up against racism, fascism and bigotry and using our union power to do so; on May Day 2015 we shut down Bay Area ports and marched followed by thousands to Oscar Grant Plaza demanding an end to police terror against African Americans and others; the San Francisco Bay Area is a union stronghold and we will not allow labor-hating white supremacists to bring their lynch mob terror here,

Therefore, ILWU Local 10 in the best tradition of our union that fought these rightwingers in the Big Strike of 1934, will not work on that day and instead march to Crissy Field to stop the racist, fascist intimidation in our hometown and invite all unions and antiracist and antifascist organizations to join us defending unions, racial minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ people, women and all the oppressed.

Dockworkers dispute reveals the true class nature of the media.

Source

By Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired
2-21-15

I have been commenting on the media war the bosses are waging against the ILWU and the USW. Of course, this is no new tactic, the bosses have the police, the courts, the military and the media at their disposal when it comes to labor disputes.

Take a long slow look at this disgusting cartoon.  Imagine if this was a black person or a Jewish person or someone obviously gay that was portrayed in such a negative way, there would be outrage.  But it’s OK to portray a worker in this way and the heads of organized labor won’t say much about it I’m sure. This is an offense to all workers no matter what our background. They blame the auto workers for the crisis in auto, the steelworkers for problems in that industry or in the refinery dispute, they blame public sector workers and other workers' pensions for destroying the economy. But it is the bankers, speculators and other wasters that are destroying our well being, it is capitalism that is in crisis and they are shifting this crisis on to the backs of workers and youth.

The ILWU is potentially powerful trade union with a militant and rich history. The bosses especially have to demonize these brothers and sisters.  They attack them because they have relatively high pay and good benefits compared to so many workers including unionized workers.  Mouthpieces of the 1% like the woman who drew this cartoon cry crocodile tears for poor and low waged workers especially if they are workers of color because being accused of racism terrifies them. However, they are just as contemptuous of low waged workers as they are those of us on the higher end of the scale.

They want to bring us all down to the lowest pay. The weakness on our side has been that the union leadership has failed all workers not just those of us at the higher end and with better benefits than most. They have accepted the bosses argument that we have to compete which is nothing but a spiral down to the lowest common denominator as workers compete with each other for who can work fastest, cheapest and with the lest obstacles to profit taking. Safety, wages, benefits and eventually unions are all obstacles to the investors, big capitalists bankers and other wasters who profit off the labor of others. We serve our interests best not by attacking immigrants that come here looking for work, but by joining with them in the struggle against their own bosses for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

With some justification, the 95% of the working class that are not organized feel that unions only tend to fight for the immediate welfare of their own members. There is truth to this but in actuality, the present bureaucracy atop organized labor hasn’t fought for gains in decades, even for their own members---damage control is their strategy at best.  In the last set of negotiations I was in we had a demand for jobs on the table, union jobs for the community. The bosses told us we did not have the right to demand jobs, they do the hiring.  We told them to eff off, we demand what we want and for whatever section of the working class we want.  Every strike and labor dispute should put demands on the table that speak to the needs of all workers and the communities in which we live and work and the community should be active participants in the struggle.

This cartoon angers me. It was in today’s San Francisco Chronicle. It show me how right I am to oppose their predatory wars and all the patriotic flag waving when they want to send working class youth to fight for corporate profits abroad, to kill brothers sisters abroad or be killed for the Bush family, Bill Gates, Donald Trump and others. How many dockworkers have fought for this country? How many of their ancestors died doing so no matter what we as individuals might think of the imperialist wars the Pentagon wages, and this is how they portray them in their media. This cartoon from a mouthpiece of the 1% says it all. It is the real way the bosses sees workers. We are applauded when they want cannon fodder.  We are pampered when they want us to buy their worthless products, go to their obscenely expensive sports events and other venues where they can extract some money from our pocket and put it in theirs.

This cartoon is the truth, the real way they view workers. Warren Buffet says that he is fighting a class war and his class is winning. 

They are winning because the leaders of the working class in this country are not fighting back, they are entering the ring with one hand behind their backs, “I’d better not hit him or he might hit me back”., they say to themselves as they leave the dues payers on picket lines for months as they try to negotiate our livelihoods away.  But the bosses hit back no matter what; weakness breeds aggression in wartime. The bosses are serious, they are global, they care nothing about this country except when they make money out of it like any of them anywhere.  Our allies are workers no matter what their nationality, religion, color, you name it.  The Cambodian workers, Bangladeshi workers, those who have lost their lives fighting against the most horrific conditions, these are our friends, our class allies.

I am pleased this cartoon reveals the way the bosses really think.  It also reinforces that healthy class hatred that is needed if we are to turn this situation around.

USW and ILWU leadership is the obstacle to victory

USW rally at the Marathon Refinery in Kentucky

By Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table. George Schultz

The strike by the United Steelworkers (USW) against the oil refineries is in to its 20^th day with the union rejecting the oil companies last offer on Thursday according to reports.  The USW represents workers at 65 U.S. refineries that produce approximately 64 percent of the oil in the U.S. but has only struck nine plants (see my previous post).  The remaining plants are on 24 hour rolling contract extensions but can be called out anytime. But as long as workers passively wait at refinery gates on ineffective picket lines as negotiators try to make a deal, the outcome does not look good.

As I pointed out in previous posts on this issue, we are seeing the same old failed strategy.  The union hierarchy is meeting in secret trying desperately to get the global energy corporations to be less aggressive in their dealings with the union.  The official USW website points out that this is an unfair labor practice strike.  Strikes are rarely about making gains these days because the stifling bureaucracy atop of organized labor accepts that their job is to help the bosses keep the profits coming in.  In many cases, the union hierarchy takes the members out on strike to try to force the employers to talk to them. In many cases there are no demands whatsoever, simply a plea to the employers to be nicer.

This was the case in the Wisconsin events of a couple of years ago when all concessions the bosses wanted were agreed to by the leadership except dues check off and bargaining rights. Both these issues affected the officialdom in their role as negotiators.  Without a seat at the table they have no job and without dues check of both the leadership and their allies in the Democratic Party are starved of funds.

But like most workers today, refinery workers are overworked and understaffed, working as long as twenty nine twelve hour days in a row according to Jim Savage, president of USW Local 10-1 in the Philadelphia area. Savage was asked by talk show host, Rick Smith, “What happened to the 40 hour workweek?”. Unfortunately, organized labor’s leadership long ago abandoned the idea of a shorter workweek continuing the historic trend to reduce working hours. The union leadership is stressing that the strike is not about economics but safety, safety for the workers and the communities in which they work.  But there was a huge explosion at the Exxon/Mobil refinery in Torrance, California last week and the union has refused to pull those members off the job.

I stopped by a picket line yesterday and, like all strikes these days the lines are not really picket lines in the sense that the goal is to shut down the site. Trucks and vehicles drove in to the plant without hindrance as two Highway Patrol vehicles stood guard, 24/7. The workers told me that the company was paying the Highway Patrol as security because the local police were not able to do so. This is the real role of the police in society, to protect and serve capital.

This gets old pretty fast. There’s nothing more demoralizing than coming out every day with a sign and scabs crossing the line unhindered and in this case the workers are receiving no pay at all including strike pay.  The workers told me that the cops are right there at any attempt to hinder traffic.  I asked one older worker why they would only strike nine plants.  He looked a bit bewildered and said that, “It was a decision taken by the International union.”  A younger worker I spoke to had a different view, “They don’t have the balls”, he said with confidence.

One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to recognize that an effective strike would have started by shutting down all the plants.  The reason this wasn’t done is that the officialdom wants to assure the bosses and their Democratic Party allies that they are reasonable gentlemen and women. Leo Gerard, president of the International USW once returned to college to get a degree in economics and political science. He would have learned more had he got a job at a refinery and got a real feel for what it takes to earn a living that way.  Gerard like most of these union tops study economics from the bosses’ point of view, sit on the competitive councils and other government bodies where they get to soak up the ideology of the employers and feel important. 

I was told today and by others who have been on the picket lines since the strike started that the Contra Costa Labor Council * has not sanctioned the strike and that building trade workers are crossing the lines.  I called the CCLC Thursday and spoke to a guy who said he was there to answer phones. He did not know if the strike was sanctioned by the council or not.

“Who would I have to speak to to find out?” I asked

“The Executive Secretary but she’s not here” he replied.

“Is there anyone at the labor council who can tell me?” I asked again.

It turns out there wasn’t. 

I also called and left a message at the county building trades office to find out if it was true the building trades officials had told their members to cross.  I received no response and called back yesterday. No one answered the phone.  I did talk to the state building trades council but the woman there said that she didn’t feel that she could speak on the issue.

One worker told me that, as is normally the case these days, they receive most information from texts.  He said one text message upset him as it announced that Shell came to a negotiating session unprepared and the union negotiators agreed to cancel them for a week so the company could have time to prepare.  The message to the troops was to "stay strong" in the meantime.  It was obviously a ploy he thought and was so angry about it he could barely go out to the lines.

We’re in a mess alright.

As I wrote in a previous posting, the media war against the ILWU in its dispute with the port owners and shipping industry bosses is intensifying. There is technically a gag order that the ILWU agreed to but the bosses’ news media isn’t complying. There was a story on KCRA from Sacramento about a trucking company that has laid off workers (they call temporary layoffs, furloughs) because of the port dispute.  The bosses locked the workers out claiming they were on a go slow, what they term a strike with pay. But the reports clearly leave the impression that the workers and the ILWU is to blame.

Meanwhile the leadership of the ILWU and the USW say nothing. The heads of the AFL-CIO say nothing. No joint press conferences attacking the perpetrators of this war on workers and threatening to make the bosses' pay. In the USW strike workers cannot be on an ineffective picket line forever; the longer it goes the worse it gets.  The oil companies have been making huge profits but the energy bosses are confident, just like their colleagues in shipping are, that the leadership of organized labor will not cause trouble.

These two struggles should not be taking place in isolation but in unison. The US capitalist class and their global partners are intent on crushing the ILWU a union that has the potential to bring the US economy to a halt.  But neither the ILWU nor USW leadership will not do what is necessary to win. They will not demand anything that costs the bosses money.  They will not demand jobs through a reduction of the workweek with no loss in pay, more vacation, demand a national heath care system. They will not raise demands that will draw the communities in to the battle, make it theirs.  They will not use their resources to broaden the struggle to include other sectors of the workforce like retail through joining in any serious way the campaign for a minimum wage workers can live on-----in short, they will not use the tremendous economic power their members have as part of a generalized struggle against the offensive of capital that has made the US worker an attractive and cheap alternative for profit hungry bosses.

The potential that a unionized workforce like port workers and refinery workers have will not be potential much longer if we allow the present leadership to continue to give back what took decades and great sacrifice to win. Organized labor needs unorganized labor and we need the communities, and our movement must be international, we cannot win otherwise. Each defeat digs a deeper hole that we will inevitably be forced to climb out of.

Despite the decline in union membership due to the leadership’s disastrous policies, organized labor can still be a force to be reckoned with.  We have to build again from the ground up---doing nothing is not an option.

* Labor Councils are the county bodies of the AFL-CIO

Bosses heat up the media war against the ILWU

Tom Perez, US Sec. of Labor beefing up management's ranks at the table

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

The class bias of the media is so obvious when we take the time to look at it. Last night’s local news report of the dispute between the West Coast dockworkers, members of the ILWU and the bosses and their agent, the Pacific Maritime Association, was nothing but a propaganda piece from the port bosses.

The heat is on now and the media is stepping up its war against the union and its members, ensuring that it is the union the public will hold responsible for any inconvenience they may experience because of the dispute.

“We need them back to work” said one small business person, how much suffering this is causing ordinary folks was the theme and the union is causing it.  California Senators, Feinstein and Boxer co-signed a letter to “both sides” urging them to agree.  Two millionaires, representatives of the 1%, putting the workers and our organizations on equal footing with the terminal owners, shipping companies and global capitalists.  They are not uninterested parties; they are not independent.  They are political representatives of the employers.

The report also said that Obama’s Secretary of Labor, Tom Perez, who has been called in to negotiations to add to management’s ranks, warned “both sides” that “if they can’t agree by today they will have to go to Washington DC for negotiations”. This is the big gun, bringing the executive branch of the employers’ state in to the dispute directly. The union leadership will not do what is necessary, appeal to the ranks of labor and the working class.  The only response to those waging a class war against you is to wage a class war of your own.

There is massive pressure.  In this era of globalization such disruption in the trade of goods between nations has severe effects.  Manufacturers and workers, particularly in Asia will feel the effects of this dispute on the US West Coast. There are very powerful forces coming to bear on the trade union leadership and the dockworkers.  Calls for unity and cheerleading are not enough.  The global consequences of this dispute show how crucial international solidarity and unity in action between workers is. It is also crucial at home. 

The bosses are aware of the potential power of the unionized dockworkers; they want to crush it. The port bosses and their representatives in Congress and the White House cannot allow the dockworkers and their union to place any obstacle in front of their efforts to drive the standards of US workers back even further.

Confrontations like these are not new. The union leadership has bent over backwards to appease the bosses in the interests of profits and labor peace both at the expense of the worker.  But the more the union hierarchy concedes the more the bosses want.  The stakes are high for the bosses in the era of intense global competition and just as high for us. We have to relearn our history and the great struggles and battles that brought us what we have today. We have to abandon the Team Concept and the idea that bosses and workers have the same economic interests pitting workers in one industry against works in another, workers in one country against workers in another. We have to abandon the ties labor has to the Democratic Party and build an independent working class alternative.

In the case of the ILWU, the leadership has agreed to a gag order so as the bosses’ media wages an ideological propaganda war against the dockworkers and their union, their leadership remains silent.  The tremendous economic power of the dockworkers is evident from this ferocious media assault that is being waged against them and the response from the US government.  The ILWU, indeed, no union can win alone, in today’s climate. Yet this is how the heads of organized labor fight these battles, a recipe for defeat and defeats have been served up for decades.

There must arise a rank and file movement from below, a movement with an internationalist perspective that smashes the barriers between public and private unions, the trades and the unskilled, retail and industrial, foreign and domestic. We are not weak, our leadership has failed us and we cannot sit by and cry about it, we have to wage that most difficult struggle of all, the internal struggle to take control of our unions and change course.

The left in the unions, the various socialist groupings have failed also. Some of them acting in the most ultra left way that alienates them from the average worker and others, many of them, who refuse to wage an open campaign against the leadership's concessionary policies and who actually function as a left cover for them becoming almost indistinguishable from this right wing bureaucracy.  This has left many genuine class  conscious workers wanting to fight back with no place to go.

Some of us connected to this blog are discussing these issues and given our limited resources are trying to begin this process of building an alternative in the unions. If you are a rank and file trade unionists reading this and if you live in the SF Bay Area or Chicago in particular we would welcome your input.  Or if you would like to discuss with us the day to day struggle against the bosses in the workplace that the present union representatives are absent from contact us, we’d like to discuss with you.  You can e mail us at: we_know_whats_up@yahoo.com.

Port bosses get help from Obama in the West Coast Dock Dispute

Source: Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

by Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

The balance of forces are shifting further in the bosses’ favor in negotiations between the ILWU representing West Coast dockworkers and the Pacific Maritime Association, the organization representing terminal owners, shipping companies and related industries. Management has a new addition to the team in the form of Labor Secretary Tom Perez.

Perez is there as a representative of the US government concerned that the ILWU leadership is not moving fast enough down the concessionary road. The pressure from the ILWU rank and file must be too great but the bosses will decisively move against them at some point.  Perez joining the management team is the first shot across the bow.

The effects of the dispute are becoming more apparent in the wider economy.  Honda USA announced that it is cutting back production in Indiana, Ohio and Ontario Canada due to delays caused by the lockout. Freighters are lining up in the Pacific as the PMA locked ILWO members out over the presidents day weekend.  The PMA has accused the ILWU of organizing a work slowdown by keeping the workers on the job rather than striking---a strike with pay.

The imbecile Bush used the Taft Hartley against the ILWU in 2002 and this weapon is on the back burner in the event the ILWU leadership doesn’t overcome any potential resistance to a concessionary deal from the ranks.  As was the case in 2002, giant retailers like WalMart and Target are also putting pressure on the state to resolve this issue and fast.  Almost half of all US maritime trade passes through the affected ports including 70% of all imports from Asia.There is real potential workers power here.

It’s rare that we get much news from these negotiating teams in these instances anyway and that trend continued when ILWU President Bob McEllrath agreed to a federal mediators request for a 48-hour news black out last Friday.

Of course, the bosses own the media so there is no blackout for them when it comes to shaping public opinion. On local news last night the pressure continued as it was announced that it is “imperative the two sides come to an agreement.”  in order to not disrupt the economy further and keep folks on the job. In the usual banter between the news anchors it was made crystal clear that they “Hoped that they could come to an agreement soon”-----on the bosses' terms of course.

The tremendous economic power of the dockworkers must be curtailed.  To undermine economic activity and interfere with profit taking is economic terrorism and the bosses will play that card if they need to.  The same situation applied to the transit workers who operate the trains that take millions of people to work in the Bay Area. There is an ongoing campaign to deny them the right to strike after three strikes two years ago. The union officialdom rarely strikes a company with the intention of halting production these days.  Strikes have become merely 24-hour protests.

“The PMA is trying to divide us. They’re using lies and tactics to turn the public against us and turn locals against the negotiating committee and the rank and file against each other. Nobody divides the ILWU. Nobody.” McEllrath said last week,  “We’re gonna win this fight, we’re gonna win this battle. But there’s only gonna be one way to do it. And that’s to stick together, and stay strong and stay united.”

Unfortunately tough talk doesn’t win strikes and simply sticking together doesn’t either.  It is important to be united but around what issues and what strategy and tactics are applied to win them. The bosses are serious. They are out to break the unions and are relying less and less on the union hierarchy to assist them in forcing concessions on an unwilling membership.  As I pointed outearlier, as this dispute continues, the United Steel Workers have struck the refineries. Combined, these two strikes alone could cripple the US economy and terrify the bosses if conducted properly.  The USW leadership though has only struck a few selected refineries in the hope that the oil industry chiefs will be a little nicer.

A strike is disruptive, it is expected to be.  Not only as far as those on strike are concerned but also the general public.  But this is how we have advanced our interests in this world.  This is our history.  But this is a one sided war.  We know next to nothing about what is actually going on and in most cases during these disputes nor do the rank and file of the unions involved.  The public who’s lives will be disrupted are not appealed to in any way as part of a wider strategy to bring the potential power of working people to the table.  The resources of these unions and in particular the national organizations to which individual unions are affiliated could be directing a massive national campaign aimed at using the economic power of this section of the working class to fight for issues facing all of us. The ILWU endorsed Obama and the Democrats.  Political independence of the working  class is another crucial aspect of the struggle to reverse our declining living standards.

Millions would flock to become involved in such a campaign and disputes if demands were raised speaking to issues that individuals are fighting around throughout the country; at very least, it would undermine the bosses’ media war against organized labor and the inconvenience of strike action would be seen as worth it if gains are the result and we can win some victories if we fight properly. The power of organized labor would be seen as being used for more than just issues on the job or wages and benefits of those workers directly affected. If we want the millions of workers not in unions, the unemployed, and even small community businesses crushed by corporate power to support organized labor then we have to fight for them; we have to make it worth their while and involve them in the struggle.

Another setback, which is the most likely outcome of these latest struggles will be another step further in to the hole we will inevitably have to dig ourselves out of.  The bosses’ can’t halt their offensive; they are driven by market forces beyond their control. The union hierarchy won’t fight as they have no vision of an alternative way of doing things, or an alternative to the market and a radicalized active rank and file can only lead to chaos as they see it.

It’s up to the millions of workers who have given up, tried to find an individual way out, hoped things would change, to step up to the plate. It’s up to us to re-learn our rich and militant history, recall what built the unions and what brought us progress in the past It’s up to us to recognize our potential collective power and use it.

Union: Boeing, USW, ILWU: More Groundhog Day Trailers.

Source: WSJ

By Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

It’s tough at times reading the reports on labor disputes; it’s like watching the movie Groundhog Day over and over again. But this movie is not a comedy; it’s a tragedy.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is in negotiations with the Pacific Maritime Association, an organization representing the numerous employers who make their money in the shipping business and its related industries. Its members are both domestic and international companies. I commented on this dispute earlier this month.

As of this writing they appear to be at an impasse.  We never hear about these goings on until the clash breaks in to the open and the public are affected. Then the full force of the bosses’ media enters the fray.  The ideological war takes center stage before the hammer falls.  The stage has to be set that will shape public opinion just as we saw in the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) strike here two years ago when public support for the train operators that run the Bay Area transit system shifted more in favor of the bosses. It took time, but if you fling enough mud at a defenseless foe, it will eventually stick.

The port bosses are expected to lock the dockworkers out if the union leadership continues to sit there hoping for divine intervention.  The entire West Coast could be shut down as it was in 2002, the last time the bosses locked the ILWU out.  The employers are very confident, the bureaucracy that sits atop organized labor has shown that it will not bring the potential power of the members to the table and will not organize a generalized resistance to what is a an offensive of capital, a strategy designed to drive the US working class further backwards.

On most issues the union hierarchy is silent. As is always the case and with justification, most people’s view that unions only fight for their own members interests will be reinforced.  I remember being on the UFCW’s picket lines during what could have been a victorious strike here in California in 2003. The UFCW sent hundreds of striking workers up north to man informational pickets to convince shoppers not to shop.  “Help us save our benefits”, the picketers would ask of the shoppers at times.  A fairly common response was, “What are benefits?”  The union leadership had no answer to this appeal for help as they have no offensive strategy, just damage control for the small percentage of the population who are union members. The UFCW's members in Northern California were working behind the picket lines as their contracts were not up and we know that the labor leadership is the only force in society that obeys the law when it comes to their own member's rights and they have an agreement with the boss; a gentleman's agreement.

The ILWU leadership has already made public appeals to the bosses to please make a deal as they have dropped all their proposals (see the statement in the link above).  This increases the bosses’ confidence and invites further aggression.

It should be the ILWU that is shutting down the West Coast ports, an action that would cost about $2 billion a day according to reports in the media. The ILWU should be spending resources both human and financial, reaching out to the rank and file of the labor movement, the unorganized and our communities explaining that they will shut down the ports as the beginning of a new era, the reversal of decades of concessions and the destruction of our living standards.

For the leaders of the ILWU, local leaders like Local 10 here in the Bay Area, this would mean a struggle against the entrenched ILWU International bureaucracy that, like all of them, has intervened on the side of the bosses whenever rank and file groups or local unions have risen to put a stop to the concessionary trend; this is why they won’t embark on this journey.  It is the task of rank and file activists to build fighting caucuses on the ground, in the workplaces and union halls aimed at replacing the present pro-business clique atop our organizations. Demands must be made that can draw the communities, the youth and the unorganized in to the struggle---jobs, education, health care, housing, transportation and so on. Police brutality and the mass incarceration of youth, especially youth of color should be made an issue in such a struggle.  The silence of the heads of organized labor on the Ferguson events was deafening.

We saw only recently a similar situation with regards to the Boeing workers when the Machinist Union’s rank and file rejected further concessions and the International leadership came in on behalf of the employers and pushed a concessionary contract through.

The ILWU locals should put out a call for a united front against what is an international gang of bosses in the Pacific Maritime Association. What point is there belonging to a national union body when it allows individual locals to fight an international group of employers alone?  It’s a recipe for defeat from the get go.  As the ILWU finds itself in this position, the USW (steelworkers union) has struck major refineries. Read more about that here.  Here is yet another opportunity for organized labor to take the lead in fighting to reverse the setbacks we have suffered over the last 40 years. 

No one says it is easy, but it is necessary.  The bosses will not stop the assault on workers and the middle class; the global situation demands it and they are intent on placing us on rations.  The union leadership is afraid that any step in this direction will bring the full force of the bosses down on us as as it did Bush in 2002 using the Taft Hartley to get the docks open and even using Homeland Security to harass union leaders before playing the “terrorism” card. The bosses’ will try all these things as they have shot and deported us in the past. But we won what have today so they didn’t get their way entirely. But both the bosses and the union leaders alike are aware that an offensive like this would inspire all the elements that were involved in occupy, the foreclosure movement, rental struggles, environmental rights groups against fracking, women's rights groups and immigration activists. Throughout the country there are separate groupings fighting back around various issues.

The bosses and union hierarchy are aware of the intense anger and hatred of the rich that exists beneath the surface of US society and are afraid of its potential to threaten the system itself.

Since the WTO events in Seattle in 1999 and the Occupy Movement more than a decade later, the US state apparatus has built up and militarized its security forces.  But we have power, we have numbers, we make the economy function. The bosses will not stop and we cannot avoid a battle with them.  We must respect their power but we must not underestimate ours. We must not allow racism, sexism, and other forms of divide and rule tactics undermine our class unity, the unity that can pave the way for a future different to the one the 1% has for us.

We must re-learn the rich militant history of the US working class and all those who fought against the super exploitation that is at the root of the rise of US imperial power.

I saw a steel worker interviewed about the strike this week.  He repeated the views that the labor hierarchy propagates at times like these.  This worker appealed to the community and the general public not on a class basis but by way of attacking other workers.  He spoke of workers getting burned or harmed and of safety problems.  He talked of maintenance being done by people contractors, people being brought in who have not had the training, “we don’t know what their qualifications are” he said, but the main point is these other workers aren’t doing the quality work that the USW (Union) workers can do. The strike is not about money but safety he says. (See note below.)

I didn’t listen to the entire interview but this line of defense comes from the labor hierarchy.  It’s an attack on the unorganized who the labor officials should be organizing but won’t. The stress is on safety to counter the bosses’ propaganda that workers are greedy etc.  It is a thoroughly conservative and elitist defense and it helps to isolate union workers further from the mass of the working class outside our organizations.  I was at one AFSCME International Convention when I delegate rose from the floor to trash the little item that came in the union bag we all received as delegates, some bottle opener or simple device.  He trashed the item as shabby because it was made in China. He received support from the president's podium and much applause from the floor. I rose to respectfully remind us that we were an international body and these works are our super exploited brothers and sisters, they are not our enemies. 

We must counter these views that the labor hierarchy hands down to the ranks to be repeated by well meaning members.  They are destructive and against all workers’ class interests. None of us are special or indispensable when the boss decides we’re too expensive.

We can determine this contract negotiations will have another favorable outcome for the bosses’ in general, not just the PMA.  “Right now it’s almost like a war of attrition. They’re going to stay in the trenches and wait to see who blinks first,”, the Wall Street Journal quotes one trade economist as saying.  That is exactly where the trade union leadership should not be.  The employers as they keep them tied up there are using all their forces to prepare for the final blow and at that time they’ll leave that table. 

That’s exactly what the union leadership should be doing but we know they’re not.  They fear nothing more than a victory.

Added note: I assumed this steelworker was talking about their work that the bosses contract out when he is referring to contractors bringing in "unqualified" workers. As I re-read this and listened to the interview with the USW worker on strike, it is not clear whether or not he is talking about this or about scabs being brought in and it is them he is accusing of not being qualified.  Either way, I think the same false method still applies, this view that "we" are special. Scabs are workers being used to break strikes. We have to stop them if we can, whether they are qualified or not.  But we also have to make class appeals to them as well. and the labor movement must fight aggressively to organize the unnorganized and the unemployed which it does not do at present.  They are supposed to respect picket lines put up by organizations representing a smaller and smaller section of the working class that have no program and strategy outside this group.

In this video it also appears that the majority of the picketers are from outside of the organized labor movement.  This is a good thing, that people from the community, environmental groups and other concerned  organizations are there. But organized labor will never win this way, without the rank and file of the labor movement being mobilized and the struggle generalized.  The labor leadership are quite happy to let well intentioned individuals man picket lines for them.  But this is no substitute for  an active conscious and militant rank and file membership.

Here is the video interview from the laborvideo.org

ILWU leadership's cowardly appeal to the Port Bosses

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

On the heels of the USW strike the ILWU leadership has released a statement about the state of their negotiations with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA)

The PMA is the employers group that negotiates with dockworkers and their unions.  Its members’ list is like a who’s who of global corporations and includes APL, Yang Ming, Costco, Hyundai, Mersk, Zim (Israeli) and many other corporations.

The ILWU leadership’s statement above is yet another example of the complete bankruptcy of the bureaucratic clique that heads organized labor. I commented two days ago on the USW strike and also shared my views on the tasks that face the rank and file of organized labor here and here.  

A young member of the carpenters union talked to me the other day about his union and he said that he is in it for the “bennies” and “health care”.  That’s reason enough to join a union for sure.  I talked with him a bit about the Waste management strike where Teamster officials joined with the bosses in ushering their drivers, (members of Teamsters local 853) across the ILWU Local 6 picket lines. (Local 6 is the ILWU’s warehouse unit).

The carpenter went on to tell me that his leaders were corrupt and the Teamsters is led by Mafia.  I have always countered this view because while corruption exists and organized crime has influence in some unions, it was not the Mafia that built the unions and neither organized crime nor corruption are at the root of the problem.  The present trade union leadership is corrupt ideologically. They are wed to the market and capitalism ands see the world through the bosses’ glasses.

The ILWU statement is throwing in the towel, offering not an olive branch but workers livelihoods and future to the Warren Buffets, Bill Gates and others like the Walton family and the Koch Brothers.

“We’ve dropped almost all of our remaining issues to help this get settled –and the few issues that remain can be easily re solved.”, the ILWU assures the bosses’ The ILWU leadership is afraid that the PMA will lock out the dock workers when it is the ILWU that should be locking out the bosses and opening a united front of struggle.

“Closing the ports at this point would be reckless and irresponsible” says ILWU president Robert McEllrath as if it’s simply a matter of responsibility.  The public will suffer he argues and plays the nationalist card pointing out that many of the PMA corporations are foreign owned and make billions of dollars.But many more are American.

We saw a similar situation last year when the public sector here in the Bay Area could have united and shut down this economy with the crippling economic power of transit workers at the helm.  This was yet another betrayal. 

What will suffer with a successful shutting down of the docks is corporate profits and millions of working class people will suffer with yet another victory for the bosses over a potentially powerful trade union like the ILWU, this is what McEllrath should be stressing.

The bosses are drooling over this ILWU statement. Their aggressive appetite will be whetted and their assault on all workers intensified. Weakness breeds aggression in war time and we should recall the advice of one of working people’s most aggressive enemies, George Schultz when he declared that, “Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table.”

The bosses are all connected, meet each other, organize together in gangs like the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, entertainment and retail industry organizations.  They use the police, the courts, their media to drive workers back 100 years and destroy our organizations that were built through generations of heroic struggle.

Despite the decline in union membership and power over the past period this is due to the labor hierarchy that knows only once strategy; “capitulation” and the failure of militant fighting caucuses rising from the ranks to dislodge it.  The California State Labor Federation has two million workers affiliated to it although the folks that pay the dues would most likely not even know it exists which suits the clique well. The LA Central Labor Council has some 800,000 workers affiliated to it.

Rather than capitulation and cowering before the bosses’ offensive we have another unique situation potentially very favorable to us.  The USW and the ILWU should be joining forces and should develop a plan to hit the 1% were it hurts most, profits. The refineries left open should be struck, the ILWU should prepare to shut the ports, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win should be organizing and mobilizing members, the public sector unions whose members have been savaged over the past period should take this opportunity to build a united front of struggle.

The communities in which we live and work can be appealed to and drawn in to this struggle if demands are placed on the table that are not limited to union members alone.  Jobs, health care, housing, transportation, education, social services, these are all issues that are facing working people.  We have seen massive demonstrations in the US around police brutality and the labor hierarchy to its shame is non-existent in this battle. Taking up this issue and the destruction of many young lives, especially youth of color would swell the ranks of those willing to fight this fight.

But that is exactly what the labor officialdom is afraid of. Having no alternative to capitalism and worshiping the market and profits, such people power for them can only lead to chaos. The heads of organized labor fear nothing more than a victory and how that would inspire millions of their members and all workers.

I read yesterday that a huge percentage of Americans stress over money. It was an American Psychiatry Association survey. There were plenty of cures but none of them fighting to change the system that is at the root of this problem. Of course we need money; we can’t eat without it; we’d be homeless without it.

The ILWU statement above is a disgrace. The bosses are winning this war as I wrote yesterday.  They are winning it with the help of the bureaucratic clique that is at the helm of organized labor. But we have responsibilities of our own as union members and as workers.  The present leadership of organized labor will not fight; they are confined within the straitjacket of their own consciousness. This offensive will not stop unless we stop it and to do that we cannot be passive victims of history, we have to make a history of our own as we have in the past. In the unions we must build organized and open caucuses that challenge the present leadership with  a program that meets the needs of working people and a direct action strategy that can win.

We must involve ourselves in the daily struggles of the youth and others struggles that are taking place around many issues that are not directly connected to the trade union or workplace. We must contradict and challenge our friends and co-workers who side with cops rather that the youth of color in their resistance to police brutality.  To many youth of color they may not be as sympathetic to the fact that white workers have been savaged over the past 40 years. Why would they, white workers like myself are not present enough in the struggles of these youth against racism and lack of opportunity and racism has been very successful in keeping us apart.  You don't really know people if you don't socialize with them. But the age old divide and rule strategy along color lines that has been so successful for US capitalism is not so easy to turn to in the present era.  By recognizing how destructive racism and sexism has been to others and openly joining with its victims in resisting it will help bridge the divide between white and black, young and old, men and women, union and non-union, that has been so useful to the 1%.

It will build class unity and we cannot win without class unity.