fix articles 676, ilwu Los Angeles Indymedia : tag : ilwu

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Class War on the Waterfront: Longshore Workers Under Attack (tags)

ILWU Local 10 retired longshoreman Jack Heyman talks about technology and the danger of a proposed 8 year contract.

ILWU denounces Oakland Block the boat action (tags)

Peace activists at work: "Longshoremen and Clerks trying to report to work were threatened physically"

At the AFL-CIO Convention, Leaders Ask: What Direction for Labor? (tags)

The acknowledgment of Labor’s existential crisis and the recognition that something must be done to resolve it is the key issue at the AFL-CIO’s four-day quadrennial convention in Los Angeles. The urgency of the situation has compelled Labor’s top officials to experiment in a search for solutions.

Longshore Struggle Brews on Both Coasts, Part 2 (tags)

In the Northwest, at the terminals on the Columbia River, Puget Sound, and Portland, Oregon, the membership of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) are on the defensive against the Northwest Grain Handlers Association (NWGHA). The conflict involves nearly 3,000 workers at terminals that handle a quarter of the nation’s grain exports.

Why We Defend the ILWU and All Workers (tags)

In recent weeks, a showdown has loomed on U.S. docks between the shipping bosses and port workers that has rattled the capitalist ruling class. On the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, the International Longshoreman's Association prepared to strike container shipping while the employers threatened to lock out 14,500 ILA members. On the West Coast, the grain shippers been demanding a giveback contract from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which would effectively bypass the union hiring hall, slash workers' vital safety protections and gut union power. Yet in the midst of the Northwest grain battle, an Occupy activist Peter Little publishes an article vociferously arguing against the call to defend the ILWU. While posing as ultra-left, this policy if actually carried out would aid the employers who are hell-bent on destroying ILWU union power on the waterfront. And blaming sellouts on the nature of unions lets the bureaucrats off the hook. We in the Internationalist Group say: all those who stand with the exploited and oppressed must come to the defense of the ILWU in this fight. And that defense includes forthrightly opposing the capitulations and betrayals by the labor bureaucracy which sells out vital union gains in the vain hope of an impossible "cooperation" with capital, endangering the workers organizations they preside over.

The Left, Labor and Occupy (tags)

Barely half a year after it burst on the scene, the Occupy Wall Street movement is splintering left and right. This was inevitable in a movement that was united only in what it opposed and could never put forward a positive program, whether of reformist "demands" on the capitalist state or of revolutionary action against it. Liberals, who latched onto Occupy hoping it could pressure the Democratic Party in a more populist direction, want to expel "black bloc" anarchists. Reformist social democrats rail against "ultraleftists" in Occupy and cozy up to the labor tops. On the other side, many (but not all) anarchists oppose unions. Some are simply arrogant petty-bourgeois labor haters. Others are grappling with real problems, but with skewed analysis and dead wrong conclusions. Discussion of recent workers' struggles, from Wisconsin to West Coast longshore, underlines that the key question is leadership, but not just replacing one set of bureaucrats with another. Unions have always faced vicious anti-labor laws, but we have the power to defeat them. It is necessary to drive out the pro-capitalist bureaucracy, the labor lieutenants of capital, in order to turn the unions into instruments of revolutionary class struggle.

Longshore Workers, Truckers: Shut the Ports, Coast to Coast! (tags)

Following the nationally-coordinated police evictions last month of Occupy Wall Street and encampments across the country, on December 12 the Occupiers struck back. Ports up and down the West Coast were blockaded, from Seattle to San Diego. Despite a barrage of hostile propaganda in the media, opposition from union bureaucrats and heavy police repression in some places, overall the blockade was successful -- this time. The blockade was called in solidarity with longshore workers fighting a union-busting assault in Longview, Washington and port truckers seeking union recognition in the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach. This support should have been greeted. But now the class war on the West Coast docks is coming to a head, and it can't be waged from the outside. Bay Area labor has called for a caravan to Longview. The goal should be a real occupation of the terminal by the workers to prevent the loading of the scab cargo. Longshore militants have called on the longshore unions to shut down every port on the West Coast, and the East and Gulf Coasts, to smash EGT's union-busting. Can it be done? Yes, but only though sharp struggle against the pro-capitalist labor bureaucracy.

Message from Troy Davis and More Actions (tags)

Troy Davis was sentenced to death in 1991 for the killing of an off-duty Savannah policeman. Davis was found ?guilty? based on dubious accounts that he confessed to the killing and questionable ?eyewitness? identifications that included false eyewitness testimony coerced by the cops. Seven of the prosecution?s nine ?eyewitnesses? have since recanted. The only holdouts are one man who may be the actual killer and another who initially denied being able to identify the shooter only to pin it on Davis two years later. Three of the eyewitnesses say their testimony was coerced by the police. New eyewitnesses have come forth identifying another suspect. The news on Troy Davis is very bad. Despite being innocent, the Georgia Parole Board has OK'd his execution for 7 PM today (September 21st). Yet the fight to free Troy Davis isn?t over, and if that fails, the fight to overthrow the evil system that murders him will continue.

Update for Troy Davis, The Fight Isn't Over (tags)

The news on Troy Davis is very bad. Despite being innocent, the Georgia Parole Board has OK'd his execution for 7 PM tomorrow (September 21st). Yet the fight to free Troy Davis isn?t over, and if that fails, the fight to overthrow the evil system that murders him will continue. Troy Davis was sentenced to death in 1991 for the killing of an off-duty Savannah policeman. Davis was found ?guilty? based on dubious accounts that he confessed to the killing and questionable ?eyewitness? identifications that included false eyewitness testimony coerced by the cops. Seven of the prosecution?s nine ?eyewitnesses? have since recanted. The only holdouts are one man who may be the actual killer and another who initially denied being able to identify the shooter only to pin it on Davis two years later. Three of the eyewitnesses say their testimony was coerced by the police. New eyewitnesses have come forth identifying another suspect.

Labor for Palestine Salutes West Coast Dockers for Embargo on Israeli Cargo (tags)

Just as labor solidarity played a critical role in toppling South African apartheid, it now has the potential to cripple Israeli apartheid. We urge the entire ILWU and all trade unionists to stand behind and expand on this critical issue of conscience and solidarity.

[SF] CALL TO ACTION: Longshoremen - Stop Loading Scab Boron Cargo! (tags)

ILWU workers in the SF bay call for solidarity. On the same day, the labor dispute is resolved.

ILWU Local 30 Locked Out Boron Rio Tinto Miners Speak- out In SF At UK (tags)

Locked out ILWU Local 30 Boron Rio Tinto miners protested and spoke out at the SF UK consulate on 4/16/2010

May 15, 2009 LA ILWU Local 13 75th Commemoration March in Wilmington at 10:00 AM (tags)

On May 15, 2009 ILWU Local 13 will have a march to honor members killed and injured in their strike

May Day revival on three fronts: labor, immigrant, and antiwar (tags)

What started on May 1, 2006 as some of the largest political demonstrations in U.S. history for immigrants' rights have in 2008 brought together three fronts -- labor, immigrant, and antiwar -- in one struggle for peace and social justice.

May Day Strike Against the War Shuts Down All U.S. West Coast Ports (tags)

On May 1, every port on the West Coast of the United States was shut down to demand an end to the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The historic May Day walkout by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is the first time ever that an American union has struck against a U.S. war. The union ranks defied the rulings of an arbitrator, who twice ordered them to go to work. They overcame the capitulations of the ILWU leadership, which didn't want the work stoppage in the first place, tried to water it down and cowered before the threats of legal action while waving the flag. The employers' Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) declared the May 1 port shutdown an "illegal strike." But after all the huffing and puffing from the bosses' mouthpieces, the dock workers pointed the way to defeating the imperialist war by mobilizing working-class power. In the end, it was more than a work stoppage. The dock workers' May Day strike against the war was a first step, a show of what it will take to bring down the warmongers in Washington. Their "symbolic" action was felt all the way to Iraq, where dock workers in two ports stopped work in solidarity with the ILWU. But it was only a beginning. What is needed is not only industrial action but a political offensive against the Democrats and Republicans, the partner parties of American imperialism, to build a class-struggle workers party.

Did Google Block ILWU Web Page? (tags)

CYBERSPACE, April 30, 2008 - Independent journalists and May Day organizers are wondering aloud if Google blocked access to a ILWU web page for a planned closure of West coast ports on Tuesday.

OEA Press Conference on ILWU May Day Stop Work Action Against War (tags)

The Oakland Education Association representing more than 2800 education workers called a press conference on Tuesday April 29, 2008 to announce support of the ILWU action against the war and action by their own union. They were joined by other unions and Cindy Sheehan

4/30 Victory in Vietnam; 5/1 Labor Day-Support ILWU (tags)

April 30, 1975 was the happiest day for the first generation after WW2 and after the Holocaust. It was the day when the little people in black pajamas, the workers and peasants of Vietnam, defeated the mightiest death machine the world had seen since Nazi Germany, namely Nazi USA, so that the workers of the world literally danced in the streets, including in the USA. We hope to do the same for this year's milestone labor strike for peace led by the ILWU on May Day 2008.

All Out on May Day! (tags)

On May 1, all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast are to be shut down by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in protest against the U.S. war on Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a historic event of international significance: labor action against imperialist war by a major American union. The strategically placed port workers in the ILWU can bring commerce with Asia to a grinding halt, and they’re about to demonstrate it. The maritime employers are already screaming, and you can bet it’s got the attention of the warmongers in Washington. All labor should take up the challenge this poses: For workers strikes against the war! Meanwhile, immigrants’ rights groups are once again mobilizing on May Day. And on April 30 and May 1, the independent truckers who move cargo to and from the docks may play an important role in a shutdown. The imperialist war on Afghanistan and Iraq is also a war on immigrants, minorities, working people and democratic rights “at home.” We need to defeat this attack here and abroad, in opposition to both the capitalist war parties. The “antiwar movement,” whose aim has always been to pressure the Democrats, is at a dead end. What’s needed is working-class action independent of the bosses. What that takes is a fundamental break from the Democratic Party and the pro-capitalist politics that infuse the labor bureaucracy.

For Workers Strikes Against the War! ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Against War (tags)

In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East.

Paro portuario en la Costa Oeste contra la guerra el 1° de mayo (tags)

En lo que representa un paso de gran importancia para el movimiento obrero norteamericano, el International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU – sindicato internacional de estibadores y almacenistas) ha anunciado que paralizará los puertos de la Costa Oeste de Estados Unidos el 1° de mayo para exigir el cese inmediato de la guerra y la ocupación en Irak y Afganistán, así como el retiro de las tropas norteamericanas de Medio Oriente. Ésta es la primera vez en décadas que un sindicato en Estados Unidos ha decidido emprender una acción industrial en contra de una guerra de EE.UU. La acción anunciada por el poderoso sindicato de trabajadores portuarios de la Costa Oeste, un paro de labores para parar la guerra, debe ser retomada por sindicatos y organizaciones de trabajadores de todo Estados Unidos y a escala internacional. El propósito de semejantes acciones no debe ser suplicar a los políticos burgueses –cuyas manos están llenas de sangre, por haber aprobado a lo largo de los últimos seis años y medio todo presupuesto de guerra– sino dar una muestra de la fuerza de los trabajadores, que hacen funcionar este país, ¡y que pueden también pararlo!

ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan (tags)

In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. This is the first time in decades that an American union has decided to undertake industrial action against a U.S. war. The action announced by the powerful West Coast dock workers union, to stop work to stop the war, should be taken up by unions and labor organizations throughout the United States and internationally. And the purpose of such actions should be not to beg the bourgeois politicians whose hands are covered with blood, having voted for every war budget for six and a half years, but a show of strength of the working people who make this country run, and who can shut it down!

"Continuous Operations" and "Elimination of Unit Breaks" Exposes ILWU (tags)

The "Continuous Operations" and "Elimination of Unit Breaks" agreement signed by Ugles & Co. of ILWU Local 19 Seattle exposes union officers as hypocrites in the fight for clean air in our port communities.

Iraq War: Democrats Will Stay the Course (tags)

These days the presidential candidates for the Democratic Party are sounding more like replacement candidates for Bush; on the issue of ending the Iraq War. All the candidates, with the exception of Representative Dennis Kucinich and Governor Bill Richardson, are making open-ended commitments to keep American forces in Iraq and the Middle East region for years.

Unprecedented Sell-Out by Ugles & Co. in ILWU Local 19, Seattle (tags)

Five months before organized West Coast longshore workers are set to begin bargaining for a new contract with the employers association, union officers in one ILWU local are already starting to give away some key historic gains of waterfront workers

Candidate Alexander: Labor, War and Education Connects (tags)

Stewart A. Alexander, a presidential hopeful with the Peace and Freedom Party, applaud the actions of the ILWU Local 10 and Local 34 for lending their strong support to anti-war protesters at the SSA shipping terminals in Oakland, California. On May 19 the Port Action Committee, the Oakland Education Association, along with teacher, students and community activist demanded that the U.S. get out of Iraq and called on other unionists throughout the United States to mobilize in action to stop the war.

Longshore Workers Honor Picket Line, Shut Down War Cargo Shipper in Oakland (tags)

This can be an important first step toward the mobilization of workers power to shut down the war machine, but that requires a sharp struggle against the bourgeois politics of the antiwar groups and union officialdom. The OEA calls for money for schools not for war, as if it were a matter of budget priorities, and the PAC poster made a social-patriotic pitch to “Bring the Troops Home Now, and give them the care they need.” Such “peace is patriotic” rhetoric is a staple of the UPFJ, but all the antiwar coalitions make similar appeals to garner support from Democratic Party liberals. Revolutionaries and class-conscious workers, in contrast, emphasize that this imperialist war must be opposed by class war.

Stop Union Busting on the Waterfront! (tags)

In a show of solidarity ILWU Local 10 voted for a port-wide shutdown in support of the IBU & MMP workers. This is call for all union members and their allies to join us on the picket line Pier 31/33, The Embarcadero, San Francisco, December 9, 2006 at 10 AM.

Police attack injures protesters, workers (tags)

OAKLAND, Calif. – Outraged witnesses and community leaders used words like “preemptive,” “premeditated,” and “brutal” during an emotionally charged meeting of the Oakland City Council to describe the Oakland Police Department’s attack on anti-war demonstrators and longshore workers near the gate of the Stevedoring Services of America dock on Monday, April 7.

The ILWU From Bridges to Spinosa (tags)

Great article on the dockworkers

ILWU on Waterfront Lockout (tags)

Waterfront Lockout Perspective

National security, or war on workers? (tags)

OAKLAND, Calif. – Like many Filipinos living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Erlinda Valencia found a job at the airport, screening carry-on bags for passengers. She worked for Argenbright Security for 14 years, most of that time at a minimum-wage job, barely able to support her family.

Bush rewards bosses, invokes Taft-Hartley (tags)

LOS ANGELES – The labor movement reacted with outrage to George W. Bush’s decision to invoke the unionbusting Taft-Hartley Act to end an employer lockout of the West Coast International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). It was the first use of the law against the union since Richard Nixon invoked it in 1971 to interrupt a strike.

PMA brings armed thugs to Federal Mediation meeting, ILWU walks out (tags)

wondering whats up down at the docks?

5 deaths of longshore workers prove hazardous conditions (tags)

There have been 5 deaths of longshore workers this year on the docks, demonstrating the hazardous working conditions. The World Socialist Website provides one perspective on what is to be done.

Short ILWU Analysis- whats at stake (tags)

The ILWU may be "only" 10,500 strong, but it's arguably one of the strongest and most militant unions in the US. It's never a good idea to get hysterical, but this is definitely a serious threat.

PMA reject agreement, Closes West Coast ports (tags)

From the ILWU website. KPCC also reported on this. What does it mean? Are the ports closed?

Relying on failed strategies Union leaders place ILWU victory in jeopardy (tags)

Relying on big business politicians and refusing to mobilize their members to confront the employers' attacks is a strategy that has led to defeat after defeat for organized labor despite great sacrifice and heroism from the rank and file union member. There is little indication in the ILWU/PMA struggle that change is on the way.

9/5LA ILWU Press Conf (tags)

The ILWU has called an emergency press conference on the threat to use troops to break any strike action and/or to run the docks without the union.

Longshore rallies to Bush: Butt out (tags)

“Contract, Yes! Government intervention, No!” was the message of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the AFL-CIO, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and many mayors at rallies up and down the West Coast, Aug. 12. Thousands took to the streets in protest of a threat by the Bush administration to take over ports militarily in the event that the union decides to strike.

Bush visit to Portland, an invitation (tags)

ILWU Local 5 resolution regarding the upcoming Bush visit to Portland, OR>

ACTION ALERT: Bush trying to smash ILWU, the most powerful radical union in America (tags)

Bush is attempting to bust the most powerful radical union in America, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). They've done numerous solidarity actions for environmental, labor & human rights groups & they need our support on the West Coast.

Short list of ILWU Solidarity (tags)

Short List of ILWU Solidarity

ILWU faces historic moment for Union and Nation (tags)

ILWU faces historic moment for Union and Nation. story from portland indymedia.

Bush threatens troops in longshore dispute (tags)

LOS ANGELES – The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) revealed this week that a secret Bush administration task force has threatened a military takeover of West Coast ports if the union decides to strike.

Labor solidarity backs West Coast dockers (tags)

OAKLAND – Leaders of unions representing transport workers from around the world locked arms at a Solidarity Day rally here on June 27 in support of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). The ILWU is in the battle of its life, faced with a threatened lockout by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) – and the danger that President Bush will invoke the Taft-Hartley Act in the event of a strike or slowdown.

ILWU Rally Photos and News (tags)

This link has news about the rally, and background information on this issue in the harbor.

Strikers as Terrorists? (tags)

June 27, 2002 A CounterPunch Exclusive Strikers as Terrorists? Ridge Calls Longshoremen's Chief by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair

Walmart AS An ILWU Organizing Target (tags)

Homeland Security & Union Busting (tags)

In a CounterPunch exclusive, Alexander Cockburn shows how the Bush Administration's phony and fascist "War on Terrorism" is being waged against decent working people here at home.

Labor Rally Thursday (tags)

Rally Thursday noon in Wilmington, CA to show support for the ILWU longshore workers.

Harry Bridges and the ILWU. From 'Wharf Rats' to ‘Lords of the Docks’ (tags)

The life and times of Harry Bridges are so closely linked with the history of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) that it is impossible to write about one without writing about both – and this writer is not going to try.

A Message from the International Longshore & Warehouse Union to D2KLA (tags)

letter of support from ILWU to D2KLA

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