Strikers as terrorists? Ridge calls Longshoremen’s chief

By Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair

June 27— At the rate things are going, it won’t be long before labor organizers are being thrown into military prisons and held without warrants as “enemy combatants.” Tom Ridge, director of the Office of Homeland Security, has been phoning Jim Spinosa, head of the West Coast’s Longshoremen’s Union, saying that a strike would be bad for the national interest. Next Monday sees the expiration of the current three-year contract between the longshoremen and the employers, grouped in the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA). If the 10,000-strong longshoremen go on strike, ports from Seattle to San Diego could shut down, meaning a big jolt to the already floundering US economy.

A call to Spinosa by the Secretary of Labor would not be surprising, given the stakes, but a call from the man in charge of coordinating the battle against terrorism on America’s home turf confirms all the Left’s deepest fears that, as so often throughout the twentieth century, national security is being used to justify strike-breaking, invocation of the Taft-Hartley Act and declarations of national emergency to shut down labor activism and if necessary throw labor organizers in jail.

Longshoremen don’t need to be told this. They know it’s what happened to their most famous leader, Harry Bridges. In World War II the US government, particularly through the US Navy, cut deals with the mob (mainly involving a hands-off posture on the drug trade), giving the mobsters specific orders on which labor leaders to rough up and murder. Between 1942 and 1946 there were 26 unsolved murders of labor organizers and dockworkers, dumped in the water by the mob, working in collusion with Navy Intelligence.

Jack Heyman, business agent of the San Francisco branch of the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU), said that Ridge called Spinosa, the ILWU international president, about 7 to 10 days ago in the midst of negotiations.

“He said that he didn’t think it would be a good idea if there was a disruption in trade and went on to say that it is important to continue negotiating.” Since then, according to Heyman, Spinosa has been talking not only to Ridge but also to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Ridge’s astounding and sinister intervention comes in the midst of tense negotiations between the Pacific Maritime Association, representing ship owners and stevedores operating on the West Coast, and the ILWU. The prime issue is technology, where the employers seek change in work rules. Today, Thursday, longshore workers are staging a rally in Oakland, CA.

“The big thing,” Heyman says, “is the hiring hall. The PMA wants to computerize the hall. Longshore workers died in the 1934 strike for the hiring hall. It dictates who controls distribution of jobs, who controls the waterfront. We eliminated corruption and favoritism with establishment of the union hiring hall. They want to put in computer cards. When you go to the hiring hall you schmooze, see what is going on. Employers don’t want that.”

The trans-Pacific trade has grown to become one of the largest in the world. The West Coast now has four of the top six US container ports. Wages for full-time longshoremen range from $105,278 for general longshoremen to $125,058 for marine clerks to $167,122 for foremen. Longshoremen have always made it a rule in negotiations not to make any concession without an equivalent concession from the employers. Heyman mentions the push by European unions for shorter work weeks as one model for demands here.

The PMA is also demanding that the workers begin paying for part of their health insurance coverage, a demand that would slice into rights won by the longshoremen in the 1960s. “It’s not fair that all these foreign-owned shipping lines want American workers to pay more for health coverage,” said Ramon Ponce de Leon Jr., head of the ILWU’s local for the Los Angeles-Long Beach port.

This year’s contract disputes are particularly fraught with tension. The rapid gains in trade volume are over for the moment, as both the US and Asian economies struggle to emerge from recession. Shipping revenues are down. Since Sept. 11, security has replaced commerce as the transportation industry’s main priority. Residents of port communities complain about the long lines of trucks at container terminals that cause gridlock on their roads and pollute the air. With the huge new container ships now being built, such problems will get worse.

According to the Journal of Commerce, “Over the past year, PMA President Joseph Miniace has publicly called for the introduction of contemporary technology to increase the efficiency of cargo-handling activities at West Coast ports. ILWU President James Spinosa responded that the union would never accept the type of robotics he personally witnessed at the Port of Rotterdam.”

Ridge’s call comes in the context of urgent PMA lobbying in Washington. Again according to the Journal of Commerce, “Management forces, pointing out that shipments through West Coast ports account for 70 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, have been trying to line up support in Washington, DC.

“PMA President Joseph Miniace has been a frequent visitor to the nation’s capital, meeting with members of Congress and administration officials. Importers and exporters have also joined the fray. They note that what happens on the West Coast will affect companies across the country. They’re trying to keep the pressure on the PMA to stand firm in the bargaining.”

There are other sinister signs that “homeland security” is being used as a club to bash labor. The right wing is working fiercely to make the prospective new umbrella Homeland Security Agency non-union, again citing the paramountcy of national security. Once again this takes us back to the darkest days of domestic repression at the dawn of the Cold War.

Source: CounterPunch

LABOR BRIEFS

List of Wal-Mart worker
abuses lengthens
In a press release June 22, the National Organization of Women (NOW) named Fortune 500 company Wal-Mart a “Merchant of Shame.” According to NOW President Kim Gandy, Wal-Mart faces numerous allegations of workplace violations, including sex discrimination in pay, promotion, and compensation; wage abuses, violation of child labor laws and the Americans with Disabilities Act; exclusion of contraceptive coverage in employee insurance plans and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Wal-Mart is also currently being sued by its employees in 28 states for its unofficial policy favoring off-the-clock work. In class action and individual lawsuits, workers assert that Wal-Mart stores frequently force or pressure employees to work hours that are not recorded or paid in order to avoid paying overtime. Employees at stores in six states said managers ordered them to clock out after their eight-hour shifts and then continue working. A dozen Wal-Mart workers, including some in the payroll department, said managers deleted hours from employee timecards to avoid paying overtime. (NOW, NYT)

More vandalism at Quebec’s
Videotron stores
Three more acts of vandalism struck Quebec cable giant Videotron late Friday night and early Saturday morning, June 29, with cuts to three major fiber-optic cables in Sorel and  Quebec City denying service to about 30,000 clients.  

Videotron technicians and call-center workers have been on strike since May 8 over a company plan to sell a division of its installation and line-maintenance service that employs 646 unionized workers. Company spokesman Jean-Paul Galarneau said he believes the strike to be the reason for the more than 120 acts of vandalism the company has suffered since the start of the labor conflict. Galarneau said the vandalism comes at the worst possible time for Videotron, as tens of thousands of Quebecers prepare to move on Monday.

Videotron filed a lawsuit against one of its unions in Quebec Superior Court on June 25, claiming it needs to recoup its losses from acts of vandalism and sabotage.

None of the allegations have been proven in court, and the union has repeatedly denied its involvement in any vandalism. (Canadian Press)

Ruling against Pictsweet bolsters workers’ case
In a move bolstering legislation that would give farm workers binding arbitration during union contract negotiations, a judge ruled on June 29 that Pictsweet Mushroom Farms in Ventura, CA is guilty of bad-faith bargaining and other serious violations of the law.

Administrative Law Judge Nancy C. Smith found Pictsweet guilty of failing to provide a customary biennial pay hike in violation of the company’s duty to bargain with the union, of refusing to provide information the United Farm Workers (UFW) union needed to prepare for contract negotiations, of violating seniority when conducting layoffs and recalls, and of granting requested job transfers on the condition that employees sign a petetion to decertify — or get rid of — the UFW.

The UFW is  sponsoring SB 1736, a bill that would bring in arbitrators to help growers and farm workers overcome obstacles to agreement during union contract talks in cases such as Pictsweet. (Farm Worker Movement)

Indian police kill plantation worker
A worker was killed and at least five others injured June 29 when police opened fire on a protest at a state-owned tea plantation in West Bengal. The workers were demonstrating against the government’s decision to privatize part of the Chandmonu estate. Police began the attack after workers erected roadblocks to prevent the new owners from entering the property. (Grassroots Int’l News Association)