Shut down

USA, September 30: In scenes reminiscent of Australia's 1998 Patrick dispute, port employers in the US locked out more than 10,000 workers, in September, all members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

It was full on. Billions of dollars in goods blocked by employer intransigence, 29 ports -- the entire west coast of the US -- shut down; bosses fronting peace meetings armed with goons and guns, a local mayor demanding the gates open to allow union members to help people stranded on passenger ships, condemnation from peak labour organisations and dockworkers worldwide. And, finally, Presidential intervention.

Employer group Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) had shut the gates on their workforce claiming the union had been running a go-slow as job contract talks reached a stalemate. The International Longshore Warehouse Union (ILWU) deny the claim. They say members were working to rule after five of their comrades were killed on the waterfront in six months, and because of a severe lack of skilled portainer operators following company cutbacks.

Response from the Maritime Union of Australia was immediate. National Secretary Paddy Crumlin sent a delegation of rank and file miners and stevedoring workers from the eastern seaboard flew to the west coast over the Labour Day long weekend, with a New Zealand delegation to follow. Leading the MUA delegation was Barry Robson, Central NSW Assistant Secretary who has retained close links with the ILWU since the Patrick dispute and Gary Keane Southern NSW deputy secretary.

At the same time National Secretary Paddy Crumlin joined a high level group of union officials led by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) in meetings with shipowners in Tokyo. Their aim was to pressure Japanese shipping companies in the PMA back to the negotiating table.

Zenkoku-kowan, dockworkers union, the All Japan Seamen's Union and the MUA announcing a pact to campaign against the PMA as the West Coast lockout moved to the brink of a worldwide industrial dispute.

In an 8-point Statement of Support for the US dockworkers' union signed in Tokyo, the three unions announced they would "closely liaise with each other and the ILWU to promote an effective campaign and actions in Australia and Japan in support of the ILWU and against the PMA group of shipping companies."

Back in Australia the MUA and the CFMEU were running a joint email campaign aimed at the 87 stevedoring and shipping companies in the PMA. The companies were electronically bombarded with 'Hands off the ILWU' attachments, 50,000 of which have been printed to go on all US bound containers out of Australia.

Nor was industrial activity ruled out with pledges of support coming from unions worldwide.

No Surprise

The lockout came as no surprise. Things had been bad for some time. The work contract expired on July 1, but was extended daily until talks broke down on September 1.

But even after the lockout ILWU members worked wherever they could get in the gates to ensure perishables, passenger ships and military cargo were not affected. They loaded Maersk and Totem Ocean Express vessels carrying US military cargo bound for Alaska, and they worked with Carnival Cruise and Royal Caribbean passenger ships.

"In Seattle, longshoremen worked the cruise ships and then donated all of their pay to 'Christmas for Kids', a charitable fund that Local 19 set up years ago to help needy families during the holiday season. Haven't seen anything about that on the nightly news," said ILWU member Kristi Hagen. "PMA didn't want us to unload any ships at all! We had to twist their arms to get them to let us in to do perishables for Alaska, Hawaii and cruise ships."

On the first day of the lockout 200 longshore workers arrived to finish work on a passenger ship. The employers would not let them back in the gate. Only after the mayor intervened, were they allowed to do their job.

On the second day of the lockout, October 1, the ILWU agreed to talks with PMA and Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services (FMCS) chief Peter Hurtgen. But when the union delegation arrived they were confronted by nearly the entire PMA negotiating team with guards 'packing weapons'. The union representatives walked out.

ILWU International President Jim Spinosa described the armed presence as outrageous. "It shows how they approach negotiations, hiding behind the government and armed thugs," he said. "PMA's lockout is holding a gun to the head of the American economy and now they move to aim real guns at us. We will not be intimidated by these kinds of tactics and we will never reach an agreement as long as the PMA acts as if it can force a settlement at gun point rather than negotiate."

In a public statement the government mediator described the presence of armed personnel as "inappropriate" and "a breach of bargaining protocol".

The ITF condemned the act of intimidation, reminding companies like Maersk, CSX Lines, APL, NYK Lines, Mitsui OSK Line and Hanjin Shipping that they do business worldwide and rely on having a good relationship with maritime unions in many different countries.

"Their representatives sit on the Board of PMA and can be held responsible for this serious incident which threatens a major part of world trade."

"We don't need a 24-hour, seven days a week boycott," said ITF dockers section secretary Kees Marges.

The ILWU returned to mediation talks the following day, but the employers were playing hardball.

The employers meanwhile kept referring to the lockout as a strike, something quickly mimicked by conservative politicians in Australia (see box).

Employer intransigence meant negotiations were getting nowhere; 200 ships were stranded off the coast and mountains of containers piled up on the wharves at an estimated to cost the US economy of between $1 billion to $2 billion per day.

Rather than deal with the union's main concern--that the jobs left over after the implementation of new technology and the new jobs created by the technology are ILWU jobs--the PMA wanted the positions outsourced.

They offered no wage increases over the first three years of a five-year deal except for some crane drivers. And ILWU pensions would exclude current retirees and widows from further increases.

Even so, when the federal mediator asked that the ports get back to work, the ILWU agreed. The PMA would not.

"First PMA says they need mediation to solve the problem and we give them mediation," Spinosa said. "Then they say all they need is a contract extension to open the ports and we give them that. But PMA has rejected all pleas from the mediator to open the ports and continue bargaining. It's clear they don't want to bargain. This is all about getting the government to intervene."

And as predicted, US President George Bush intervened declaring a national emergency and invoking the Taft-Hartley Act through the courts on October 9.

"It's a strange situation," said ITF Dockers Secretary Kees Marges. "The workers never went on strike, but are now faced with a situation in which they are forbidden to take any industrial action for a period of 80 days. From the beginning I have drawn attention to the fact that we are dealing with a well planned case of union busting, aimed at weakening or even destroying the strong trade union movement on the waterfront in the USA."

The ILWU is angry about the outcome, claiming the PMA blackmailed businesses, farmers and consumers to get the injunction.

The Act was passed in 1948 as an anti-union law, with provisions for fines, contempt of court citations and prison sentences.

"We fully expect PMA to use all the anti-union provisions of the Taft-Hartley injunction. These 80 days will not be a 'cooling off period,'" said Spinosa. "PMA will start alleging 'slowdowns' by Thursday and will continue that. Taft-Hartley gives them 80 days of free shots at the union and we expect the employers will be dragging us to court daily, trying to bankrupt the union and throw our leaders in jail."

Another concern is that the backlog of cargo will create the push for an unsafe speed-up. Having five members killed on the job in the last six months has raised major fears for the safety of longshore workers on the congested docks. The Department of Labor has said that longshoring is second only to mining as the most dangerous work in the country.

Meanwhile, National Secretary Paddy Crumlin attended an ITF Emergency meeting in support ILWU in London in support of the ILWU on October 15.

The meeting determined to mount a worldwide ITF campaign in support of West longshore workers as well as European dock workers who have also been targetted for attack by international shipowners. Affiliates will keep notifying all members of the PMA, both stevedoring companies and shipping lines, that as long as company policies towards the ILWU and its members do not change, they will continuously be confronted with the consequences of their support for the union-busting practices.

And the latest is PMA has got a federal judge in San Francisco to define a "normal and reasonable pace of work" in terminals along the US west coast after ongoing claims by employers that the ILWU was going slow on the job -- just as predicted.