#ilwu strike

[concerned-third-party]

Solidarity with the B.C. ILWU port workers strike.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Lallan Schoenstein

At the beginning of August, leaders of North America’s largest dockworkers’ union, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), sent the employer association, USMX, a strike notice that federal law requires 60 days before a strike. 

When ILA delegates met on Sept. 4 and 5, they reported that union members voiced unanimous support for a strike. As delegates discussed the demands and a strike strategy, ILA  president Harold Daggett told the ILA members they must be prepared “to hit the streets at 12:01 on Tuesday, Oct. 1.”

Longshore workers on the West Coast are in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). They deal with the country’s biggest container volume. On the East Coast, the five busiest ports are covered by the ILA contract agreement with USMX: New York/New Jersey, Savannah, Houston, Virginia, and Charleston.

[dduane]

would you and author friends consider signing this letter of support for the workers at Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon? They are negotiating their 8th contract (unionized with ILWU Local 5), and I've heard from workers that the proposed wages from management would be too little for them to afford the health insurance that Powell's offers. They had a strike on Labor Day and Powell's closed their locations and sent out an email blast encouraging customers to order online (and thus cross the picket line). Here's the link: https://linktr.ee/ILWULocal5

Absolutely. Adding the direct link to the author letter/petition here.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Thousands of port workers across British Columbia are set to resume strike activity after failing to ratify a tentative deal that was reached through federal mediation. More than 7,400 workers from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) had walked off the job from July 1 until July 13 over issues like port automation, outside contracting and the increasing cost of living. A tentative agreement had been reached between the ILWU and their employer, the B.C. Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), on July 13 after Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan asked for terms to end the strike, drawn up by a federal mediator. However, the BCMEA said in a statement on Tuesday that strike activity is set to resume at 4:30 p.m. PT due to ILWU's internal caucus rejecting the tentative agreement and not ratifying it. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[lovedaymorbid]

ATTENTION BOOK AND UNION LOVERS!!!!

Powell's Books workers in Portland Oregon will be going on strike. Powell's prides itself on being the largest "independent" book store in the US and being "like a family".

For the entire YEAR the Powell's corporation has refused to meet Union needs and denied every contract proposal. For about 6 months Powell's Workers have been working without a contract because of this. There have been several COVID confirmed cases at Powell's Burnside location as well and there is NO COVID relief pay or PTO for exposure or close contact.

I personally know several workers who have been treated horribly for months if not YEARS by the corporation. They do not care about their workers.

Thank you @howdydowdy for the transcript (yes they have been working without a contract since June)

[Image description: Screenshots of Instagram posts by @\ilwulocal5.

2: How to support striking Powell's workers:

Do not cross a picket line at any Powell's Books location on Monday, September 4.

Do not shop at any Powell's Books location on Monday, September 4.

Do not shop on powells.com on Monday, September 4.

Donate to the ILWU Local 5 Strike Fund: www.ilwulocal5.com/support

Sign our petition, letting Powell's leadership know you support workers' demands: bit.ly/tell-powells

3: 3 ways to support the ILWU Local 5 Strike Fund:

Shop through our Powell's Partner Link and 7.5% of the sale will go to the Strike Fund!

Sell books through our Powell's Partner Link and 7.5% of the amound you're paid will go to the Strike Fund (without reducing your earnings)!

Donate to the Strike Fund via PayPal or credit/debit card!

4: BIG NEWS

We've added a third option for supporting our Strike Fund: direct donations! Now, in addition to buying or selling books through our Powell's Books Partner Link, where 7.5% goes to the ILWU Local 5 Strike Fund, you can donate directly to the Strike Fund via PayPal or a debit/credit card!

ILWU Local 5 is getting bigger and it's important that our Strike Fund does the same, to ensure Local 5 members have every tool available to get the contracts they deserve. Please consider donating if you're able, and help us spread the word!

www.ilwulocal5.com/support

/end transcript

/end ID]

[theculturedmarxist]

On Friday, the US Chamber of Commerce issued an open letter to President Joe Biden imploring him to appoint a “mediator” and force through a tentative agreement between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the over 22,000 dockworkers in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).

In the letter addressed to Biden and acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, Suzanne P. Clark, the CEO and president of the Chamber, wrote that the group was “very concerned by the premeditated and disruptive service actions that are slowing operations at several major ports along the West Coast.”

Beginning last week, and continuing through this writing, dockworkers at several West Coast ports have refused to show up to work after it was revealed that the PMA was proposing an across-the-board $1.56 “raise” for dockworkers, well below the rate of inflation. The fury of rank-and-file workers across all three tiers, A, B, and casual, prompted the ILWU, worried that workers would take matters into their own hands, to unofficially authorize job actions that led to the near-shutdown of major ports and terminals.

Dockworkers have been laboring on 29 ports, from Washington to California, without a contract since last July, while the PMA and ILWU have been negotiating in secret for 13 months. These secret negotiations, Andy, a Los Angeles-area dockworker told the WSWS, have left him and his coworkers “frustrated...we don’t know what is going on. We have no say in anything, it is outrageous.”

Commenting on the long hours that dockworkers put in during the pandemic, and the “thanks” they have received so far from the PMA, Andy said, “Me and a lot of other people got over 2,000 hours. We didn’t step out of line, we did everything they asked. The PMA are talking about not giving us enough retroactive pay, that insulting $1.56 pay increase.”

On Friday, June 9, the PMA issued another statement confirming that while job actions had lessened at the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland, the “Ports of Seattle and Tacoma continue to suffer significant slowdowns as a result of targeted ILWU actions.”

The PMA asserted that the ILWU was refusing to dispatch lashers, leaving ships idle and resulting in “a backup of incoming vessels.”

Terrified at the prospect that these limited actions could spiral into a “serious work stoppage at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach” that “would be devastating to...businesses,” Chamber Commerce CEO Clark, on behalf of Wall Street, urged Biden “to appoint an independent mediator to help the parties reach a voluntary agreement.” Clarke wrote that this “step is necessary to avoid potentially billions of dollars in economic damage to the American economy.”

Raising the prospect of invoking the anti-union Taft-Hartley law against dockworkers, and possibly deploying soldiers in the case of a strike, Clarke added that Biden should “consider additional steps that may be necessary in the event of a widespread work stoppage.”

This is the third statement issued by a major big business lobby over the last week calling on Biden to intervene in the dockworker negotiations, on the side of capital. On Monday, representatives from the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Retail Federation also called on the White House to impose a contract on dockworkers.

While Biden himself has not directly commented, his actions last year show that the self-declared most “pro-union” president is more than willing to run roughshod over workers’ democratic rights in order to satiate Wall Street’s unquenchable hunger for profits. Furthermore, high-level officials, in his administration and outside of it, have made clear that the White House has been actively involved in the dockworker negotiations from the outset.

In an interview on CNBC on Thursday, Gene Seroka, the executive director at the Port of Los Angeles, confirmed that the same labor officials who blocked a railroad strike last year, and subsequently dictatorially forced through a rotten pro-company agreement rail workers had already rejected, were again intervening in the contract talks.

“Here’s what’s been happening,” Seroka said. “Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su has been working with both sides, individually and collectively, trying to keep these talks moving.” Su was the deputy labor secretary under Marty Walsh last year during the railroad betrayal.

“Julie and her staff have been working tirelessly, not putting out press releases or coming on TV. They are talking with both sides to keep this progress moving,” Seroka continued, adding, “From the secretary of labor’s seat, this continues to be a top priority.”

While he claimed not to know the exact details, Seroka confirmed that the major conflicts in the contract remain pay and “robotics.” Seroka noted that during the pandemic, “Dockworkers were out on the job six days a week.” The ILWU has confirmed that at least 43 members died of COVID-19, no doubt a significant undercount.

While dockworkers were risking infection and death to move cargo, the companies have pulled in record profits. Shipping giant Maersk, one of several companies represented by the PMA, posted $30.9 billion in profit in 2022. And while shipping rates have declined from their 2021 highs, last month Maesrk still reported a first-quarter profit just under $4 billion.

In interviews with WSWS reporters on Thursday, Los Angeles area dockworkers reflected on the precarious and dangerous character of their work, the hated tier system, which was negotiated in by former ILWU President Harry Bridges in the 1960 Mechanization and Modernization agreement, and the need for dockworkers to unite as a class against the major corporations.

A casual worker said that she has been “a casual for 19 years. I need four more years to make it to Class A. It’s been a long, long time, and we don’t have any rights. My brother is an A man, we were always taught in our family to get union jobs, but things are very tough these days. It’s stressful. I had an accident last month because I had a seizure, which was caused because I was so angry with my boss.”

Commenting on the anti-Asian sentiment that has been whipped up by both big business parties as part of the war drive against China, the dockworker said she was “against all this anti-Asian violence and hate. They are trying to blame Asian people for all the problems, trying to pit worker against worker. We are all facing the same problems.”

A longshoreman who has been a Class A man for 15 years noted that the ILWU along the West Coast had yet to conduct a strike authorization vote nearly a year after the contract expired. “The Canadian longshoremen are having strike authorization votes [Thursday] and Friday. That’s important because the PMA was trying to use the Canadian access from their ports to railways to Chicago and back East to reroute shipping since West Coast longshore have been carrying out job actions here.”

Commenting on the miserly $1.56 raise, a pay cut in real terms, given that inflation in California is over 7 percent, he said, “For us here, I wasn’t happy about that tiny raise the PMA is offering us.”

In a message to other dockworkers, Andy warned about the ongoing conspiracy between Biden, the ILWU and the PMA. “They are all just oligarchs. Biden is doing the same thing Trump would do. The same thing George Bush would do.”

“It really is an international struggle,” he added, “That’s why the internationalism is so important. I mean if me, and all the other dockworkers in the world, got together and decided we weren’t going to move cargo until our demands were met? That would be amazing.”

The fight to link up workers in a joint struggle against the major international carriers requires the development of rank-and-file committees, controlled by the workers and independent of the ILWU union bureaucracy.

Workers cannot let the initiative remain in the hands of the ruling class and its state! It is urgent that workers begin communicating among themselves and coordinating actions to counter the conspiracy between the companies and the Biden administration, assisted by the union apparatus.

[survivingcapitalism]

By not showcasing wins when and where they’re happening, labour is missing a chance to inspire workers to fight for what they deserve. [...] At present, 4,700 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) are on strike across 30 port terminals in British Columbia. These workers voted 99.24 per cent in favour of strike action and hit the picket line July 1. ILWU has a strong tradition of labour militancy, up and down the Western ports of North America. Should the union win its current demands around wages and protections against automation, job loss and outsourcing, it’s no stretch to say this will shape the direction of work in the industry heretofore.   At the time of writing, the federal labour minister, Seamus O’Regan, has asked a federal mediator for a recommended settlement to give a “forceful nudge” to push the union and the employers’ association over the finish line. While not the heavy-handed approach seen from this government in past labour disputes, the spectre of back-to-work legislation nevertheless looms. The supply and confidence agreement with the federal NDP renders the legislative hammer more politically sensitive than would be the case under a Trudeau majority government, but, with Liberals in power, it’s never out of reach. In Ontario, more than 3,700 workers at Metro Inc. across the Greater Toronto Area recently delivered 100 per cent support for a strike. These Unifor members could soon be on the picket line if their wage demands aren’t met. Then, of course, there were the historic strikes by more than 155,00 Public Service Alliance of Canada members and 55,000 CUPE Ontario education workers. Although neither strike resulted in awe-inspiring wage gains, in both cases the unions nevertheless won above-average pay raises. More importantly, they inspired workers across the country to ask for more, just as employers feared they would. And asking for more appears to be exactly what many union members are doing. Recent data from both Ontario and B.C. suggest that a number of unions are pushing for major wage gains at the bargaining table and, surprisingly, pulling it off.

[racefortheironthrone]

How true, or untrue were the communist accusation Walt leveled at his employee's?

Pretty much entirely bullshit.

While there were Communist organizers in the labor movement in the 1940s, they were in CIO unions like the UE (electrical workers), ILWU (longshoremen on the West Coast), Mine Mill, and the like.

The Screen Cartoonist's Guild was affiliated with the AFL, the more politically moderate union federation, and was a thoroughly conventional Hollywood union. If you look at the issues that were at stake in the 1941 strike, they were bread-and-butter stuff rather than anything ideological: they wanted union recognition, they wanted an end to wildly disparate pay rates, they wanted an end to unpaid overtime, they wanted on-screen credits, and they wanted an end to firing workers for union activity.

[coquelicoq]

Powell’s Books will be closed on Labor Day, as its workers go on a one-day strike. About 300 workers represented by ILWU Local 5 voted to authorize a strike in mid-August. They’re asking for higher wages and more affordable health benefits. Workers at Oregon’s widely beloved tourist destination have been negotiating for a new contract for about seven months. The most recent contract expired in June after multiple extensions. The two parties are scheduled to meet again on Tuesday and Wednesday. Company executives issued a statement Friday saying they would be closing the company’s retail stores due to insufficient staffing. In addition to its flagship location in downtown Portland, the company has locations in Southeast Portland and Beaverton. Company representatives also said they supported workers’ right to strike. “We understand it can be part of the bargaining process, and we will honor and respect it,” they wrote on Facebook. Workers at the massive new-and-used bookstore franchise have been unionized for more than 20 years. They last authorized a strike in 2003. In a statement issued on Aug. 11, unionized workers said the company’s most recent “last, best, final offer,” included substandard wages and expensive health benefits. They said entry level booksellers start at $15.45 an hour, the area’s minimum wage, while about 85% of unionized workers make below the area’s living wage of $21.85. Many workers’ wages are capped below that rate, they said.

[sanguinarysanguinity]

Strike fund for ILWU Local 5, the union for Powell's Books employees. The union has voted to authorize a strike! You can support the union by:

buying books at Powell's through the union's affiliate link!

selling books at Powell's through the union's affiliate link!

donating directly to the strike fund!

All relevant links at the page above.

[cavenewstimes]

Federal board finds longshore foremen union bargaining in bad faith

Posted July 7, 2024 6:44 pm 1 min read 0:36 Vancouver longshore foremen issue strike notice RELATED VIDEO: The BC Maritime Employers Association says ILWU Local 514 has served a notice of intended strike action against DP World Canada that will begin on Monday at 4:30 p.m. The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) has found the union that represents longshore foremen, who were threatening…

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Chris Silvera

We must never forget the battles that brought us here — the sacrifices of life, blood, and the tears of families who carried the burden of family members’ deaths in the ongoing struggle of labor to defeat capital.

Why was 1934 so significant in the war against the capitalist ruling class? 

[novumtimes]

B.C. port employer threatens lockout after union’s strike notice

The B.C. Maritime Employers Association says it is requesting urgent intervention by the Canada Industrial Relations Board to divert a looming strike by a union representing ship and dock foremen. The association said Friday that ILWU Local 514 had served a notice of intended strike action against DP World Canada that will begin on Monday at 4:30 p.m. It said that came despite the Canada…

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Unionized port workers in British Columbia have voted overwhelmingly in favour of authorizing a strike. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU) said Monday that an eye-popping 99.24 per cent of members cast a ballot supporting job action if necessary. The union, which represents more than 7,000 terminal cargo movers in B.C., has been locked in tough contract talks with the B.C. Maritime Employers Association since February. The union’s last collective agreement expired at the end of March. The two sides are in a cooling-off period slated to last until next weekend, which would make June 24 the earliest possible date for a strike. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[lboogie1906]

Ernest Charles Tanner (Ernie) (June 5, 1889 - 1956) was born in Indianapolis. His father was a trapeze performer, and his mother was a nurse. Moving to Tacoma with his family in 1900, He attended Stadium High School where he emerged as an outstanding athlete in track, basketball, baseball, and football. He attended Whitworth College and according to the Oregonian, was the first African American to play football at the college level in the Pacific Northwest. He helped Whitworth defeat the University of Oregon. He played in the local Negro League where he was captain and manager of the Tacoma “Little Giants.”

He joined the Tacoma chapter of the International Longshoremen’s Association. Generally, Black members were treated as “second class” and, placed into segregated locals.

His defining moment as a longshoreman came in the “Big Strike” of 1934 that shut down every Pacific Coast port. He was the only African American on the Tacoma strike committee and worked with San Francisco leader Harry Bridges to keep Black and white workers united during the strike so that employers could not break the union. He was elected to serve as the chairman of the local publicity committee.

He served as a trustee of Local 38-97 and on its executive board. He insisted that African American dockworkers be paid the same wages and work under the same conditions as white longshoremen.

When longshoremen in other West Coast ports left the ILA and formed the International Longshoremen’s & Warehousemen’s Union, Tacoma remained in the ILA, the only major local not to join the ILWU. They finally joined the ILWU as Local 23.

The Tacoma longshoremen decided to build a new hall and the local’s members elected him to chair the building committee. The building was named the Ernest C. Tanner Labor and Ethnic Studies Center as part of the University of Washington’s Tacoma campus.

His son Jack, graduated from law school, after working on the docks and became the Pacific Northwest’s first African American federal judge when was named to the Federal District Court for Western Washington. He was survived by his wife, Irene, his son, and his daughter. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[copperfirebird]

For the locals! And for people who shop at powells.com too.

Powell's is actually the only workplace where I've had the chance to join a union, and the fact that there was a union and a contract saved my butt when Powell's decided they had too many people in the customer service department- instead of getting let go, I got moved to a position in-store until I found my current job, which was a huge relief at the time because I kept my rate and my hours.