There is an update on this story on today’s World Socialist Web Site. They shut down the ports for a one day Solidarity Demo at Seattle,Tacoma, and Anacortes. More violence/arrests in Longview, and a better background review.

It’s not over yet!
http//www.wsws.org/articles/2011/sep2011/dock-s10.shtml

The GOP clowns in the red states must be really upset, for it is in their marching orders to gut the Unions. The bought and paid for Wisconsin Walkers need to have there noses taken out of the Koch Brothers asses!

It sounds like the new grain plant is part of the Red State plan and the new world order. Go Longshoremen you guys may be the spear head we need to motivate the rest of this country.

Now if they only had Longshoremen in Nebraska, right in the face of those right to work states!

Tom Hennessy, It wasn’t the forklift, it was the big cranes that off-load the containers.

The Port of Seattle bought a bunch of them and the Teamsters claimed the right to operate the the cranes, because they had the contracts to haul away the containers.

The ILWU refused to off-load anything, if the Teamsters replaced them unloading cargo on the docks, which was their livelihood and jobs.

The cranes sat there [and elsewhere] unused for three years until the NW Shipper’s Association negotiated a contract with the ILWU to operate the cranes on the docks. The ILWU still operates the cranes on the West Coast and here in Hawaii. It’s the best paid Union position on the docks, and goes to the senior members who have back problems etc from doing heavy physical labor for 20 years or more.

The ILWU wasn’t afraid that they would never work again because of the cranes, but were very aware that mechanization would drastically cut the size of the gangs needed to unload a vessel.

The quote you are probably thinking of was one of Harry Bridges’ more famous statements: Eventually there may only be one Longshoreman working the docks under an ILWU contract, but he’ll be the BEST paid worker on the dock when that happens…

That’s paraphrased, btw, but since Bridges ‘was next to God’ in our house at least according to my kid sister, it’s close. In about 1967 when the cranes were tied up during the contract disputes as to who would operate them, if I remember right.

My Dad was a crane operator for the ILWU the last 10 years he worked - They called him ‘Rabble Rouser’ at the meetings, which is a hard title to claim in that union.

One thing about Bridges that impressed me was that he would attend one of the Local meetings and argue policy with the rank and file. Hard to picture one of today’s ‘Pie Cards’ doing that. They usually sit in an office and send out Press Releases and let the Business Agent do the dirty work.

Bridges also set his salary at the same level as the highest paid worker on the docks. He wanted it to be the same as the lowest paid member, but the membership refused. His reasoning was that if a Union Official made the lowest wage of the general membership, that official would work much harder to get better wages and benefits for the workers.

Nowdays, most Union Officers maintain they have to make as much as the CEOs so they’ll have respect at the bargaining table. No wonder the Unions are in trouble!

Okasis

Agreed.

The deeper question though is does this mean that the General Construction and Operating Engineers Local 701 is now an official scab Trade Union?

Wait a minute now. Big Edie Schultz who gets lots of corporate media coverage with MSNBC and Air America is a supporter of the Operating Engineers.

Will Eddie Schultz do a story on this? Will his owners let him is the much deeper question.

If you read the entire LA Times story, this new grain terminal is owned by foreign Corporations and is shipping US grain to Asia.

I live in Hawaii. All our shipping is on US Flag Vessels with US Union [both Licensed and Unlicensed Crew Members], unloaded by ILWU members. We are a highly unionized state, and don’t spend much time bitchin’ about it.

We do, however, complain a lot about the sky-high grocery prices with the foreign markets getting the cherry deals on grain while we pay Big prices for grain products.

Anyone care to bet that those grain ships headed to Asia are Foreign Flag vessels with non-union crews, many of them making less then $200 a month with no benefits?

If you wonder what has happened to the economy, there is a big part of the problem: Low paying non-union jobs and wages and profits going to off-shore Corporation rather than to US Workers earning good union wages and benefits and paying taxes and supporting US jobs and companies!

Call yourself a Progressive, Liberal, or Left of Center, and Dis the ILWU? Go read Huff Post, The Daily Beast, and other phony sites like that instead of trolling for friends here.

These men are HEROES. They belong to the only Union that refused to load ships to South Africa back in the 1980s, and they are the only Union with the right to stage Days of Protest in support of other Unions and important issues, written into their contracts. They are also one of the few Unions whose members walk the picket line with other Unions to demonstrate SOLIDARITY and Brother/Sisterhood.

These guys don’t sit around kissing anyone’s ass, and they carry cargo hooks because they know how to use them. Why should they sit back and plead like beggars, for the Rights they earned the hard way during the waterfront strikes on the West Coast during the 30s, 40s, and 50s. People in jail, on strike for months at a time, and on the McCarthy list of Communist Fellow Travelers and black-listed under the Walter-McCarren Act for donating $5 to the Harry Bridges Defense Fund.

Do you think those Company Goons are Union Men getting good wages and benefits in today’s labor market? Doubtful. More likely they are the same out-standing defenders of our rights as the guys working for Home Land Security at the airports - and as well paid and trained. 

If we had more stand-up Unions supporting Worker’s Rights instead of creepos like Hoffa and his sell-out Teamsters, maybe we wouldn’t be looking at zero new jobs and 9.2% ‘official’ Unemployment.

So, are they thugs, criminals, revolutionaries or terrorists? Please weigh in. Sounds like the shape of things to come, although the Longshoremens union is what gives all unions a bad rap.