ILWU International President Bob McEllrath
Most longshore workers know that our six-year contract with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) expires next summer. As we prepare for negotiations next spring, the employers have been watching- and testing us.
The first test came in 2010, when we took-on Rio Tinto’s lockout against 600 families in Boron. That fight was a long way from the docks in the middle of the Mojave Desert – but you can be sure that waterfront employers were watching to see if a big corporation could take us down. In the end, we held our ground against one of the world most powerful mining corporations – and gave them a fight. In the end, the ILWU prevailed.
The stakes were just as high in our five-year fight that helped 500 Rite Aid warehouse workers win their ILWU contract in Lancaster, CA. Like the Boron lockout, the Rite Aid warehouse was 100 miles from the docks, but employers were watching us again to see who would win. When it ended on May Day in 2011, those workers won their ILWU contract – thanks in part to solidarity from longshore workers who organized a “pinpoint” boycott of Rite Aid pharmacies in San Pedro. Our fight – and the way we won it – sent a powerful message to all employers that the ILWU is a force to be reckoned with. And in the end, the ILWU prevailed.
Recently, we’ve been sparring with employers on the waterfront. The battle in Longview against EGT was our first major waterfront challenge in decades. It may have seemed different because the dispute was with grain companies who weren’t part of the Longshore Contract, but it was seen by everyone – especially employers – as another test of our ability to fight powerful corporations and another union, the Operating Engineers, who crossed our picket line. Members rose to the challenge and won a contract that protects ILWU jurisdiction. Through unity, the ILWU prevailed.
When the other grain companies decided to pile-on and test us again, nobody was surprised. Our fight for good jobs and against the lockouts by Mitsui-United Grain and Marubeni-Columbia Grain is just the latest test. And the dispute with ICTSI in Portland is one more example of a company testing our resolve to protect ILWU jurisdiction.
The problem we’re having now with the PMA over delays and denials of our health care bills is like a qualifying round for a heavyweight fight. It’s just one more test to see if we’re in shape for the main event next summer. All these fights involve different issues, but they all tell a similar story.
The corporations we’re fighting now are bigger and more powerful than ever. They sense that most unions are getting smaller, weaker and more isolated than we’ve been in almost a century. Weaker unions mean employers have a freer hand to do what they want to the working class. The result is corporate greed that’s gotten out of control – from Wall Street to the waterfront.
This situation is tough, but it isn’t hopeless. There is a way out of this mess – if we can learn the right lessons and learn from our own history. One of those lessons is that we have to fight back hard every time we’re challenged. We may not win every fight, but we’re going to win the war, and make them pay a high price for corporate greed, no matter what the outcome.
But to do this, we have to stay united. Inside our own house it means taking the high road and looking for what unites us instead of the things that divide us. Outside, it means trying to stop unions from fighting with each other, especially over jurisdictional disputes, or when other unions cross our picket lines. We have to focus our fire on the employers.
And when you look back in our history, you’ll see that employers have always used racial conflict to play divide and conquer. But it only works if we’re stupid enough to let them get away with it. That’s what Harry Bridges concluded after he watched years of organizing and militant strikes go down the drain because workers were lured into fighting with each other and scapegoating minorities instead of uniting to take on the bosses.
Harry took that lesson to heart, and made racial integration and antidiscrimination a cornerstone of his organizing strategy. His approach led to success in 1934 and the formation of the ILWU. He always said, if someday there are only two jobs left in the union, one of the members would be Black and the other White. If he hadn’t put his foot down to stomp out racism back then, we wouldn’t be here today. So when I hear reports and allegations that some ILWU members have been accused of making racial comments on the lockout line, we can’t afford to ignore them or look the other way.
It has to be challenged straight-up, and it has to stop. Because if it isn’t confronted – from the bottom-up by rank-and-file members – and from the top down by this administration – it will become a cancer that weakens our union. We must remember: our fight is against corporate greed -not with each other, and never over the color of someone’s skin!
We’re facing tough times and real challenges. It won’t help for me to tell you not to worry or that everything will be OK. Everything now that we hold onto, and any gains that we make, will require a real fight. Let’s learn from our history and avoid the mistakes from our past, whether it’s the ugliness of racial bigotry or the stupidity of fighting other unions. If you think solidarity is something that all unions agree on, let me tell youwhat happened a few weeks ago.
Most ILWU members know that our brothers and sisters from Local 4 have been locked-out of the Mitsui-United Grain Terminal in Vancouver, Washington, since February 27, 2013. But you might be surprised to learn that two groups of union members have been crossing our picket lines there and are still working inside.
Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW Local 48) are continuing to do electrical work for Mitsui-United, and members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME Council 28) are continuing to conduct grain inspections at the terminal. Both have contracts to work at Mitsui-United in Vancouver, and both apparently decided to keep working there after ILWU members were locked-out and our picket lines went up.
ILWU members tried to talk with these IBEW and AFSCME members to seek their support, solidarity and willingness to respect our picket lines. We heard that honoring our picket lines would require them to violate their union contracts. We also heard that if union members honored our picket lines, the company would replace the IBEW and AFSCME members with non-union workers. Both of these concerns are understandable and true as far as they go, but this raises a more basic question for all union members: should we always support picket lines?
For me, the answer to this question is simple, straightforward and contained in the ILWU’s “Ten Guiding Principles.” This document was adopted in 1953 by delegates to the ILWU International Convention of that year. Here’s what the 4th Guiding principle of the ILWU says:
IV “To help any worker in distress” must be a daily guide in the life of every trade union and its individual members. Labor solidarity means just that. Unions have to accept the fact that the solidarity of labor stands above all else, including even the so-called sanctity of the contract. We cannot adopt for ourselves the policies of union leaders who insist that because they have a contract, their members are compelled to perform work even behind a picket line. Every picket line must be respected as though it were our own.
Those words still ring as true today as when they were written 60 years ago. As you can see from the 4th Principle, the question of whether to respect picket lines is not new. In 1953, many unions were crossing our picket lines. Some unions crossed our lines because they said we were too hard on employers. A few unions even approached our employers with “sweetheart” deals – offering to replace us with more “reasonable” and “business friendly” contracts. Other unions crossed our lines because they thought we were too “radical” or “red.”
There’s always some kind of excuse for crossing a picket line – especially when it involves a sacrifice. It’s easy to honor picket lines when there’s little or nothing at stake – or when we have no skin in the game – but much harder when jobs, incomes and families are on the line. That’s when we’re tested and when our true colors come through – from true blue to running yellow.
Our ILWU Longshore contract still allows us to respect another union’s bona-fide picket line. The fact that so few unions have been able to hold onto this right – once common in union contracts – tells us two things. First, it reminds us that the ILWU sees the honoring of picket lines as a fundamental principle that can’t be compromised.
Over the years, employers have approached the ILWU many times with schemes to reward us for giving up our picket line language. The ILWU’s answer has always been “no” – but more colorful language has sometimes been used to make our point clear.
My second point is that the lack of solidarity language in most contracts shows how dangerously weak and fearful our union movement has become. Let’s face it, if we can’t reach out to help each other in times of trouble – then everyone will be left to feel like we’re on our own – which is exactly how the employers want us to feel.
With all this in mind, the members of ILWU Locals 4, 19 and 23 decided to raise the question of solidarity within the broader labor movement by submitting the following resolution to the Washington State Labor Council Convention that met in Vancouver, WA on July 25 – 27:
Resolution Condemning IBEW Local 48 for Crossing ILWU Picket Line at MITSUI-United Grain
WHEREAS, the purpose of a labor union is to leverage the collective power of workers to improve and protect the working conditions and living standards for working men and women; and
WHEREAS, the strength of each union and the union movement as a whole depends on the unity of all of the members therein; and
WHEREAS, West Coast dockworkers marched by the thousands and seven were killed at the hands of law enforcement in 1934 in their fight to form the union known today as the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU); and
WHEREAS, the ILWU has worked in all Northwest grain export terminals since that bloody beginning and has spent decades honing its contractual safety procedures, working conditions, wages and benefits with the grain export employers since 1934; and
WHEREAS, the ILWU began negotiations for a new contract with the grain employer association in August of 2012 with seventeen (17) demands, while the employer made more than 700 proposals, barely budged from its original position and implemented a deeply concessionary “last, best and final” contact offer that had been rejected by 94% of the eligible ILWU membership in December 2012; and
WHEREAS, ILWU Local 4 has been locked out of Union Grain Co., a grain export terminal at the Port of Vancouver USA, which is owned by Japanese conglomerate Mitsui since February 27, 2013; and
WHEREAS, Longshoreman have respected IBEW Local 48’s collective bargaining agreement with Mitsui- United Grain Co. and
WHEREAS, ILWU member have sacrificed their personal wages in order to respect other unions’ picket lines in acts of solidarity and support over the decades; and
WHEREAS, IBEW’s failure to respect the ILWU’s picket line reduces the leverage that the man and women of the ILWU have to gain a fair contract with their primary employer, now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED that the delegates of the 2013 Washington State Labor Council support the ILWU in their struggle with Mitsui-United Grain; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the Washington State Labor Council and its local union affiliates condemn in the strongest terms possible the actions of the IBEW Local 438 at Mitsui-United Grain Co.; and be it finally
RESOLVED, that the Washington State Labor Council will send a letter to IBEW Local 48 demanding that the local immediately cease and desist from allowing its members to cross ILWU picket lines at Mitsui-United Grain Co. at the Port of Vancouver, USA.
The process got off to a promising start when the Resolutions Committee debated our proposal and recommended a “yes” vote to the full convention.
Some members of the Committee voted “no,” and a few abstained, but enough voted “yes” to keep the resolution alive so we could have a healthy debate on the convention floor. During the two days that led up to the Convention vote, ILWU delegates used their time to talk with members of other unions. We explained why solidarity was a principle that shouldn’t be compromised.
At the same time, delegates from IBEW Local 48 and AFSCME Council 28 were busy lobbying against our resolution.
As your International President – and a Vice President of the AFL-CIO- I was doing my part to win votes for our resolution. But I was also approached and lobbied by others who wanted us to water-down or withdraw our resolution. Some asked me, “what difference will the resolution make, since it can’t really force unions to stop walking through your picket lines?” I was also asked not to name the specific unions involved who were directing members to cross our picket lines. But we stayed firm and kept our resolution the way it was written. At one point I was told that I would have to leave the convention floor because I wasn’t an official delegate – even though I sit on the AFL-CIO Executive Council where I serve as a Vice President of the national body. Fortunately, Local 23 had an open position in their delegation and quickly seated me as an official delegate.
When our resolution finally hit the convention floor, an AFSCME official quickly moved for “non-consideration”– a motion that is non-debatable.
Enough delegates supported his motion (voting 155-125) to kill our resolution and end the possibility for any further debate. In addition to the AFSCME and IBEW delegates, it appeared there was support from some of the building trades and a few other delegates who wanted to avoid the debate .
For many of us, this was a disappointment – not just because we lost the vote – but because we lost an opportunity to debate an important issue with our brothers and sisters in the labor movement. Even if we’d eventually lost the convention floor vote, the process of openly discussing and debating this problem would have opened up a critical issue that now divides us. We weren’t afraid of that debate; but the ones who killed our resolution obviously were.
For the members of Local 4 – who do their time each week on the picket line and watch other union members go inside to work – this was tough. But while we may feel angry and betrayed, ILWU members on the picket line also understand – much better than any union bureaucrat ever will – that our only real weapons against corporate greed and capitalist exploitation – are unity and solidarity. For those who’ve forgotten the power of these weapons, or how to use them in a fight, we can only keep trying to push for unity and set an example for others to follow as we live by our creed: An injury to one is an injury to all.