Solidarity with American dockworkers

by Warren Smith

A group of 13 rank and file maritime workers and miners have gone to the US 
West Coast to support locked out US dockworkers. The Maritime Union of 
Australia (MUA) and Mining Division CFMEU members will stand on the picket 
lines along side their US comrades. Unions are also considering other forms 
of solidarity in Australia to support the locked out workers.

With the lock-out of all US West Coast dockers by the shipping employers, 
an MUA type dispute is unfolding. West Coast dockworkers are members of the 
International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).

The ILWU has been in the enviable position of having a single contract 
which applies to every West Coast port in the US. They also have union 
controlled pickup facilities known as the hiring hall and a pool of labour 
not associated with any specific company.

This is very similar to arrangements in Australian ports prior to the 
introduction of enterprise agreements in Australia. It is these conditions 
that the shipping companies are out to destroy.

The ILWU workers have been locked out by members of an employers' 
association, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA). It is a group of 
stevedoring, shipping and associated businesses that deal with the import 
and export of various commodities. There are around 80 employers within the 
PMA.

Some of these companies also operate in Australia. They include, Wilhemsen 
Lines, Hapag Lloyd, K'Line, Maersk, OOCL, P&O Nedloyd, Zim Lines, COSCO and 
CSX.

The PMA is using the pretext of new technology to undermine or destroy the 
union hiring hall arrangements. The hiring hall arose out of a bloody 
maritime strike in the US in 1934 during which six workers were killed.

That strike was against conditions similar to those on Sydney's infamous 
"hungry mile" in the 1930s when workers were treated like dogs.

The US corporate media barons are waging a similar media campaign to that 
waged against the MUA by Peter Reith who in 1998 was the Minister for 
Workplace Affairs in the Howard Government.

The US media is accusing ILWU workers of low productivity while receiving 
massive earnings and holding down cushy jobs.

In the latest act of aggression the PMA representatives brought to the 
negotiations armed thugs in an attempt to stand over the ILWU. As the union 
walked out of the negotiations ILWU President said: "There were two 
gentlemen here with guns... What were the PMA officials thinking? That they 
could make the union 'an offer that it can't refuse'?"

There are over 100 ships tied up off the West Cost at present and there are 
picket lines on the wharves at all the 29 West Coast ports. The Teamsters 
Unions and other AFL-CIO affiliated unions have pledged that they will not 
cross the picket lines.

The ILWU and the MUA, in particular, have built very strong international 
solidarity links. Both unions have hosted joint visits by officials and 
rank and file members to each other's countries.

Readers of The Guardian will remember that during the 1998 MUA 
lockout the ILWU refused to unload the Columbus Canada, which had 
been loaded in Melbourne by scab labour.

That action, as well as those in many other ports around the world 
generated a very emotional response among Australian wharfies.

International solidarity is seen as a two way street and there have been 
many actions of international solidarity by the Waterside Workers' and 
Seamen's Unions and more recent activity by the MUA. They have been 
strongly supported by the union membership.

Older maritime workers were well experienced in those traditions and to the 
vital nature of workers sticking up for each other and acting in concert 
regardless of national barriers.

Younger workers on the waterfront are also being introduced to 
international solidarity activity.

It is in fulfilment of this tradition that representatives of Mining and 
Maritime Unions from Australia, South Africa, Germany, USA, France, Canada, 
New Zealand and Japan held a conference in Newcastle recently. It was 
sponsored by the MUA and the CFMEU. (See The Guardian 25/9/02).

The conference placed great emphasis on practical activity in support of 
one another's struggles on a national and international level.

The Newcastle Declaration adopted by the conference said: "We pledge 
our full financial, political and industrial support for the International 
Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in the dispute with the Pacific 
Maritime Association (PMA) in the current struggle for a new contract for 
members on the West Coast.

This support includes an organised international campaign on PMA shipping 
lines with the view of urging them to reach an agreed contract with the 
union."

The struggle is almost certain to have international significance. The 
International Transport Workers' Federation has pledged its solidarity and 
has requested dockers' unions worldwide to single out the major players 
that make up the PMA.

As capital globalises it is necessary for labour to implement what has 
always been its most potent call: "Workers of all countries unite. You have 
nothing to lose but your chains".