On October l4, a crowd of unionists surrounded the entrance of Olympic Tug and Barge, a non-union company located on Spokane Street, just blocks from the ILWU hall. Complete with open bar, BBQ, and Toyota Land Cruisers, the owners and their buddies from the chamber of commerce were celebrating the christening of a brand new barge (also built with non-union labor), while rank and file members of ILWU, IBU, Teamsters, IWW, UFW, and Jobs with Justice picketed, marched, and spoke out to denounce the company's resistance to union organizing. Because of the demonstration, the bosses' party had to be moved inside; for all intents and purposes, the party had been crashed.

Meanwhile, another victory on the waterfront was won, first in Oakland, and then in Vancouver, B.C. The Neptune Jade, a ship loaded with "hot" cargo from Thamesport (a British port where 500 longshore workers or "dockers" were fired for striking against deteriorating working conditions), docked at Oakland, California. Longshore and Maritime unions worldwide had pledged to support the two year old strike, and when the ship arrived in Oakland, California, it was met with a large picket line. Longshore workers exercised their legal rights and refused to cross the picket line, citing "health and safety" concerns--crossing a picket line on the waterfront is not a healthy choice.

After various unsuccessful attempts to find workers to unload the ship, the Jade set sail to Vancouver, B.C. Sure enough, the waterfront workers there also refused to touch the cargo, because another picket line had been set up in support of the dockers in Thamesport, halfway around the world. The Jade then set off for Japan, only to find out that the executive board of the National Council of Dockworkers Union in Japan (Zenkoku-Kowan) passed a resolution to not handle cargo loaded in Thamesport.

What led to this show of solidarity? The Mersey/Thamesport Dockers in Britain are the holdout for the last union port in all of the United Kingdom. During the Thatcher era of the eighties, the ports that had been union for over l00 years were privatized, and the unions were subsequently busted out. In the United States, where ports are privately owned (with the usual "free market" government protections and subsidies), non-union companies shipping goods around the world also pose a threat to the longshore workers here, especially with the proliferation of "free trade agreements.~

So what is the solution for workers in an industry that continues to operate on a global scale? A move toward global organizing and solidarity is taking root, and has powerful implications--unless the shipping companies can devise a scheme to move their operations to Mars.

--John Persak