The waterfront workers in the maritime industry have historically been the most active and strongest in the international labor movement in the 20th Century. Unions such as the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union), SUP (Sailor's Union of the Pacific), and IBU (Inland Boatman's Union), grew out of the militancy of early waterfront unions such as the Marine Transport Workers, the ILA on the west coast, and to a small extent, the Communist Party controlled MWIU. Those unions of today are some of the most democratic unions in the AFL/CIO, and occupy a key position in the global economy.

Global shipping companies have continued to wage a relentless war against various incarnations of maritime unions, and various concessions have slipped by over the years, but the unions on the west coast have held steady in the industry. Multinational employer consortiums have stepped up the war over the last few years, and it may come home to our ports on the west coast in July of 1999, when the Coastwide Longshore Contract is due to expire between the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association. The rumblings of this war on workers has been heard in other ports, and they have been disastrous.

On September 28, 1995, 500 waterfront workers in Liverpool, England, were fired for refusing to cross a picket line of 80 of their fellow workers--who had been picketing for getting fired as well. The conservative "Tory" government in England had smashed nearly every other port union in England a few years prior, and the Mersey Docks and Harbor Company had been effectively sanctioned by the government to pick off the last stronghold of unionism in English ports. The employment of "scabs" brought job actions from the union workers, from freeway sit downs to crane occupations on the docks. The dispute even led to solidarity in several Western U.S. ports; ILWU workers in Oakland and Vancouver, B.C. refused to unload "scab" cargo from the ship "Neptune Jade." The ship and the cargo had to be sold, as other ports also refused to work the ship. Workers in Liverpool received a settlement, but many did not and the union was crushed.

Last year in Australia, under a similar conservative government, 1400 workers were sacked from the Maritime Union of Australia, and a scab force was brought in with troops specially trained by the government. This was after laws against striking were passed, 17 ports were affected. Many unions in Melbourne and Sydney struck in sympathy, culminating in a near general strike. Ships loaded with "scab" cargo set out for the U.S., and the Columbia Canada sat off the coast of Los Angeles for nearly three weeks, while others destined for Oakland and Seattle never showed up in those ports. As a result, the workers in Australia kept their union, but were also forced to give in to concessions, including the loss of several hundred jobs and outsourcing of union work.

Last summer in Vancouver, B.C. workers of ILWU local 518 Samplers and Testers were locked out, after Sultrans, Inc. decided to hire non-union workers from Certispec. A picket line was set up, and a court injunction was given to the company to block the picket. The workers continued their action, and 29 workers (including nine retirees) were thrown in jail.

In the meantime, the ILWU has been subject to SLAPP suits for the refusal to unload the Neptune Jade in Oakland, and the Pacific Maritime Association has targeted Robert Irminger, who was the picket captain. The prosecution wants a list of people and organizations involved in organizing and publicizing the job action. Irminger is an official in the IBU, a member of the Labor Party, and a member of the reorganized Marine Transport Workers Local 9. The inquisition brings us back to the days of HUAC and McCarthy, with a little bit of Palmer thrown in.

The Pacific Maritime Association, which is a consortium of employers covered under the West Coast Longshore Contract, uses the lawsuit as a lever to keep the unions from using collective power to maintain working standards. Longshore workers agreed to work the Columbia Canada in L.A., in exchange for the PMA dropping a suit (though the scabby cargo was left aboard). While a coast wide shutdown in support of other maritime unions abroad would be ideal, union members are forced to weigh the consequences of the legal mess that would result.

The real threat is the employer shutting down the union hiring hall in favor of the "temp agencies." The Inland Boatman's Union in Seattle is under contract negotiations with several employers, and one has already shown its willingness to hand over work to non-union "temp" agencies. The ILWU contract expires in eight months, and the CEO of the PMA has already expressed the desire to eliminate the union hiring hall, to be replaced with temp agencies. Temp agencies were the rule before the union hiring hall was won on the west coast in 1934--the entire coast was tied up from Seattle to L.A., a general strike was called in the Bay Area, and the National Guard was sent in, before the hall was won under a joint agreement. The precedent of going back to the old system of hiring that existed before 1934, sends a chill down the spine of many ILWU members; the industry standard for a union worker out of the hall is $20 to $30 an hour. A temp agency charges the employer $20, pays the worker $8, and keeps the rest as profit.

The ILWU, IBU, and other waterfront unions may see a coast-wide strike in '99, if the PMA pushes their agenda. The Dispatcher, an ILWU paper, warns its membership of the situation, and reminds workers of "Bloody Thursday," the day that workers were killed by the police during the strike. International shipping companies have shown their teeth against other maritime unions, as well as those on the U.S. west coast. As members of the strongest and most militant unions in North America, the workers on the piers in Seattle and other west coast ports will determine the future of that industry--and the rest of the labor movement--for years to come.