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40th
ITF CONGRESS, VANCOUVER, CANADA, 2002.
Issue no 4: 17-08-2002
We back the West Coast dockers
Port unions around the world have signaled their willingness to help
over 10,000 US West Coast dockers faced by intransigent employer
demands for job cuts and attacks on their collective bargaining
agreement.
The ITF Dockers' Section conference yesterday unanimously backed a
call for "maximum support and solidarity" with the
dockers' union, the ILWU. The emergency motion carried by
delegates said that unions should "take whatever action
they can within their national laws until the ILWU achieves a
fair settlement".
The motion noted that the ILWU has a tradition of support for other
ITF affiliates and for contributions to international solidarity and
the ITF's flag of convenience campaign.
The union is currently locked in a bitter stand-off with the Pacific
Maritime Association, representing US port employers from Alaska to
California, over demands for the introduction of new technology
which, says the union, would spell thousands of job cuts over the
years and the removal of jobs from the scope of the collective
bargaining agreement.
The employers' demands form part of negotiations with the ILWU on a
new three-year contract.
The US government is reported to have threatened to invoke emergency
legislative powers to delay any strike action by the ILWU and to use
troops to carry out dockers' work.
The employers meanwhile have threatened to tear up the union agreement
and force the union to negotiate port by port.
Moving the unanimously carried motion at the Dockers' Section Conference,
Bob Crow, of the British RMT transport union, warned that fine words on
paper were not enough to defeat employer attempts to smash trade
unionism. "An attack on the ILWU is an attack on every dockers'
union in the international trade union movement," he
added.
His words were welcomed by Bob McEllrath, First Vice President of
the ILWU, who said that off-the-record threats to his union had
been made from government officials from Washington.
He went on to accuse the port employers of "wrapping themselves
in the flag" in their efforts to defeat the union.
Like other motions carried by section conferences, the emergency
motion on the ILWU will now go before the plenary Congress for
ratification.
Note from Kees Marges, ITF Dockers' Section Secretary: The motion as
adopted by the ITF Dockers' Section Conference will be endorsed by
the full Congress. The Dockers' Section Conference in Vancouver was
also addressed by a representative of the AFL-CIO indicating the
support of this organisation for the ILWU.
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