The Maersk Menace
By Del Castle
After signing our recent contract and we thought class warfare may have been
temporarily suspended, we find the shipowners are launching a new offensive. As
we reported in the last issue, Maersk used scabs to work the cargo on a Danish
ship at the dock in Charleston, South Carolina. Now it seems Maersk, which has
taken over the terminals of Sealand as well as acquiring Sea Land ships is one
of the biggest terminal operators in the world. Furthermore, as reported by the
Jan. 29 People's Weekly World, the International Transport Federation which
inspects working and safety conditions on ships world-wide, "is urgently
following up reports that Maersk is forming small groups of dockers to travel to
ports where Maersk ships are to be loaded or unloaded. The shipowners and
stevedore bosses have been carrying out a campaign to bust the longshore unions
and Maersk's idea of mobile longshore crews to replace local labor on the docks
is the latest scheme they have put forward."
We can't help but think that Mr. Miniace, President and C.E.O. of the Pacific
Maritime Association who predicted that ten years down the line great changes in
labor relations on the waterfront, would like to latch on to Maersk's
union-busting campaign.
So we need to watch the schemes of the employers with an eagle eye. We need
to launch a campaign of whole hearted solidarity with the International
Longshore Association, the East Coast longshore union, or we will find ourselves
confronted by a Maersk scab longshore ship on the West Coast. Likely, if one
does appear on the West Coast it will no doubt not appear again anywhere soon.
Solidarity means victory!
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