The following resolution passed at the San Francisco ILWU Local 10 Executive Board meeting February 8, 2000.

Defend the Charleston Longshore Union

Whereas, in January, hundreds of longshoremen in the port of Charleston, South Carolina courageously protested against the scab Winyah Stevedoring operation, and

Whereas, this new non-union operation was set up in collusion with the Danish shipping line, Nordana, and the South Carolina States Port Authority, and

Whereas, 600 cops from throughout the state were called in to suppress ILA Local 1422 members from rightfully defending their union and their jobs, and

Whereas, 10 were injured and 9 longshoremen arrested by the police using concussion grenades, helicopters, tear gas, shotguns and night sticks, and

Whereas, this blatant attack against union longshoremen poses a threat to organized dockworkers around the world,

Therefore we call on our fraternal affiliates in the International Dockworkers Council and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) to join the ILWU through international labor solidarity actions to 

1) demand that the fraudulent charges against the 9 longshoremen for ³inciting to riot² be dropped and 

2) send a message to Nordana Shipping Lines and international shipping alliances that waterfront union-busting will not go unchallenged.