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Anti-war protests cut work at ports
Longshore workers sit out the day shift
An overview of an idled Port of Los Angeles is shown as truckers were turned away from closed gates at the entrance Thursday May 1, 2008. Terminal operators say West Coast cargo traffic has come to a halt as port workers stage day-long anti-war protests to commemorate May Day. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
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West Coast ports were brought to a near-standstill Thursday as members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union sat out the day shift to protest the war in Iraq.
Priority cargo, such as military and passenger ships, were handled as needed during the day, but full operations didn't resume until the night shift.
At the Port of Hueneme, about 65 workers did not come to work during the day. That meant fruit, mainly bananas, sat waiting to be loaded onto trucks, pushing back delivery schedules, said Pete Wallace, deputy executive director for maritime services.
"It was just fortunate that we didn't have any vessels this day," he said, noting that most of the port's traffic was earlier in the week.
Taking a stand on social issues is nothing new to the ILWU, spokesman John Showalter said. In the past, union members have protested apartheid in South Africa and the Vietnam War. In the 1930s, union members refused to load scrap metal bound for Japan in protest of its invasion of China, he said. This time, "the members considered their moral obligations to speaking out against the war," he said. "They felt like this war has cost the U.S. so much in terms of lives and money spent, there needed to be a very clear statement."
Victor Gallardo, a longshoreman since 1967, has two daughters in the military, and one is on her second tour of duty in Iraq. "Our union has always been anti-war," Gallardo said.
He, like many other families, supports the troops but wants them home.
Gallardo, 63, also participated in anti-Vietnam protests when he worked at the port in Oakland in the '60s.
The protests are about bringing troops home and putting war spending into healthcare, education, caring for veterans and fixing the Social Security system, Showalter said.
On Wednesday, an arbitrator, who oversaw a hearing between the employers and union about the planned protest, ordered the union to tell its workers to show up Thursday.
He determined that the work stoppage could violate terms of the longshore workers' contract.
10,000 workers on day shift
Showalter said the union respects the arbitration process but also recognizes its members' First Amendment rights. The union has about 10,000 workers on the day shift on any single day along the West Coast, depending on the cargo load that day, he said. There are a total of about 25,000 members, who handle everything from operating cranes to clerical work at ports in California, Oregon and Washington..
Steve Getzug, spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Association, could not immediately say how much the walkout would cost employers or how many dockworkers failed to show up to work.
The West Coast ports are the main gateway for cargo container traffic from the Far East and can load and unload about 10,000 containers in a day, Getzug said.
While some dockworkers took the day to protest at their respective ports, other union members at the Port of Hueneme chose to join with the Veterans for Peace in a rally Thursday evening at Del Sol Park in Oxnard.
About 75 people stood at Rose Avenue and Camino Del Sol and held anti-war banners. There were about a dozen members of the longshoremen's union standing among the small crowd.
Earlier in the day, Dan Hultgen, president of ILWU Local 46, said, "We don't have any kind of picket line. We are just letting the country know we are supporting our troops overseas and asking for an end to the war."
The union represents about 500 workers at the port.
Costs of war cited
"The war is costing us $3 trillion that we could have been investing here at home," said Warren Shelton, secretary dispatcher for Local 46. He said the protest was about social justice for all Americans.
Bob McEllrath, the ILWU's international president, went further, saying big foreign corporations that control global shipping aren't loyal or accountable to any country.
"But longshore workers are different," he said. "We're loyal to America, and we won't stand by while our country, our troops and our economy are destroyed by a war."
May 1, or May Day, is often used to celebrate the labor movement, adding a special weight to the day's protests — and a certain predictability.
Long-term effects unlikely
J. Craig Shearman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, said shippers and exporters expected no significant, long-term disruptions from the walkout. "This is something that happens every year," Shearman said. "Shippers and exporters know about it and plan around it."
Last year, the cause was immigration rallies.
Trucker James Laudermill spent the morning washing his truck and fueling up on diesel at a truck wash in the Los Angeles suburb of Wilmington after he was turned away at the nearby Port of Long Beach.
"I was trying to pick up a load this morning, and I was at the speaker and suddenly security came out and run us all out," he said, adding he would lose about $400 because of the walkout. "We've got work, but everything is on hold until tonight. That's a whole day of no work."
— The Associated Press and Star staff writer Anna Bakalis contributed to this report.
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Posted by surfmedic91 on May 2, 2008 at 7:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If they actually worked for the money they made it would hurt.
Posted by DoctorDude on May 2, 2008 at 7:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Nice Job Brothers and Sisters! Surfmedic would be wise to look into the work ethic of medics and firefighters before casting stones at day in day out, hard working, dirty job doing blue collar workers. Live better, Work Union
I.A.T.S.E. 442
Posted by TimeArrow on May 2, 2008 at 8:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
DoctorDude: The comment about medics and firefighters was uncalled for.
Try to comfort a dying child who is screaming in pain following a traffic accident ... be awakened from a dead sleep several times a night ... not knowing what awaits you ... or working the scene where a rotting body has been discovered ... and you have just a small segment of a firefighter/paramedic's life. Having to respond, fully alert, in the middle of the night, is one of the factors that causes heart problems in so many emergency personnel.
I planned ship loadouts and supervised stevedores in Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam during one four year period of my military career. Logistics has been one of my responsibilities during a manufacturing career. I have had extensive contact with the ports and dock workers. Stevedores and dock workers in America are able to go home and relax at the end of a shift.
Contract negotiations, instead of promising increased efficiency for more pay ... are just demands based on rhetoric from your side. Work stoppages hurt everybody.
Just like those who are demonstrating for illegal immigrant rights, you are biting the hand that feeds you.
Posted by mmshoot on May 2, 2008 at 8:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
DoctorDude, what makes you assume that surfmedic91 does not consider the work he does that of a "day in day out, hard working, dirty job doing" being a "white collar worker" That person might even belong to a union themselves.
As for the protestors, I believe that have firm convictions about the conflicts in the Middle East. I just find it stunning that protesting at the docks could be concidered a logical protest. The longshoremen and others that work at the Port Hueneme harbor are a keep component of helping America in maintaining national security. National security is why are faced with the international "War on terrorism" that is being fought now.
The protection of harbors that import and export foreign goods is hugely significant in defending our nation and the nations of allies.
Posted by noahsapothecary on May 2, 2008 at 9:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Here's a key phrase in this news story:
"This is something that happens every year," Shearman said. "Shippers and exporters know about it and plan around it."
These types of protests are a tempest in a teapot. They get some press, the protesters get to feel better about themselves and the rest of us yawn and go on with our lives.
B Dawson
Posted by surfmedic91 on May 2, 2008 at 10:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Holy mother of pearl. doctordude, dont' tell me you're an actor or stage performer? And you're commenting on medics? You must consider yourself a doctor of the stage.
mmshoot, although I'm not in a union, I do work hard for what I do. The dock workers in Port Hueneme, though, are not a key component of national security. Watch how they inspect the new cars they drive off ships by the hundreds. They just want to get done before their 8 hrs is up to get paid 8hrs for less than that of work. This is an area of concern with regards to national security. They are allowed on the Navy base without military or base ID and are not controlled or monitored well. Some also have close connections with other longshoremen at ports around the world so put your mind to work and guess at what benefit that is to them for incoming "goods". There are very few jobs in this country that pay as well as theirs for the amount of work they do.
mmshoot, I invite you to watch the operations in the Port of Hueneme and see just how unsecure the port is. If it wasn't for the Navy, we'd be at a huge risk.
Posted by mmshoot on May 2, 2008 at 10:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
surfmedic91, I have followed the local coverage the auto business going on at the harbor and agree that those operations are performed with expertise and a high level of security by the dockworkers.
I was talking more about incidents like the banana boat a while back. It caused the docks to be shut down for awhile because someone had noticed a "death to America-type" statement painted inside. It was written in Arabic and was discovered that it might just be some time of meaningless sick joke. Meantime they had to inspect the vessel throughly to make sure it was not any kind of credible terrorist threath and that the boat did not contain a bomb or something.
That kind of thing is bound to happen and I am sure none of the dockworkers want the docks closed down or keep witnessing the incredible expense and time it takes to make such investigations. Unfortunately, it is about the only thing we can do to maintain security at the harbor.
Posted by shaver_one on May 2, 2008 at 10:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Again, some people are making the inaccurate Bush/Cheney/McCain connection that the War of Occupation in Iraq EVER had anything to do with the War on Terror in Afganistan.
Posted by surfmedic91 on May 2, 2008 at 11:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
mmshoot, the dockworkers have no role, I say again "no role", in providing security at the port other than reporting anything they may see as suspicous. I think you misunderstood what I wrote. The entire port and base was locked down and the gates surrounding the military side of the port were secured as a result of the graffiti a few years ago. Longshoremen had no role in this either other than a work stoppage, but they still were paid.
shaver, the war on terror isn't just in Afghanistan.
Posted by mmshoot on May 2, 2008 at 11:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Your right, shaver_one. But there is "Al Quaeda in Irag" now.
Posted by surfmedic91 on May 2, 2008 at 11:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
mmshoot, same terrorists, just a new name. Probably so they could get a new "terrorist" license.
Posted by mmshoot on May 2, 2008 at 11:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
surfmedic91, I think the spotting and reporting of things they observe of that nature is a significant role so, I would have to say the dockworkers play "some role" in the security at the port.
Posted by jw1000 on May 2, 2008 at 12:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
surfmedic: The only work I have seen of yours is the promotion of failed Iraq War policy. Over one trillion will be spent and most of it will be financed through the Chinese goverments investment in US securities. Doesn't sound like you are doing much positive work for national security either. So I wouldn't be complaining about the dock workers if I were you.
Posted by shaver_one on May 2, 2008 at 12:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
And Iraq is not the War on Terror.
AQI is the remnants of Saddam's army, Saddam's Ba'ath Party, and LOCAL Sunni Iraqis that don't like the fact that the Shia are now in power...thanks to the Bush/
Cheney War of Occupation in Iraq.
Posted by surfmedic91 on May 2, 2008 at 12:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
jw1000, my role in national security is more than most. I know first hand how the dock workers at the Port of Hueneme work and I spent my time saving lives in Iraq. I continue to promote what we are doing in the Middle East and gladly remain in the minority.
Posted by Accipe_hoc on May 2, 2008 at 2:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
A work stoppage to protest working conditions or to bring attention to an issue relating to a contract dispute is one thing.
A work stoppage in violation of an arbitrator's order to work to further a political agenda shows a lack of integrity on the part of the union's leadership.
If managemment would have pulled the same stunt and said, "We have decided not to pay all of our employees for one day to protest the War in Iraq", union leaders would not have stood for it. If management would have done it anyway after being ordered by an arbitrator not to do it, there would have been a lawsuit...
Posted by mmshoot on May 2, 2008 at 2:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Why are you so hard on the Chinese, jw1000? Don't you hate other gooks as well? Like the Japanese, the Phillipinos, the Vietamese, the South Koreans, etc. How about those Polyneseins in Hawaii?
Posted by del on May 2, 2008 at 3:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I can't hold my tongue (fingers).
mmshoot, where in the hell do you get off using the term 'gook' in this public forum?
I despise all this PC stuff and the thought police, but you are way over the top laddie.
Posted by mmshoot on May 2, 2008 at 4:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Sorry, del. That was rude. I used it to empahsize my point. It was childish. I was not even accusing jw1000 of being a racist. I don't even think he/she is.
Personally I have many good friends and business associates of oriental decent. Including all of those peoples I mentioned. I am not sure about the people of North Korea, Indonesia, Micronesia, Fiji, Samoa, etc. but I think I would like most of them, too.
Posted by cassandra on May 2, 2008 at 4:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
War on Terrorism=war on credibility..
It's still the oil, stupid.
Good for the longshorepersons. They've always been a stand up group.
Posted by del on May 2, 2008 at 5:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If we had not doggedly and stupidly maintained our dependency on oil for these last 30 years, we probably would not be having this discussion on the merits of a one day longshoreman strike protesting the debacle in Iraq.
Now there’s some cause and effect, mixed with a little hindsight.
Posted by del on May 2, 2008 at 5:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Oh... I meant to add; good on you lads and lasses. Perhaps this could lead to some sort of other national work stoppages?
Posted by mmshoot on May 2, 2008 at 6:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't mind work stoppages a bit. Somebody has to keep greedy bosses in check. When it comes to government bureaucrats striking or could effect the safety at our ports, I have to draw the line. And I don't think 65 workers protesting against the "War in Iraq" is going to make one wit of difference on Middle East policy.
Posted by del on May 2, 2008 at 6:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The entire west coast was involved in this one day strike.
Posted by mmshoot on May 2, 2008 at 8:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What's wrong with longshorepersons, CAUSASIOD? I thought cassandra was right because I said "longshoremen." I don't want to be called a "mysogenist", you know.
Posted by edfitzfish on May 2, 2008 at 9:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
HEY, DO YOU WANT TO SEE TOMORROW'S FRONT PAGE HEADLINE? READ SOME OF THE AP STORIES TO THE RIGHT, YOU'LL SEE ONE OF THEM ON THE FRONT PAGE TOMORROW!
Posted by gramagracie on May 3, 2008 at 7:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with del, we have become a country that is totally dependent on Mexico, Canada, Venezuela and Saudi for our oil. Saudi being at the end of the list. We need to go back and refine our own oil. Apparently it hasn't made a dent on "Globle Warming"...according to the "left" coast..the way they continue to want to make us green. Research how much Californians are pay for "gasoline taxes" and DMV services compared to other states.
As for the longshorepeople, they have the right to protest, that is why our young men and women continue to "volunteer" to help those less fortunate in other countries attain this freedom we have here in the USA. Speak to most of the Military men and women who keep returning to the middle east, some by their own request.
Remember Germany, their was no oil there, we still have bases there. What do you think would have happend if we had not responded to plight of the Jewish people?
Posted by mmshoot on May 4, 2008 at 2:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
People were complaining about an article that said that Chevron had reported "record" first quarter profits. Compared to what when you consider the value of the dollar today? That is at a record low as well. Lowering taxes on petroleum products is just a stop-gap measure to making serious decisions about our oil policy. I'm not sure about Mexico's contribution with our oil supply, gramagracie, but I agree with you about everything else.
My comment to the Big Oil haters was: "Exxon-Mobil posted lower first quarter profits than Google or Apple." Does the government seek to impose a "windfall profits tax" on high-tech companies? I don't think so.
Posted by surfmedic91 on May 5, 2008 at 11:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)
They didn't work as a protest and there's only 1 ship in the port to work today. I guess this protest had 0 impact on the port operations.
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