AMERICAN LABOUR:

SHOW OF SOLIDARITY WITH RIO TINTO MINERS:

Since January 31 borax miners in Boron California have been locked out by international mining giant Rio Tinto. The struggle has gained worldwide attention, and recently there was a show of solidarity from people in the Los Angeles area. Here's the story from the AFL-CIO blog.

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It’s a ‘Hard Land’ for Locked-Out Miners
by Mike Hall, Mar 21, 2010
Several hundred Los Angeles-area union members recently came together to lend support and solidarity to the nearly 600 members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30 locked out at Rio Tinto’s Borax mine in Boron, Calif. Now, you can get a firsthand look at this union solidarity in action with this slide show set to the word and music of Bruce Springsteen’s “This Hard Land.”

A caravan, organized by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, delivered more than $30,000 in food and other supplies to support the miners fighting the international mining conglomerate’s move to outsource jobs, convert full-time jobs to part-time temporary work, slash retirement benefits and gut grievance protections and other workplace rules.

John Kawakami, the federation’s communication specialist, put together this stirring slide show covering the day’s events—an early morning rally at a Dodger Stadium parking lot; the drive to Boron, 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles; and the delivery of the much-needed supplies to the workers and their families.

The workers were locked out Jan. 31, after they voted down the giveback-packed contract from Rio Tinto. According to the ILWU, Rio Tinto in 2009 made nearly $5 billion in profits, despite a worldwide recession.

The London-based company operates mines on five continents and has a long record of union-busting actions, according to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM).
For more information, visit Local 30’s website here.

AMERICAN LABOUR:

COMPANIES FILE LAWSUIT AGAINST LONGSHOREMEN "STRIKERS FOR PEACE":

The following item is from the LibCom website. Last May Day longshoremen on the west coast of the USA held a one day "strike against war" which closed 29 west coast ports and inspired a sympathy strike in the Iraqi town of Basra. The strike was something of a wildcat as it was not officially recognized by the union, the ILWU. Now the bosses are trying to extract their pound of flesh via complaints to the US National labour Relations Board. The story, and suggestions for solidarity follow.

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Shipping companies file charges over May Day anti-war strike

US West Coast dockers who struck against the war on May 1st now face a legal threat from their employers.

The Pacific Maritime Association has asked the National Labor Relations Board to file charges against the union. The employers’ move, initiated in late May, comes in the midst of ongoing contract talks.

The threat was revealed to several hundred trade unionists at the National Shop Stewards Network annual conference in London on Saturday. Four delegates from ILWU Local 10 – Samantha Levens, Anthony Leviege, Robert Irminger and Jack Heyman – were greeted with a standing ovation as they entered the hall. In workshops and informal discussion, they explained how their historic strike had been organised.

The NSSN is the first non-party inter-union coordination of rank and file trade unionists in Britain for many years. Initiated by the RMT, it now involves members spread across most major unions in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Platform speakers on Saturday included the RMT General Secretary Bob Crow, POA General Secretary Brian Caton, and PCS President Janice Goodrich. Interest in the ILWU story was intense. Jack Heyman told the final plenary that imperialist wars abroad meant repression at home, and ending the war would benefit all workers.

The strike had its origins in the Labor Conference to Stop the War, held in San Francisco last October and to which the RMT sent 6 delegates. Conference called on individual unions to establish policy in favour of industrial action against the war. In February, the ILWU Longshore Caucus debated a resolution from Local 10. Vietnam veterans spoke in that debate, and swung the vote to overwhelming support for workers’ action to stop the war. While the original motion called for a 24 hour stoppage, the union opted for 8 hours and then tried to use the normal facility of a monthly stop-work meeting. However, the employers refused to grant this facility and the stoppage went ahead without their permission.First ever US strike against war
The longshore action on International Workers Day was the first ever US strike against war, closed all 29 West Coast ports and inspired a solidarity stoppage in the Iraqi Port of Basra. The PMA claims it constituted an “unlawful secondary boycott”.

The legal threat may be a ploy in contract talks. The current agreement expired today (1st July). During previous negotiations in 2002, the then Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield warned the union that industrial action would constitute a threat to national security, and threatened to bring troops to occupy the docks in the event of a strike over the contract.

In their submission to the NLRB filed on 27 May, the PMA declared:

On or about February 8, 2008, and at all times thereafter, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (“ILWU“) has engaged in the planning, coordination and publication of a work stoppage scheduled to occur on or about May 1, 2008 at ports throughout the West Coast. On May 1, 2008, the threatened work stoppage occurred and caused the closure of virtually every major port in California, Oregon and Washington. The ILWU did not have a dispute with PMA, a multi-employer bargaining association, or any of PMA’s approximately 70 member stevedoring, terminal and shipping companies, all of whom employ ILWU members. Rather, according to the Union’s public statements, the purpose for the work stoppage was to protest the United States Government and its current military policy, specifically regarding the war in Iraq.

The ILWU’s actions in connection with the May 1, 2008 work stoppage constituted an unlawful secondary boycott in violation of the Section 8 (b) (4) (B) of the Act. The ILWU induced and encouraged its members to refuse to perform their jobs and threatened and restrained PMA and its member companies with the work stoppage. In doing so, the ILWU prevented PMA and its member companies from doing business and dealing with other employers and persons, as well as each other.

Section 8 (b) (4) (B) bars labour actions aimed to force a boycott of other companies or to compel another employer to recognise a union.

It is highly debatable whether the action constituted a “secondary boycott”. The ILWU stoppage came after the PMA refused a normal union request that the monthly facility for stop-work meetings be granted for the day shift on May 1st.

The NLRB must now decide whether to proceed with charges against the union.

Send solidarity messages to:

Bob McEllrath, International President, ILWU,

1188 Franklin Street,

San Francisco, California

94109.

Tel: (+1 415) 775 0533

Fax: (+1 415) 775 1302.

Email: robert.mcellrath@ilwu.org

Send protests to:

PMA public relations consultant,

Steve Getzug,

at (310) 633-9444 or

steve.getzug@hillandknowlton.com

PMA Headquarters

555 Market Street

San Francisco, CA

94105-2800

Phone: (415) 576-3200

Main FAX: (415) 348-8392
and to
NLRB San Francisco

901 Market Street,

Suite 400

San Francisco, CA

94103-1735
Regional Director:

Joseph P. Norelli

Hours of Operation: 8:30 am - 5:00 pm

(PST)TEL: 415-356-5130

FAX: 415-356-5156
or use the email form for the NLRB information office

AMERICAN LABOUR:

JUSTICE AT THE BEACH:

The following is an appeal from the online labour solidarity site Labour Start. It concerns hotel workers in the US state of Hawaii and their struggle for unionization.

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USA: Pacific Beach Hotel workers have a right to a union

In the Hawaii tourism industry, where employees must come to work every day with a smile on their faces, and share their hospitality and aloha with visitors and guests, the Pacific Beach Hotel is deliberately and repeatedly violating its workers' rights - proving that hotel management does not understand the meaning of the word "aloha." It has been over six years since workers first started to organize; since then, they've suffered management lies, intimidation, threats, and bribes to prevent them from joining the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). Management has already been found to have committed serious violations of federal law. Over 30 of the strongest union supporters lost their jobs as part of management's fear campaign. Management refuses to negotiate in good faith with the ILWU. The hotel has been charged with over two dozen additional counts of illegal treatment of its workers. A community boycott of the hotel was called in December 2007, which has gained the support of Hawaii leaders, lawmakers, educators and unions, the national AFL-CIO, and several Japanese labor organizations, including Zenkowan (All Japan Dockworkers union), RENGO, Service RENGO, IUF-JCC, and ITF. Despite public support for the workers, Pacific Beach Hotel owner HTH Corporation refuses to acknowledge its responsibility to bargain in good faith and to obey US labor law.

Go to THIS LINK to read more, join the campaign and send the following letter to corporate management.

To HTH Corporation, owner of the Pacific Beach Hotel,
Your attempts to circumvent US labor law and acts of union-busting are shameful. Your employees are not making unreasonable demands - they are just asking that you acknowledge and respect their secret ballot vote for union representation as is guaranteed by law, and that you reward their decades of loyal service with a fair union contract. The workers' union, ILWU Local 142, has over one hundred contracts throughout the state of Hawaii. The vast majority of them are settled peacefully, with reasonable negotiations conducted by both sides. Most of the comparable hotels in Waikiki also have union contracts and workers who are treated fairly. What you are doing is bad for business and bad for the tourism industry in Hawaii. Please don't wait to be forced to do the right thing by the National Labor Relations Board. Take the responsibility to be a fair employer and do the right thing now. I will not patronize the Pacific Beach Hotel until you: Obey US labor law; Hire back the workers who were fired for supporting their union; Recognize the ILWU as the workers' union representative; Negotiate in good faith. Please treat the workers as they deserve to be treated - as you yourselves would like to be treated - lawfully, respectfully and with appreciation for the hard work they do every day.
Sincerely,

AMERICAN LABOUR:


WORKERS AGAINST WAR- ILWU STRIKES AGAINST IRAQ WAR:


The following is a news item from LibCom, a British libertarian socialist website. One of the most inspiring things about yesterday's Mayday was a one day strike on the part of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) that shut down 29 ports on the west coast of the USA. The object of the strike was to protest the US war in Iraq, and the strike was organized by the rank and file, against the advise of the labour arbitrator and 'somewhat" (according to an interview with Jack Heyman of the ILWU) against the union bureaucracy. See THIS LINK to the radio show Democracy Now for more details on this. As Heyman says in the interview, "I hope this will be an example to other workers that we have the power, and we've got to use it. And that's how we can bring this war to a halt." Infinitely true.


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Dockworkers strike against war in America and Iraq

25,000 dock workers in 29 ports across the US went on strike today, to protest the war in Iraq. Meanwhile, in Iraq, dockers stopped work for an hour in a show of international solidarity.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union declared the day as "a day for union business" for workers at all 29 ports on the west coast. This may be the beginning of a record setting anti-war action, since the vast majority of supplies and munitions for the American government's current wars are shipped from the 29 ports on the West Coast. All 29 were closed today.





The decision to strike on May 1st against the war was taken democratically by the rank and file of the ILWU. Employers had been notified of the strike in advance, but refused to accommodate the union’s request, instead trying to get court backing for a ban.





Truckers in Washington, DC were also on strike today, protesting both fuel prices and continued American involvement in Iraq. They rallied today calling for the soldiers to be bought home immediately.





This is not the first time American dockers have walked off the job for political reasons, previously taking action in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Liverpool Dockers.




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While actions were taken by American workers, workers in Iraq also stopped work today in the ports of Umm Qasr and Khor Al Zubair as part of their protest against both the war and attacks on union rights in Iraq. The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq issued a statement on the 29th saying:
Quote:
Dear Brothers and Sisters of ILWU in California
The courageous decision you made to carry out a strike on May Day to protest against the war and occupation of Iraq advances our struggle against occupation to bring a better future for us and for the rest of the world as well.

We are certain that a better world will only be created by the workers and what you are doing is an example and proof of what we say. The labor movement is the only element in the society that is able to change the political equations for the benefit of mankind. We in Iraq are looking up to you and support you until the victory over the US administration's barbarism is achieved.

Over the past five years the sectarian gangs who are the product of the occupation, have been trying to transfer their conflicts into our ranks. Targeting workers, including their residential and shopping areas, indiscriminately using all sorts of explosive devices, mortar shells, and random shooting, were part of a bigger scheme that was aiming to tear up the society but they miserably failed to achieve their hellish goal. We are struggling today to defeat both the occupation and sectarian militias' agenda.

The pro-occupation government has been attempting to intervene into the workers affairs by imposing a single government-certified labor union. Furthermore it has been promoting privatization and an oil and gas law to use the occupation against the interests of the workers.
We the port workers view that our interests are inseparable from the interests of workers in Iraq and the world; therefore we are determined to continue our struggle to improve the living conditions of the workers and overpower all plots of the occupation, its economic and political projects.
Let us hold hands for the victory of our struggle.
Long live the port workers in California!
Long live May Day!
Long live International solidarity!