Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

Lawrence J. Maushard - May 2, 2008, posted at Portland Indymedia

An unprecedented display of labor muscle pumped up the peace movement yesterday when an estimated 25,000 union longshore workers took May Day off for an antiwar shutdown of all West Coast ports, including the ports of Portland and Vancouver.

The protest by International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) longshore workers momentarily froze the vibrant Pacific rim trade - autos, appliances, manufactured goods, foodstuffs and more - in a rare coordinated display by a major American union fed up with the US war in Iraq and the trillions of dollars spent in that effort.

"It's a war that started with a lie. If I went to the courts and told a lie, they'd lock me up," Jerry Lawrence, 59, of Portland, a rank-and-file union member said on May Day. "Now why the hell didn't they lock Bush up or kick him outta office? I blame my senators for not stepping up."

The 27-year longshoreman with ILWU Portland Local 8 was attending a union-sponsored mid-day riverside ceremony on the East Bank Esplanade just north of the Burnside Bridge to mark the union's antiwar stance. About 150 union and peace supporters crowded on the narrow floating docks to hear a few speeches and drop more than 800 yellow carnations in the Willamette river in solemn remembrance of the US deaths in Iraq (one flower for each 5 dead American soldiers now totaling about 4,050).

The ILWU May Day stand-downs from San Diego to Seattle resulted from a union caucus delegate vote of 97-3 back in February for a resolution to do an 8-hour stop-work dayshift meeting on May 1 to protest the Iraq war.

The resolution called for the immediate and safe return of U.S. troops. Organizers hoped to use the contract stop-work actions, which means longshore workers show up only for a mandatory closed-door union meeting but don't work, to carry out the Iraq war protest.

However, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), charged with negotiating and administering maritime labor agreements with the ILWU, blocked those dayshift May Day stop-work sessions after the ILWU requested them.

Just a few weeks ago, Local 8's chief executive officer Bruce Holte confirmed that the May Day stop-work meeting in Portland indeed was "off."

Asked on May 1 what had changed, Holte explained, "A lot of things have happened. First of all, yesterday morning (April 30), we lost an arbitration that we were ordered to go to work today. We respect the arbitrator and we respect his ruling. But after that we went into Federal Court. The PMA tried to do a temporary restraining order on us; we prevailed in that. So when we prevailed in that, we won that decision. Last night the decision was made by the coast (headquarters) that we were going to go out."

No matter what the contract or the courts decided, the West Coast ports shutdown was apparently already a done deal. "I'll just tell you on the record," Holte said, "that Local 8, the rank and file of Local 8, not the officers, had made the decision they weren't going to work today no matter what."

Lawrence confirmed that assertion. "We, the rank and file, says yes. We (were) going to do this regardless."

Veterans for Peace and PDX Peace also attended the union's May Day riverside ceremony. Although loud cheers briefly erupted when the West Coast ports shutdowns were announced, the riverfront union antiwar event was different than most similar local actions. There appeared to be far fewer young and student attendees than those of middle and senior age.

The sentiments of the elder attendees, however, matched those of any 20-something anarchist. "I'm mad as hell about the war, what's it's doing to Iraq and the US," Peter Parks, 64, an event organizer and Local 8 member for 8 years, said on the Esplanade when asked for comment. As to whether the ILWU's antiwar actions may lead to similar activities by other unions, Parks responded, "I hope so. I hope this stops the war."

Though the ILWU's antiwar May Day stand down looks to be the first coordinated peace action by a major American union since the start of the Iraq War in March 2003, historians with a longer view say there's nothing really surprising here.

"The unions are not just about economic issues," says Craig Woolner, associate Dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs at PSU. "They are about the concerns of working people in general, and about concerns of their members beyond simple economic justice. There's a long history of involvement by unions in issues beyond their immediate job concerns."