Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

Vote for Jack Heyman
ILWU Local 10 Caucus Delegate E66

A MILITANT LONGSHORE PROGRAM
Program Of ILWU Local 10 Longshoreman Jack Heyman For Coast Caucus Delegate To Convention

1. Strengthen the Union and the Hiring Hall

As the economic crisis worsens and shipping slows, there will be fewer jobs. It’s looking like the depression in the ‘30’s when a few “star gang” men favored by the employers had steady work and most longshoremen got the crumbs. The Big Strike in ’34 ended favoritism in hiring. Workers took job dispatching out of the maritime bosses’ hands and put it under union control with the hiring hall and union dispatchers elected by the rank and file rotated. Two years and out for dispatchers! All jobs, including supplemental walking boss jobs, should be dispatched out of the hall. Eliminate the steady man system. Share the work by rotation. Enforce the “order of dispatch” on the job. No more doubling and tripling means a stronger union and safer conditions.

2. Oppose Concessionary Contracts – Fight for More Jobs

Local 10 voted 49% against this last 6 year concessionary contract. Yet, for the first time ever the Caucus voted unanimously to recommend ratification of the contract. We should fight PMA for more jobs not each other for fewer jobs. Four shifts of 6 hours each at no loss in pay makes more jobs. The wage gap between skill and hold and dock jobs continues to widen. That weakens our union’s ability to stand united against PMA which now has “expedited” arbitrations. The unfair grievance procedure favors PMA: “Work now, grieve later.” Our strength is in job actions – which PMA cites as “illegal” – to fight for more jobs, safe working conditions and unified coastwide manning.

3. Unite Longshore Workers – End the “B” System

“B” members did picket duty during the 2002 contract fight and should be treated equally. Abolish the “B” and casual system. Full benefits, wages and rights after 800 hours on the front. End tiered wages. Equal pay for equal work.
4. Organize All Port Workers

Organize the unorganized port workers like port truckers, satellite yard workers and intermodal terminal workers. Make the waterfront 100% union, so if we strike the ports are shut down tight. Work closely with the ILA and Teamsters to build one militant waterfront union on the East, Gulf and West Coasts. No union raiding.

5. For Labor Unity against Employer and Government Attacks

Labor solidarity was key to the ‘34 and ’48 strike victories and always will be. Unity of action can stop PMA and government attacks, like using Taft-Hartley against our historic ’08 May Day strike or the threat of troops during 2002 contract negotiations. Honor all picket lines. No more PATCO defeats!

6. For Workers Democracy – Oppose Government Interference in Unions

The phony “war on terror” is being used to take away democratic and trade union rights. Oppose TWIC cards, screening of workers and the militarization of ports. Mobilize labor against the repressive Maritime Transportation Security Act and USA Patriot Act which will gut union power, ban job actions, strikes or any form of port protest. Oppose the Feds' takeover of unions like the running Local 10’s election last year. NLRB is the employers’ tool vs. unions.

7. Fight Racist and Sexist Discrimination

ILWU International officers have been slow to move against racist acts like the hanging nooses on the LA docks and to defend immigrant workers’ rights. No scapegoating immigrant workers for capitalism’s crisis. Full citizenship rights for all immigrants. United labor action can stop racist terror. No death penalty. Free framed up black death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Defend affirmative action. It’s a gain for all workers, women and men. Oppose court suits against our union. We workers have got to clean our own house.

8. International Labor Solidarity Begins at Home

Our jobs and our power are located at the choke point of global trade, the ports. That’s why capitalist “free trade” agreements seek to bust longshore unions. International solidarity actions for the Liverpool dockers, Australian wharfies and the Charleston longshoremen strengthen all maritime unions. But solidarity begins at home. That’s why it was important to defend our two Local 10 brothers attacked by cops in the port of Sacramento. ILWU shows its power when we implement our slogan, “An injury to one is an injury to all.”

9. Replace the Union Bureaucracy with a Fighting Leadership

The ILWU International officers have been running scared. In 2002, they signed a first ever 6-year concessionary contract. This year they did it again, only this time they boasted that we got this contract because we showed powerful unity in our May Day antiwar action. The truth is they opposed the May Day rallies and marches. We organized this action to oppose an imperial war and withdraw the troops now, not to waive the flag and to get a contract below the cost-of-living. These union bureaucrats have been mainly silent on the war and immigrant workers rights and worse, complicit in pushing TWIC cards on longshoremen as part of the "war on terror". Oust the pro-capitalist labor fakers! Build a militant union leadership that's not afraid to stand up to PMA and the capitalist government.

10. Build a Class Struggle Workers Party Based on Labor Unions

Bush was a disaster for workers and the economy: the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the “war on terror”, capitalist “free trade” agreements that bust unions globally, no immediate aid for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina only racist “shoot to kill” orders for survivors desperately searching for food, and now the $700 billion bailout for Wall Street fat cats while workers lose their jobs and homes. Both parties- Democrat and Republican- backed these policies!

Both Obama and McCain support the bankers’ bailout and war in the Middle East. No support to the parties of big business. Labor needs its own party. That used to be ILWU’s position. Organize a workers party to fight for a workers’ government to run a planned economy to stop home foreclosures, end unemployment, provide jobs for all by nationalizing basic industry (without compensation) under workers’ control and fight against imperialist wars abroad and class oppression at home.

JACK’S RECORD

Since 1984, as an ILWU union activist, I’ve fought for militant labor actions against employers and in solidarity with other workers and against racism and imperialist wars.

ON THE CONTRACT

· Opposed and organized against this last 6-year concessionary contract that Local 10 voted against by 49%. During the 2002 contract struggle organized picket lines using the Roving Picket Squad to stop scabbing during the PMA lockout. Organized labor solidarity rallies and marches to defend ILWU against government's use of Taft-Hartley after PMA lockout.

LABOR SOLIDARITY AND ANTIWAR ACTIONS
· Helped organize the 2008 ILWU May Day action that shutdown all U.S. West Coast ports demanding an end to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and immediate withdrawal of troops. The historic ILWU antiwar strike defied PMA, the government and even ILWU International officers, who opposed the rallies and marches in San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.

· In 1997-8 organized solidarity actions for Liverpool dockers and in 2000 for the Charleston longshoremen.

· In 1984 helped organize Pier 80 action against apartheid in South Africa.

· In 1999 organized coastwise action to defend innocent death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.

· Successfully helped mobilize support to pass Local 10’s resolution against the war and occupation of Iraq at the 2003 ILWU Convention. Organized Local 10’s Labor Conference to Stop the War in 2007 that led the Caucus voting for the historic May Day action.

ON SAFETY
· Received a Coast Guard commendation for saving the life of a maritime worker in a barge explosion and fire on the dock in Bayonne, New Jersey in 1980. Over 35 years of fighting for job safety on the waterfront.

ON GOVERNMENT REPRESSION
· Oppose the TWIC card. Helped organize Woodland rallies against racist police profiling and use of “port security” against two Local 10 brothers Harrison and Ruffin. In 2003, when I was Business Agent I was beaten and arrested by police during an antiwar protest while defending longshoremen in the port of Oakland. I was exonerated and took part in the successful lawsuit by ILWU and other victims of police brutality.

JACK’S RECORD

Since 1984, as an ILWU union activist, I’ve fought for militant labor actions against employers and in solidarity with other workers and against racism and imperialist wars.

ON THE CONTRACT

· Opposed and organized against this last 6-year concessionary contract that Local 10 voted against by 49%. During the 2002 contract struggle organized picket lines using the Roving Picket Squad to stop scabbing during the PMA lockout. Organized labor solidarity rallies and marches to defend ILWU against government's use of Taft-Hartley after PMA lockout.

LABOR SOLIDARITY AND ANTIWAR ACTIONS
· Helped organize the 2008 ILWU May Day action that shutdown all U.S. West Coast ports demanding an end to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and immediate withdrawal of troops. The historic ILWU antiwar strike defied PMA, the government and even ILWU International officers, who opposed the rallies and marches in San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.

· In 1997-8 organized solidarity actions for Liverpool dockers and in 2000 for the Charleston longshoremen.

· In 1984 helped organize Pier 80 action against apartheid in South Africa.

· In 1999 organized coastwise action to defend innocent death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.

· Successfully helped mobilize support to pass Local 10’s resolution against the war and occupation of Iraq at the 2003 ILWU Convention. Organized Local 10’s Labor Conference to Stop the War in 2007 that led the Caucus voting for the historic May Day action.

ON SAFETY
· Received a Coast Guard commendation for saving the life of a maritime worker in a barge explosion and fire on the dock in Bayonne, New Jersey in 1980. Over 35 years of fighting for job safety on the waterfront.

ON GOVERNMENT REPRESSION
· Oppose the TWIC card. Helped organize Woodland rallies against racist police profiling and use of “port security” against two Local 10 brothers Harrison and Ruffin. In 2003, when I was Business Agent I was beaten and arrested by police during an antiwar protest while defending longshoremen in the port of Oakland. I was exonerated and took part in the successful lawsuit by ILWU and other victims of police brutality.