Container Ships
Historic Victory at Oakland Port – Israeli Ship Blocked from Unloading
Submitted by webadmin on Mon, 2010-06-21 02:39. Against Privatization | Container Ships | Docks | Earth | Repression | San Francisco Bay Area | Solidarity CampaignsNote: The organizers of this event included the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee and ANSWER. This article was originally posted here.
In a historic action and unprecedented action today, over 800 labor and community activists blocked the gates of the Oakland docks in the early morning hours, prompting longshore workers to refuse to cross the picketlines where they were scheduled to unload an Israeli ship.
From 5:30 am to 9:30 am, a militant and spirited protest was held in front of four gates of the Stevedore Services of America, with people chanting non-stop, “Free, Free Palestine, Don’t Cross the Picket Line,” and “An injury to one is an injury to all, bring down the apartheid wall.”
Citing the health and safety provisions of their contract, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union workers refused to cross the picketline to report for duty.
Between 8:30 and 9:00 am, an emergency arbitration was conducted at the Maersk parking lot nearby, with an “instant” arbitrator called to the site to rule on whether the workers could refuse to cross the picketline without disciplinary measure.
Video: ILWU Local 30 Locked Out Rio Tinto Miners Speak- out In SF At UK Consulate
Submitted by solidarity on Sat, 2010-04-17 21:27. Container Ships | San Francisco Bay Area | Solidarity Campaigns | Solidarity Campaigns | VideoVideo: ILWU Local 30 Locked Out Rio Tinto Miners Speak- out In SF At UK Consulate
http://blip.tv/file/3499283
Workers rallied at 4/16/2010 at the British Consulate in San Francisco. Two locked out
ILWU Local 30 Rio Tinto miners from Boron, California Tom Owens and Trinidad
Escoval spoke about why they were locked-out and the fight to win their struggle.
For more information on the lockout go to http://boraxminers.com/
Produced by Labor Video Project P.O. Box 720027, San Francisco, CA 94172
laborvideo.blip.tv www.laborvideo.org (415)282-1908
SeaTV. Television for and made by seafarers
Submitted by solidarity on Sun, 2009-10-18 20:01. Container Ships | Earth | Organizing Drives | Organizing Drives | TextsSeaTV. Television for and made by seafarers
http://www.watchseatv.com/
Consult the updated database by using this link.
Seafarers have their own Television Station
SeaTV is television about seafaring. The programs are about aspects of the life of seafarers such as the need for legal assistance, health, family life, technology, art, entertainment, recreation and spiritual matters.
SeaTV can be watched on board. Free DVD-discs are available (soon) at seafarers centres in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Durban, London, New York, Rotterdam, Singapore and many other stations.
SeaTV can also be watched at the download section of this website. At our youtube channel even more movieclips can be found.
The SeaTV-DVD's also contain a port database. It gives access to information like the adresses of many seamen's centres in the world. The database can also be downloadedfrom this website.
SeaTV is partly made by seafarers themselves. Everybody working at sea can join the SeaTV-team and even earn some money. Click at the participate button to find out how!
NEED HELP?
CALL FREE:
+800 73232737
Use Seafarers Mission Telephonecards and support the Seafarers Centres!
Year after SF Bay spill, ship crew still detained
Submitted by solidarity on Wed, 2008-11-05 02:05. Container Ships | Flag of Convenience | San Francisco Bay Area | Textshttp://www.examiner.com/a-1672639~Year_after_SF_Bay_spill__ship_crew_still_detained.html
Year after SF Bay spill, ship crew still detained
Nov 4, 2008 2:51 PM (3 hrs ago) By PAUL ELIAS, AP
SAN FRANCISCO(Map, News) - For nearly a year, six Chinese crew members on a ship that crashed into theSan Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge - creating the bay's worst oil spill in nearly 20 years - have been detained by federal authorities.
The sailors are being held as material witnesses in the crash of the Cosco Busan. The men, including four who are not accused of wrongdoing, are fighting for the right to return to their families in China.
"This is a lengthy detention," said University of Georgia law professor Ronald Carlson, an expert on the material witness law. "These witnesses are being detained humanely. Still, there is that undeniable desire to return home."
The 900-foot cargo ship sideswiped a bridge support in heavy fog, gashing its hull and leaking more than 50,000 gallons of fuel that killed and injured thousands of birds. It was believed to be the biggest San Francisco Bay oil spill since 1988.
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Prosecutors want the six to testify in criminal cases against the harbor pilot,John Cota, and the ship's Hong Kong-based operator, Fleet Management Ltd.Both have pleaded not guilty.
LA ILWU dockers back striking crew
Submitted by solidarity on Sat, 2008-09-27 04:00. Container Ships | Los Angeles | Organizing Drives | Textshttp://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/2615
ILWU dockers back striking crew
26 September 2008
view larger image
Crew members on the Liberian flagged Cap Spencer were able to call off a strike in Long Beach this week after winning all their demands with the help of local dockworkers.
The crew contacted ITF inspector Stefan Mueller-Dombois, asking for help with wages and working conditions problems. As requested, he put them in touch with the authorities and also alerted fellow ILWU members that there were problems onboard.
Unable to resolve their problems the crew called a strike on Tuesday, which they announced by holding up notices saying ‘On Strike’ and ‘Low Wages and Conditions’. The dockers offloading the ship recognised these as a legitimate picket line, ceased operations and disembarked the vessel. Later that day with the ITF and ILWU’s help the crew were able to secure back wages, letters of indemnity and an ITF-approved Verdi agreement.
ILWU International Affairs Director Ray Familathe commented: "This sends a clear message that ILWU dockworkers support the efforts of seafarers to join unions and better their working conditions."
Cork ship wages dispute settled
Submitted by webadmin on Sat, 2008-05-03 19:29. Against Privatization | Container Ships | IrelandTuesday, 22 April 2008 14:38
A dispute over unpaid seamen's wages on a ship in Cork harbour has been settled.
The ship, the Defender, which is operated by a Latvian company, had been detained in Cork after action by the seafarers' union but is now free to leave the port.
The Irish inspector for the International Transport Federation, Ken Fleming, said it had been a very tough case but it was encouraging that, for the first time, dockers had supported the seafarers.
He said this would make it more difficult in future for shipowners who did not treat their crews properly.
The 1500-tonne Defender is registered in Phnom Penh in Cambodia but operated by Forestry Shipping of Riga in Latvia, which sent company staff to Cork.
Mr Fleming claimed five of the crew had been pressurised into withdrawing their claims.
The rest of the crew, who claimed they had not been paid since last year, are to get $63,000 in back wages and leave the ship. The ITF is arranging for them to go home.
Cork dockers backed the ships' crew, the first time a stand has been taken by a local labour force in Ireland in support of seafarers, according to Mr Fleming, who in the past two years has recovered $1m in unpaid wages.
Maersk workers in the ports of Tacoma & Olympia wildcat, demand union representation with the solidarity of SDS / IWW members
Submitted by webadmin on Tue, 2007-11-13 20:35. Container Ships | Docks | Solidarity Campaigns | Tacoma
MAERSK STRIKE! -- PORT OF TACOMA - By Acumensch, from YouTube - November 8, 2007
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=DRKOYrE8XUo
An unannounced wildcat strike was called to push the administration of Maersk (headquarters in Tacoma) to allow union workers to join the union of their choice instead of the union the company requires them to be members of,Securitas, which doesn't provide or bargain for workers' basic needs.
MAERSK UNION STRIKE IN TACOMA - By Tacoma SDS, Indymedia- November 8, 2007
http://seattle. indymedia. org/en/2007/ 11/262632. shtml
An unannounced wildcat strike was called to push the administration of Maersk (headquarters in Tacoma) to allow union workers to join the union of their choice instead of the union the company requires them to be members of, Securitas, which doesn't provide or bargain for workers' basic needs.
The strike at the Port of Tacoma yesterday was unannounced publicly, to catch the company off-guard and to require an arbitrator from the longshoremens' union (ILWU) to come to the port and declare the picket line the Maersk workers staged was unsafe to cross. Jobs With Justice organized the strike. Tacoma SDS and other community members who heard about it went to the port to show solidarity.
Maersk is the largest shipping company in the world, Adam Hoyt said. Its North American headquarters are located in Tacoma. The workers are not granted basic needs that other union workers are, such as a pension plan. Workers are forced to join the Securitas union which is acts as a pacifier to the union workers. Maersk has tried its hardest to convince workers Securitas is a good union, and that other unions are dangerous.
Tacoma P.D. singled out Tacoma SDS members and asked for identification and phone numbers. There were no physical confrontations, but our group felt it was unfair and absurd that officers would single out SDS without any reasonable suspicion. They asked us if we were attending the Smash Tacoma ICE protest, trying to glean information about it. We told them we would not consent to any of their questions or searches. Officer Darlington said the port has been the site of conspiracies to conduct
terrorism. "People ride jetskis next to tankers and then they speed off in the other direction," he said. Tacoma SDS was not convinced.
(Editor's note: some of the members of SDS are also members of the IWW).
Jobs with Justice Protest at Port of Seattle in Solidarity with Teamster Workers at National Frozen Foods Corporation
Submitted by webadmin on Wed, 2007-09-12 20:52. Container Ships | Contract Fights | Docks | SeattleSeptember 10, 2007Contact: Paul BigmanFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE206-214-6169
SEATTLE, Sept 10 - More than 100 demonstrators shut down a major terminal at the Port of Seattle today to protest alleged U.S. labor law violations by Seattle-based National Frozen Foods Corporation (NFFC).
The protest, led by Washington State Jobs with Justice, took place at the Hanjin Shipping Terminal 46. NFFC uses the terminal to ship frozen vegetables to customers in Asia. The Hanjin Boston, chartered by Hanjin from German shipper NSB, was set to transport NFFC products from Seattle.
NFFC is one of the five largest private-label frozen vegetable processors in the United States. NFFC workers in Chehalis have been represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters since 1945.
Armed with fliers and noisemakers, the group blocked the main entrance to the 88-acre terminal, chanting slogans in support of workers’ rights and demanding that longshore workers not load the cargo, while distributing fliers calling on NFFC to return to the bargaining table.
In response, longshore workers and marine clerks from the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) stood by in accordance with their collective bargaining agreement until the issue was resolved. The terminal operator agreed to isolate the NFFC cargo, put it on wheels and have NFFC remove the cargo from the terminal.
