By James Spinosa

ILWU International President

Time goes so fast in our hectic, modern world that taking the time to look back—even a short while—is hard to find. Seeing the patterns in those events and trying to figure out what they mean for our future is even harder. But what happens to the ILWU, our members and their families, and what happens to the working people of this country and around the world depends on our figuring it out.

In late September I and 15 other ILWU officers and rank and filers flew to Liverpool, Great Britain. We went to participate in a commemoration of a dock worker struggle 10 years ago that has defined port labor relations around the world ever since (see story page 3).

As part of an anti-union campaign in Great Britain in the 1980s conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government abolished the country’s National Dock Labour Scheme set up after WWII that nationalized the ports and guaranteed job security for union dockers. The ports were privatized and casual, non-union workers brought in to replace the union ones. The Liverpool dockers, some of the country’s strongest and most militant union workers, resisted the buyouts and held onto their jobs.

But in September 1995 a group of about 80 dockers set up a spontaneous picket line when about 20 of their co-workers were fired and replaced by non-union workers. The remaining 400 dockers refused to cross the line. An injury to one was an injury to all.

For their efforts all the Liverpool dockers were sacked and replaced by non-union workers. In response, the dockers, who had a history of solidarity, taking actions in support of South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, against Chile’s military dictatorship and others, tried to organize an international movement in support of themselves this time.

The ILWU understood the significance of this episode early on, understood that if long-unionized dockers in a major world port could be quickly replaced by casual workers laboring without guaranteed wages and conditions, it could happen to any longshore union. Our members contributed heavily to the financial support of the unemployed Liverpool dockers while they kept up their picketing and fighting to get their jobs back.

In 1997 the Neptune Jade, a ship loaded by the employer that fired the Liverpool dockers, sailed into the Port of Oakland. ILWU members refused to cross a community picket line and wouldn’t touch the cargo. The ship sailed on to Vancouver, B.C. where ILWU members there also refused to handle it. Japanese dockers gave it a similar greeting when it went there. The action buoyed the Liverpool dockers’ hopes, but was not by itself enough to win them back their jobs. The international dock workers movement wasn’t united and coordinated enough at that time to beat back this concerted attack on Liverpool.

Still their loss exposed things all of us in the international dockers movement learned from and must continue to learn from, things about solidarity in action, and about its strategic, coordinated and timely use.

At the same time we learned the employers’ strategy against us. So we were not surprised when in 1998 Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Patrick’s Stevedoring moved against the Maritime Union of Australia. This time the international dockers movement mobilized quickly and with multiple actions.

The ILWU took action against the first scab-loaded ship from Australia, the Columbus Canada, when it came to the U.S. Again, ILWU members, this time at the Port of Los Angeles, wouldn’t cross a community picket line to work the cargo. The ship was sent back down under and reloaded by union labor. Other docker unions around the world also responded immediately with solidarity actions, and the combined effect backed down our enemies.

When the employers and the state of South Carolina decided to test the strength of ILA Charleston Local 1422 in January 2000, bringing in scab labor to do the local’s work, the union longshore workers set up a picket line. When a massive police force was sent in to bust heads and imprison workers like they used to do in the Old South, the ILWU was there immediately to say "No!" And we moved quickly to rally other unions, union federations and civil rights and community groups to the cause.

Then the Spanish dockers of Coordinadora backed us up with targeted pressure on the employer that had used scab labor in Charleston. That pressure made the employer back down, and the right-wing state Attorney General spearheading the case saw his political career vanish, the Charleston Five won their freedom and the longshore workers of Charleston are stronger than ever.

Then came the ILWU’s turn with our 2002 negotiations. Sure we played that bargaining tough and shrewd. And we had big support throughout the American labor movement. But the employers also knew the ILWU belonged to international dockworker associations that were committed to supporting us. That gave the employers pause and saw us through to our victory.

In all their calculations, there was one variable the employers could never quite account for. They could never quite comprehend workers’ empathy and compassion for each other, in a word—solidarity.

At the gathering in Liverpool, leaders of docker unions around the world recommitted themselves to each other and the international movement to keep our ports union and safe. We have a common understanding of what we are up against, the globalized forces seeking to eliminate strong, unionized port workers. And we are using that knowledge and new technologies to globally organize and protect ourselves.

The ILWU has been in the forefront of this international docker organizing. We belong to both the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the International Dockworker Council (IDC), solidifying our network of support. We are doing what we need to do to be prepared for our 2008 negotiations.

But our employers are relentless. They have no intention of conceding our victories and trying to peacefully co-exist.

As we have seen with the recent attacks on our Chilean brothers in the Port of Iquique, as we have seen in the latest attempt to privatize the European Union countries’ docks and the Dutch government’s moves to eliminate union dockers’ rights and jobs, as we have seen in the continuing moves of the Australian government to outlaw unions, they are not letting up. And neither will we.