by Zeek Green
ILWU Local 23

So Miniace wants to make a name for himself.
He seems to want another “Union Busting” trophy on his shelf.

He’s brought in the big guns, and has an itch to get the ILWU’s head mounted on his wall.
But I want him impaled with a ten-foot hook and hanged from the flagpole at my Union Hall.

Does he know who and what we are? Does he want a repeat of 1934?
Does he think we’ll just roll over and give up any part of what our founders fought and died for?

This is gonna be an all out war, looks like the battle begins in the year 2002.
It’s time to fight for our Union, so let’s ask ourselves: “What would Harry do?”

Looks like this whole thing’s pretty well planned out, the SSA wants to restructure the PMA with its hawk CEO Hemmingway poised to attack.
Let’s not forget it’s the same company that got a no-bid contract to work in Iraq.

He knows that Bush and the Republicans have his back, so they wanna see how far they can force us.
We’ve always had a rocky marriage, but now the employers are trying to divorce us.

So Miniace joined forces with the shippers to help with the mission,
Got around the law by calling themselves the West Coast Waterfront Coalition.

The W.C.W.C is feeding the media piles of propaganda and fiction,
saying that we’re against technology, when we really just want union jurisdiction.

They’re trying to use modern day McCarthyism to bury us, and it is pitifully hilarious
How the media has people thinking that longshoremen are economic terrorists.

We never stopped the flow of cargo. It’s the employers that closed the gates.
It’s the employers that shut off trade through all three West Coast states.

They told the nation that we were to blame for the economy losing a billion dollars a day,
Then it was two billion a day. There was no fake figure they were not willing to say.

And all the Americans workers want someone to blame for them feeling the pinch.
Christmas was being stolen from America, it’s not the union, but the PMA that’s the Grinch.

We know that if we lose, then all workers of the world will lose.
So our officials stepped up to the plate and earned every penny of those union dues.

We lobbied in D.C., flew globally, held rallies and shouted “Bush Butt-Out!”
But the crooked employers and shippers and the government consorted to keep us shut out.

The gates were chained, and we did not have the keys to the locks.
There were rumors that the National Guard would be coming in to work the docks.

No work equals no money equals pulling kids out of college and losing houses.
And all we want is a good contract and a raise for retirees and surviving spouses.

But they don’t want the workers controlling the terminals and rail yards.
But the tide really turned when Miniace showed up with two armed guards.

The momentum is changing, the game pieces are rearranging, and it is starting to look up
Hoffa and Trumka are coming in like the Cavalry, giving us the “Homie Hook-Up.”

That ten-day lock-out taught our union a lot.
We should be proud of how we stuck together and how hard we fought.

They’ll be coming at us again in 2008,
Using terrorism and national security, there’s no time to wait.

We’d better start preparing and be ready to perform.
The waters may seem calm now, that’s why they call it the “Eye of the Storm.”