Julian Garcia addresses the Longshore Caucus. Photo by Lewis Wright.
The ILWU belongs to two international dockworker union federations—the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), a more than 100-year old group that includes other transportation workers like sailors, truckers and rail and airline workers, and the newly formed International Dockworkers Council (IDC), which is just dockworkers.
The IDC held its founding First Assembly in Charleston, South Carolina in March 2001 during the celebration of the Charleston 5 victory. Julian Garcia, the leader of the Spanish dockers’ union Coordinadora, was elected leader or General Coordinator of the IDC. Garcia has since retired as leader of the Spanish union, but has continued on as leader of the IDC.
The IDC backed the ILWU during its 2002 contract fight and was instrumental in stopping the European Union’s attempt to privatize and casualize European ports. It has been growing and gaining strength over the last few years. Garcia came to the Longshore Caucus in Vancouver, B.C. last May to report on the organization’s activities. While there Dispatcher editor Steve Stallone had a chance to sit down with him and ask him a few questions.
Q: It’s been four years since the founding First Assembly of the International Dockworkers Council in Charleston. What changes have happened in the organization since then?
A: There have been positive changes and new additions. Some of them are important, especially from strategic sites in the world. We’ve also noticed during this period that unions don’t need large structures to be effective, that it’s quite possible, as some have said, that large structures slow the organization down too much. We need, admittedly, a qualitative leap in affiliations. We’ve reached a membership of 50,000 dockworkers, starting from an initial membership of 12,000, but we need to have contingents in Asia, and if possible in Australia.
The fact that there have been affiliations is important, but more so is the important work that’s been done in areas that are strategic, close to the Indian Ocean, in southern Africa: Réunion Island, Mauritius, Madagascar, South Africa. That whole area has become a vital zone for the transfer of goods. We’ve had a very interesting meeting there and I’m convinced it will bear fruit.
We also have a close relationship with our fellow dockworkers in Uruguay, from Montevideo, who have made a comeback from a brutal dictatorship, especially where trade unions are concerned. I think we will soon have members in Montevideo. We are also very close in Malta. Malta is an important island in the middle of the Mediterranean, a huge container terminal, and in a way we would almost close the Mediterranean circle. We have members throughout the south, in the Magreb and Cypress.
We are also working with the ex-Soviet republics because they are slated to play an important role in the Black Sea and northern Europe. And a very important event was a meeting held three weeks ago in Brazil, attended by more than 220 delegates from all over the country. We’ve been notified that seven or eight unions will be affiliating with IDC because we understood the need to open a permanent office in Brazil, given that country’s enormous size; more than a country, it’s a continent in itself. This means our growth is significant, but more importantly, I think that we can really say that IDC has solidified as an organization.
Q: One of the most important things that’s happened in recent years is the European ports package, the two attempts by the European Union to pass legislation to privatize and deunionize the ports there. Obviously people felt like everything was on the line there. How big a victory was that for European dockworkers as a whole, but also, how important was the organizing and the victory to the IDC getting stronger?
A: Well, I think it’s been decisive. The dockworkers have realized again that we can do it, that we may currently be one of the few collective organizations in the world that can stand up to governments and powerful captains of industry if we really get organized. In one day we mobilized 45,000 dockworkers and over 10,000 demonstrated on one day’s notice. The result was convincing. We came from almost 20 different countries, 17 European ones I think with help from Australia, the United States, from Poland. And of course the IDC is recognized all over the world as an organization that can hold its own at the table, knows how to take action and is therefore a well-established organization.
Q: Let’s talk about the Mexico situation. What is happening now is that a lot of the shipping companies are building capacity there to try to bypass the ILWU, a big concern for us. Having the Mexican dock workers reorganize is very important. How do you see that happening? Where is it going? Do you see a role for the ILWU in there?
A: I don’t think it’s a matter of what role the ILWU can play, but rather the role it should play. The verb tense is very important. The ILWU should play a fundamental role in the reorganization in Mexico.
Mexico is the premier laboratory where large corporations are trying out what they want to accomplish elsewhere in the world. There are company unions, where employees work long hours, for poor wages and no social security after their workday is over, if it’s ever over. It’s a situation that’s being exploited by the companies. It’s gone from a situation in which the unions were exploiting the workers to one in which there is a shameful exploitation by the companies. I think we have to invest a lot of money and effort into revitalizing that whole situation. There is no doubt they are going to work very hard to take a lot of traffic away from the U.S. West Coast.
I was in Manzanillo in January, in Tampico and Vera Cruz. I didn’t get to Lázaro Cárdenas. I think I saw enough. I was there long enough to take the pulse of the situation and see the reality and the great disgust the dockworkers feel towards the previous union situation, and also the great hopes they have of not continuing in the current situation, but rather making some great improvements.
Q: I’m wondering what kind of help they need to make that happen?
A: I think they need real support to face the multinationals we have in the U.S. and the shipping companies we deal with in Europe. They are the ones that have caused this whole situation. The workers are afraid the companies will get rid of them. We should guarantee that union reorganization won’t lead to their termination. Right now that guarantee is a condition which must be met, or else there will not be a movement in Mexico.
Q: What do you see that the ILWU could do to help them?
A: It’s not how the ILWU can help them, but rather how it can help itself. That’s very important, because if you have that mentality I’m talking about, you’ll make different decisions. It’s not the same to save someone as it is to save yourself.
Q: And I think people realize that, understand and look at it that way. But still there’s the issue of practicality. What are the steps? I’ve heard different people talking of sending ILWU organizers down who speak Spanish, or does it make more sense to find Mexican organizers that we help fund to help them do it. What other ways might we actually make it happen. I think people understand it has to be done to save ourselves.
A: I think the first thing to find out is whether people in Mexico want a change. Then, if there are people who can make the change happen. And if there are people who want to face that new situation, who want to assume the risks, I think the Central and Latin American region needs to be strengthened.
On that basis, I think the most viable instrument that I can see, more so than the ILWU, is the IDC, which can play an essential role, if the ILWU really wants to help. I think if all those steps are followed and then a meeting is held, if we do our homework with the ship owners and operators, well then I think the situation in Mexico can be regenerated. I think we can play a very important role, far greater than we think.
Q: Let’s talk about the second IDC Assembly in Barcelona in March 2005. What was accomplished there?
A: A substantial part of the objectives are being accomplished: as far as growth, as far the work around safety. The next conference is still over a year away. But I’m very confident in this new phase because the change I’ve seen in the direction the ILWU has taken, much has been clarified. I hope those changes will also be reflected in the ILWU’s internationalist attitude, in both senses, out of necessity and conviction. I think that’s important. And if that happens, I hope when we get to the next conference, it will be held not very far from where we are now in Vancouver, and that the ILWU will assume its duties within the IDC by then, which in my opinion, includes the leadership.
Q: Do you think you’ll be stepping down as IDC General Coordinator?
A: Yes. I think there’s enough work for everyone in the IDC. I don’t need to be the general coordinator to keep on working. My objective is not to be general coordinator for the IDC, but rather to make sure the IDC is big and strong and has responsibilities within the dockworkers’ movement.
Q: If you don’t continue as general coordinator, where do you see yourself going from there?
A: If there is no change, I’ll keep working. But if a change takes place, I’ll keep working, if they’ll let me. I’m retired, but I’ll never stop being a dockworker. That is something they can’t take from me. If they want a committed person, who is experienced, who has been in the trade for a long time, then I think I’ll keep working there. And it doesn’t matter to me if I’m the general coordinator or if I clean bathrooms. It’s all the same to me. I want to say that I’ll continue to work for this job that I love, and that’s all.
Q: Is there something you would like to say to ILWU members.
A: Well, first of all, I want to thank them for inviting me to the ILWU’s Longshore Caucus. And I wanted to say to them that all ILWU members hold a very important place in the longshore movement. That they will be a deciding factor in many of the things that will happen in the future and that I hope they make good decisions, because their decisions will affect the whole world. So I hope they will rise to the occasion and fulfill their responsibilities.
