America’s animal care industry was once dominated by independent veterinarians and support staff. Now the vet industry is being transformed by powerful corporations and Wall Street investors – posing new challenges for both workers and pet owners. Making history On...
A delegation of 20 ILWU members traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, where they spent several days honoring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was assassinated 50 years ago during a bitter strike by sanitation workers on April 4, 1968. The three-day event...
On February 22, Local 19’s Education Committee hosted a talk on by ILWU International Secretary Treasurer Willie Adams who discussed the ILWU’s Civil Rights history. Approximately 55 people attended the talk at the Local 19 hall. Adams highlighted the history of the...
Union officials in Panama and the United States joined together in early March to criticize plans by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) that call for outsourcing tugboat operations. The ILWU International Union and its affiliate, the Panama Canal Pilots Union, joined...
The ILWU joined a successful effort by the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) to win better working conditions for seafarers in an industry that traditionally shunned unions and abused maritime workers. The agreement also protects dockworkers by...
A showdown took place at the U.S. Supreme Court on February 26 where union advocates squared-off against anti-union lawyers funded by big business. Anti-union argument The fight involved a controversial case called “Janus versus AFSCME,” so named because it was...
The Zhen Hua 28 left Shanghai in January with four new cranes welded to its frame. On Friday, February 23, it finally reached Commencement Bay as the Port of Tacoma got closer to finishing the $141 million pier remodel that will enable the terminal to berth two 18,000...
In his new book, Burning Bridges, attorney Peter Afrasiabi introduces us to the relentless, decades-long crusade to discredit and deport ILWU leader Harry Bridges. The book transports readers back to the tumultuous height of the red scare during the 1940’s and 50’s...
Norman “Norm” S. Parks was born on March 7, 1943, into a strong union family with a long legacy in longshoring. His father, Ezra, was a skilled grain “boardman” at Local 8 in Portland who knew how to load grain that arrived onto ships from shoreside elevators that...
“Good people share and aren’t scared about letting other people have a go,” Paddy Crumlin told a room full of International delegates in London this November. Crumlin is President of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), and he welcomed dozens of youth...
