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Union's War Protest Shuts Down West Coast Ports
By William Yardley
The New York Times
Friday 02 May 2008
Seattle - West Coast ports were shut down on Thursday as thousands of
longshoremen failed to report for work, part of what their union leaders said
was a one-day, one-shift protest against the war in Iraq.
Cranes and forklifts stood still from Seattle to San Diego, and ships were
stalled at sea as workers held rallies up and down the coast to blame the war
for distracting public attention and money from domestic needs like health care
and education.
"We're loyal to America, and we won't stand by while our
country, our troops and our economy are being destroyed by a war that's
bankrupting us to the tune of $3 trillion," the president of the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union, Bob McEllrath, said in a written statement. "It's
time to stand up, and we're doing our part today."
About 25,000 union members are employed at 29 West Coast ports, but the protest
took place only during the day shift. A spokesman for the main West Coast employers'
group, the Pacific Maritime Association, said it appeared that about 6,000 workers
did not show up for work, which meant that about 10,000 containers would not
be loaded or unloaded from about 30 cargo ships.
The spokesman, Steve Getzug, cast the action as a strike and therefore a violation
of the union's labor contract, which is up for renewal this summer.
"What the union says and what the union does are two different things,"
Mr. Getzug said. "This is genuine defiance."
Union leaders said that the association had rejected their request weeks ago
for Thursday's one-shift work stoppage, but that local longshoremen continued
to promote the protest. It went forward, the union leaders said, despite a demand
on Wednesday by an independent arbitrator that they instruct members to go to
work.
In many cases, dock workers were joined at port entrances or at rallies by
other groups protesting the war or frustrated by economic issues or immigration
policies. Some rallies seemed as much like street fairs as angry acts of resistance,
with booksellers setting up stands and supporters of the presidential candidate
Ralph Nader carrying banners.
On the Seattle waterfront, members of the United Auto Workers and the Service
Employees International Union mixed with self-described socialists while many
of the scores of police officers on the scene ate box lunches and petted their
horses.
In Oakland, Calif., some truckers who said they were angry about high gas prices
decided not to cross picket lines at the port.
"I got here ready to haul," said Cesar Lara, 41, a resident
of Richmond, Calif., born in Zacatecas, Mexico. "They told me it was
a picket but if I wanted to go in I could. But I'm supporting them and
to end the war."
Several drivers said truckers were planning their own nationwide work stoppage
in the next several days to protest record-high gas prices and surcharges.
In Long Beach, Calif., part of nation's largest port complex, truck
drivers from California and neighboring states waited for the port security
gates to reopen on Thursday evening, when union members said they planned to
return to work. Nearby, in Wilmington, longshoremen met inside a hall while
some union members outside read pink fliers stating the reasons for work stoppage.
Kevin Schroeder, director of Local 13's political action committee,
said, "The children of middle-class people are over there dying, so we
decided to do something. We are fortunate enough to be in an organization that
has a platform to do something."
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Rebecca Cathcart contributed reporting from Long Beach, California,
and Carolyn Marshall from Oakland, California
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