Longshoreman Strike to Protest Iraq-Namese War

The west coast members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union defied an arbitrator’s ruling and staged an 8-hour strike yesterday, effectively closing the left-hand side of the country to cargo traffic. Their cause wasn’t higher pay, shorter hours or better healthcare. What they want is an end to the war in Iraq-Nam.

ILWU president Bob McEllrath said, “Longshore workers are standing-down on the job and standing up for America. We’re supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it’s time to end the war in Iraq.” The union recently passed a resolution noting “the overwhelming majority of the American people now oppose this bipartisan and unjustifiable war, but the two major political parties -- Democrats and Republicans -- continue to fund it.”

The Pacific Maritime Association represents the 29 ports along the Pacific coast of the American mainland. Originally, the ILWU asked it to permit workers to take the day off to protest the war, but the PMA refused. When the union went ahead with plans for the 8-hour strike, the PMA claimed the union had violated the current labor contract (which is coming to its end July 1). The PMA asked the Coast Arbitrator John Kagel to order the union to behave. He did, and the ILWU walked anyway.

ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees said the union was complying with the contract’s terms but refused to say if the union had contacted members to tell them to go to work. He demurred saying, “The decision by members to take a day off work on May 1 to protest the war is their right under the US Constitution and it's about time that citizens stood up to tell the truth about the need to end the war.”

The 8-hour strike isn’t going to bring the boys and girls back any faster. However, the fact that a US labor union (admittedly a pretty political and even militant union) would down tools over a matter of politics rather than economics is a sign of just how far the government of the US has moved away from the people it governs. It’s positively French, and the late longshoreman and philosopher Eric Hoffer would rightly be proud of them.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Kensington Review Home