Striking West Coast longshoremen and ship clerks have been backed into a corner by a combination of enemies- the shipowners, the federal government, and an ineffectual strike strategy. But they have come out fighting, with greater prospects of winning than before. At the same time, President Nixon's attempt to get Congress to pass legislation to break the dock strike is bogged down in the House Subcommittee on Labor.
There are two important developments here. The strike is being tightened up along the coast, and in the Bay Area a conference of the labor movement is being called.
Bending to persistent rank-and-file pressure. at long last the Coast Strike Strategy Committee has finally cut off the flow of strikediverted cargo from Canadian and Mexican ports. The committee is headed by Harry Bridges, president of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU).
On the political level, ILWU Local 10 (San Francisco), on its own initiative, has called for an Immediate Emergency Conference of all labor organisations, regardless of affiliation*. The announced objective of this conference is to plan concerted action to defeat the attempt to break the IL WU strike.
Delegations headed by Local 10 officials went to the San Francisco Labor Council. the San Francisco Building Trades Council, and the Alameda Labor Council (which represents the labor movement of Oakland and neighboring cities across the Bay). In all three bodies the call was passed unanimously. As soon as delegates from the unions are elected, the conference will be held.
In the meantime, Local 10 is engaged in a massive propaganda effort to acquaint people with the strike issues. Pickets from Local 10 are now to be seen all over the Bay Area, handing out leaflets and talking to people at union meetings, supermarkets, and in working-class districts.
The Local 10 leaflet being distributed is headed Our Longshore Strike-Look Out, you and your union may be next. The leaflet continues: "Our employer-The Pacific Maritime Association -has failed to bargain in good faith. Phase One of the MA's plan was to force a long and gruellingstrike with the intention of starving us into voting for a substandard contract. Failing in that attempt, Phase Two of the PMA's scheme is to sit back and await a pro-employer legislated settlement. In either event. their master plan is to break the back of our union, and they have pursued this plan in complete disregard for the publi......
The final two paragraphs of this leaflet read: "We are being asked to accept a set of PMA demands that would destroy the system of job-despatch, which has always prevented discrimination and favoritism and ensured an equal opportunity to all of us. "Since these demands serious/v ieonardie our immediate economic welfare and long-term job security, while threatening the bare existence of our union, they are in fact a basic issue in our strike!"
This paragraph refers to the "steady man" issue. Section 9.43 of the contract, which gives the employer the right to bypass the union's job-rotating hiring hall.
This leaflet was well received everywhere. For the time being the question of merging the ILWU and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has been shelved. But the two unions are at present collaborating in a picket line at the California-Mexico border. They have succeeded in stopping strike-diverted cargo from the Mexican port of Ensenada from entering the United States. It's quite simple. Union Teamsters just refuse to drive the loaded trucks from the border to their United States destination, and will not allow non-union men to take their places. For 100 days. from July I to Oct. 6, when the striking ILWU was forced back to work by a Taft-Hartley injunction, cargo diverted from struck West Coast ports was worked by union longshoremen in Vancouver, B.C., and Ensenada, Mexico, as part of the strategy developed by the ILWU Strike Strategy During the 100-day strike, Vancouver's inbound tonnage increased 75 percent, and Ensenada handled 60 ships in the first 60 days of the strike, the Sept. 18 Christian Science Monitor the PM A ran what the longshoremen call "the strike-breaking triangle." That is, first they would bring inbound cargo to Canada or Mexico, with US cargo discharged for transshipment by truck. Second, the ships would sail empty to West Coast ports. Third, military and other outbound cargo for Guam. Cambodia and Vietnam would be loaded by striking ILWU members.
This fancy game has now ended. From the negotiations between the ILWU and the East Coast International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) came two positive things. The two unions will honor each other's picket lines if pickets are flown from coast to coast to stop diverted cargo. The ILA and ILWU also agree that they will go back on strike if their wage agreements are not approved by the Pay Board. Further, both insist that contract-cancellation clauses to that effect be included in their contracts.
Things have changed. On the picket line morale is high, and the consensus is that the strike will be won, no matter what. According to an ILWU offical, "if necessary we will just keep on voting down contracts and striking till the PMA and some of our so-called leaders know we mean business".
-Ed Harris The above is reprinted from the 14th February issue of The Militant, newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialist Alliance in the
TO of the population. The mass marches have been-impressive, but their efficacy as a tactic is strictly limited, their appeal could quickly become 'stale" and a drop in numbers would produce a downward spiral. The opening of a fresh offensive, with fresh forces is needed to bolster the nationalist minority in the North.