Will the ILWU shut down the Port of Tacoma in protest?
March 25th, 2008 by Republican By DefaultA recent resolution by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents about 600 of Tacoma’s longshoremen, at a West coast meeting. The resolution calls for an 8 hour work stoppage to protest the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
There are several major problems with this resolution.
I’m not an expert on the subject but it seems to me that a work stoppage like this could cause backups and delays not only on the West coast but could have a cascading effect on Ports around the Pacific Rim. Ships, almost all privately owned, are scheduled based on arrival and departure times. To delay a ship in port for an additional 8 hours might cause it to miss its scheduled slot in another port, causing further delays as it waits for the next opportunity to dock.
With that is the issue of who pays for the delay. I’m guessing these modern union thugs won’t be taking a pay cut for their little whine-fest. And what about the ships’ crews who sit idle while the union thugs have their little snit-fit. Who’s going to pay them for the delay?
There’s also the question of the union members who are public employees. It’s against the law for public employees to strike in the State of Washington. Even though some do it, it is an illegal act. But then there’s always the issue of enforcement. Teachers seem to strike somewhere in this state almost every year and nothing is done about it, so I guess this would be dealt with the same way. I’m hoping to find that Port of Tacoma officials have the backbone to stand up to this garbage. Their Web site says that about 100 ILWU members are employed by the Port.
The protest is happening on May Day. The U.S. honors its workforce on Labor Day, not May Day. Here’s a comment from TheBlog at The Weekly Standard:
The United States doesn’t commemorate International Worker’s Day, preferring instead to salute the nation’s workers on Labor Day. That’s largely because of the close association between May 1 and international socialism. Strangely, International Worker’s Day occurs on May 1 to pay tribute to ‘the Chicago Martyrs’ — the labor organizers executed after the Haymarket Riot in 1886. Despite its American origin, May 1 is a day of celebration for communists — not for most Americans.
I’m also concerned about just how far this will go. Having several military installations in the Tacoma and Pierce County area the Port of Tacoma handles a lot of freight to supply our military. What if they decide they’re not going to do that anymore? Will Tacoma then be affected by the next round of base closures if they can’t be relied on for a timely deployment if the need arises somewhere in the world? If the bases begin to close will Tacoma become the next Flint, MI?
Update: When labor strikes occur, aren’t they normally a ’strike’ at the people that labor is trying to influence? Let me put it another way. Why do these union delegates want to strike against their employers when their employers can’t do anything to stop the wars?
March 25th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
What a bunch of nonsense. I have a friend who is a longshoremen at the Tacoma port, and I can say from experience in talking to my friend that most of the longshormen are democrat voters, and this action therefore does not surprise me. Longshormen have a monopoly on the unloading-ships-business. This really is the the Longshoremen using their monopoly to make a political statement. I would have thought they were more mature than this.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
So far it’s just the delegates that voted at the West coast meeting. I assume that the local has some say in whether they strike, but I’m not familiar with their bylaws. Right now it’s basically wait and see.