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UID:Indybay-18705302
SEQUENCE:18796069
CREATED:20120122T091900Z
DESCRIPTION:DEMONSTRATION TO DEFEND WASHINGTON DOCK WORKERS\n\nPROTEST USE OF U.S. 
 COAST GUARD FOR UNION BUSTING\n\n\nPRESS CONFERENCE 1:30 pm\nHomeland 
 Security Office, 1111 Broadway, Oakland, CA \n\nRALLY 2:30 pm\nFederal 
 Building, 1301 Clay St., Oakland, CA\n\nMARCH 3pm \nto Coast Guard Island, 
 Embarcadero in Oakland\n\n\nOn Monday, January 23, the Occupy Oakland Labor 
 Solidarity Committee and the Committee to Defend the ILWU will demonstrate 
 to protest the use of armed Coast Guard cutters and helicopters to escort a 
 grain ship which is to be loaded at the port of Longview, Washington at a 
 terminal operated by EGT, a giant grain consortium. The terminal is being 
 picketed by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). EGT, 
 which built a new $200 million dollar terminal, is violating the port's 
 contract which provides for ILWU workers to perform waterfront labor. 
 \n\nIn the SF Bay Area, ILWU Local 10, the SF Bay area longshore union 
 which supports the demonstration, Occupy Oakland and the SF Labor Council 
 are organizing a caravan to Longview to meet the ship upon arrival, 
 possibly this month. Occupy movements in Longview, Portland and Seattle are 
 also mobilizing supporters to go to Longview.  Solidarity with the Longview 
 workers was one of the motivations behind the November 2 and December 12 
 port shutdowns in Oakland.\n\nLocal and state police are expected to be out 
 in force. There have been 220 arrests of union supporters in Longview and 
 fines of over $300,000 for blocking trains and trespassing on EGT port 
 property. Introduction of the Coast Guard, however, is the first time that 
 federal authorities have become involved in the dispute.\n\nIn a resolution 
 adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council on January 9, the council 
 condemned, "in the strongest terms," this "first known use of the US 
 military to intervene in a labor dispute on the side of management in 40 
 years." In 1971, President Nixon called out the U.S. Army and National 
 Guard in an attempt to break a postal strike. The Obama Administration's 
 planned action is strongly reminiscent of Reagan's wholesale firing of 
 PATCO workers, using 1248 military air traffic controllers to replace the 
 union strikers in 1981. \n\nThe use of the military against longshore 
 workers illuminates the hypocrisy of the U.S. government which chides 
 governments around the world for unleashing their armed forces against 
 their own citizens. \n\nLongshoreman Anthony Leviege, called the Longview 
 union struggle "a watershed struggle for organized labor. No more 
 PATCO's!".                                                                
 \n\nThe ILWU has a record of militant dock actions over contract issues and 
 social protests including South African apartheid and the wars in 
 Afghanistan and Iraq.  Weakening of the ILWU and work standards it has 
 negotiated over decades will lead to the erosion of conditions for all 
 workers. If ever there was a time that the union cry "An injury to one is 
 an injury to all" is relevant, that time is now.\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/01/22/18705302.php
SUMMARY:Protest Union Busting By Coast Guard
LOCATION:PRESS CONFERENCE 1:30 pm\nHomeland Security Office, 1111 Broadway, Oakland, 
 CA \n\nRALLY 2:30 pm\nFederal Building, 1301 Clay St., Oakland, CA\n\nMARCH 
 3pm \nto Coast Guard Island, Embarcadero in Oakland
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/01/22/18705302.php
DTSTART:20120123T213000Z
DTEND:20120124T013000Z
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