ILWU Back to Work on Sunday in Oakland

This story is a bit of background for the video here.

The port of Oakland was back in partial operation this morning. Even with a larger number of workers available then usual for a Sunday, the two day lockout had created a huge backlog of work. International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has crews to operate up to 18 of the huge cranes to load and unload container ships. This morning there were 7 in operation.

There are two types of ILWU workers at the port. Those who work out of the union hall and "steadymen", that report directly to the shipping companies. The most experienced crane operators are in the latter category. Most have over 10 years of experience.

The lockout that started on Friday 9/27 upset this arrangement. To add fuel to this upset, on Saturday management at one company, Maersk, started operating cranes to put the lids on the cargo holds of a ship being loaded. Union members rushed in to stop this. Cops were called. There were no arrests and Maersk agreed to keep management off the cranes. ILWU agreed not to trespass. At a meeting on Saturday, ILWU workers decided that everyone would report to the union hall on Sunday. Most of the crane operators exercised their right to sign up for other jobs. As a result not all crane jobs were filled, and two or three companies turned away all workers.

The video fills in the details, including showing a crane in operation.