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CALL TO ACTION: Longshoremen - Stop Loading Scab Boron Cargo!
Call to action for LA and Long Beach longshoremen to take solidarity action with locked out ILWU miners in Boron, California, and to stop handling scab borax containers.
Longshoremen - Stop Loading Scab Boron Cargo!
For Solidarity Actions to Defend ILWU Miners!
May 14, 2010
ILWU Local 30 miners have been locked out for over 100 days by global mining giant Rio Tinto. We should be supporting them by refusing to handle scab borax containers. Our longshore union, has a long history of having led important working class struggles going back to the Big Strike of 1934. But, the present International Officers – President Bob McEllrath, Vice President Ray Familathe and Secretary-Treasurer Willie Adams and Local 30 President Dave Liebengood – are reversing that legacy. We can no longer remain silent. They are knowingly allowing thousands of scab containers stuffed by scabs in Boron, California to be loaded onto ships in the port of Los Angeles!
Furthermore, these officials are opposing Local 30 members from defending their jobs by picketing in LA, as we did in 2002 during our lockout by PMA. They are dragging our union banner, “An injury to one is an injury to all,” through the mud. And they are keeping ILWU members in the dark by not mentioning a word of this betrayal in the pages of The Dispatcher. But it’s no secret in the labor movement.
#4 of “The Ten Guiding Principles of the ILWU” states: “To help any worker in distress must be a daily guide in the life of every trade union and its individual members. Labor solidarity means just that. Unions have to accept the fact that the solidarity of labor stands above all else, including even the so called sanctity of the contract.” It is our own ILWU Local 30 that’s locked out. Even if it were another union or even non-union port truckers every workers’ struggle against employers must be supported!
At the General Assembly of the International Dockworkers Council held in Charleston, South Carolina in February, ILWU had an opportunity to call for international labor solidarity. But ILWU President McEllrath didn’t even mention the Rio Tinto lockout of ILWU miners in his West Coast report. In Local 10’s resolution he deleted any reference to picketing and refusing to handle scab cargo in support of the Boron miners. During the April Longshore Caucus, three major ports-Portland, San Francisco and Seattle had motions or resolutions backing the miners, but when it came time for resolutions for the Boron miners only Portland Local 8 stood firm. They and their solidarity resolution to not handle scab cargo were attacked by the Titled Officers and went down to a resounding and embarrassing defeat. The officers took it as a sharp criticism of their bankrupt public relations campaign to appeal to Rio Tinto’s shareholders’ “morality” and to rally at the British Consulate (The mining company is British owned). This failed strategy hasn’t hit Rio Tinto in the pocketbook like job actions to show union power. If there’s no good faith bargaining, how can you expect a decent contract? Rio Tinto’s demand for their “Matrix System” would eliminate union seniority without which there is no union!
We, the undersigned, have initiated, organized, participated in or supported many of the ILWU solidarity actions of the last 32 years. We call on the International Officers to stop turning a blind eye to loading scab cargo in LA and to stop opposing the right of Local 30 members to picket. Let the ILWU rank and file be free to show solidarity with our locked out brothers and sisters.
Leo Robinson #6461 (Local 10 retired), Howard Keylor #20447 (Local 10 retired), Larry Wright #8534 (Local 10 & 91 retired), Anthony Leviege #9576 (Local 10), Jack Heyman #8780 (Local 10) , Richard Washington #9402 (Local 10), Clarence Thomas #8718 (Local 10), Jack Mulcahy #82013 (Local 8), Jerry Lawrence #81878 (Local 8), Debby Stringfellow #82031 (Local 8), Robert Irminger (San Francisco IBU), Bob Gregg (San Francisco IBU), Gabriel Prawl #57304 (Local 19), Mark Downs #55118 (Local 19 retired), Steve Ongerth (SF IBU)
Solidarity action is the only way to win this one!
While the Longshore Caucus was discussing support for locked out Local 30, scab containers were being loaded in LA! This must stop! According to locked out ILWU miners, scabs have stuffed thousands of containers which have been hauled by truck to terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach. Borax miners have been writing the numbers of the scab containers and passing on this information to longshore officials. Below is a current list of scab containers. Go to the website http://www.track-trace.com , hit “container” on the top of the page, then put in a container number from below. It gives you the terminal and the ship to be loaded. Go to http://marinetraffic.com/ais/ for ship location. For longshore gangs dispatched go to http://www.pmanet.org/ , then hit “Dispatch Summaries”. PMA and Rio Tinto have this information and it should be available to ILWU longshore members.
THESE SCAB CONTAINERS WERE NOTED BY A BORON MINER ON GATE DUTY ON 5/11/10, FROM
12:30PM THRU 5:30PM, OUTBOUND FROM U.S. BORAX: 42 CONTAINERS IN 5 HOURS.
PONU0140672 OOLU7733584 CLHU4539883 SUDU1871443
TRLU6473163 HJCU4094124 MSKU4436174 HJCU4379410
OOLU1654328 SUDU1866719 HJCU4372478 POCU0519960
HJCU7635433 HJCU4948964 CMAU9005250 ECMU4548767
SUDU1890910 OOCL1562709 MSKU5626409 CIXU7236590
HJCU2070669 SUDU1991140 MSKU4000257 HJCU8496944
MSKU4050704 OOLU7731489 OOLU7786769 POCU0475179
MSKU3056797 MSKU5187815 MSKU2357672 HJCU2085680
INBU5132729 MSKU5508345 MSKU3197645 APZU4432444
OOLU7494617 MSKU5290593 HJCU4712227 SEAU2217175
OOLU7731489 MSKU3274443
ILWU LONGSHORE SOLIDARITY ACTIONS OF LAST 32 YEARS
1978 - Local 10’s refusal to load bombs to the military dictatorship in Chile
1984 - Local 10’s anti-apartheid action against a ship from South Africa
1987 - IBU strike and mass picket that stopped scabbing in Redwood City
1996-98 - ILWU and Local 10’s solidarity actions for the Liverpool dockers
1999 - Coastwide stopwork meetings/action in defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal
1999 - Seattle anti-WTO protests with unions, environmentalists, and youth
2000-01 - ILWU’s solidarity actions for the Charleston 5 longshore campaign
2002 - Organized pickets, rallies and marches to protest PMA lockout
2004 - Organized the Million Worker March on Washington
2008 - Initiated ILWU’s May Day anti-war shutdown of all West Coast ports
For Solidarity Actions to Defend ILWU Miners!
May 14, 2010
ILWU Local 30 miners have been locked out for over 100 days by global mining giant Rio Tinto. We should be supporting them by refusing to handle scab borax containers. Our longshore union, has a long history of having led important working class struggles going back to the Big Strike of 1934. But, the present International Officers – President Bob McEllrath, Vice President Ray Familathe and Secretary-Treasurer Willie Adams and Local 30 President Dave Liebengood – are reversing that legacy. We can no longer remain silent. They are knowingly allowing thousands of scab containers stuffed by scabs in Boron, California to be loaded onto ships in the port of Los Angeles!
Furthermore, these officials are opposing Local 30 members from defending their jobs by picketing in LA, as we did in 2002 during our lockout by PMA. They are dragging our union banner, “An injury to one is an injury to all,” through the mud. And they are keeping ILWU members in the dark by not mentioning a word of this betrayal in the pages of The Dispatcher. But it’s no secret in the labor movement.
#4 of “The Ten Guiding Principles of the ILWU” states: “To help any worker in distress must be a daily guide in the life of every trade union and its individual members. Labor solidarity means just that. Unions have to accept the fact that the solidarity of labor stands above all else, including even the so called sanctity of the contract.” It is our own ILWU Local 30 that’s locked out. Even if it were another union or even non-union port truckers every workers’ struggle against employers must be supported!
At the General Assembly of the International Dockworkers Council held in Charleston, South Carolina in February, ILWU had an opportunity to call for international labor solidarity. But ILWU President McEllrath didn’t even mention the Rio Tinto lockout of ILWU miners in his West Coast report. In Local 10’s resolution he deleted any reference to picketing and refusing to handle scab cargo in support of the Boron miners. During the April Longshore Caucus, three major ports-Portland, San Francisco and Seattle had motions or resolutions backing the miners, but when it came time for resolutions for the Boron miners only Portland Local 8 stood firm. They and their solidarity resolution to not handle scab cargo were attacked by the Titled Officers and went down to a resounding and embarrassing defeat. The officers took it as a sharp criticism of their bankrupt public relations campaign to appeal to Rio Tinto’s shareholders’ “morality” and to rally at the British Consulate (The mining company is British owned). This failed strategy hasn’t hit Rio Tinto in the pocketbook like job actions to show union power. If there’s no good faith bargaining, how can you expect a decent contract? Rio Tinto’s demand for their “Matrix System” would eliminate union seniority without which there is no union!
We, the undersigned, have initiated, organized, participated in or supported many of the ILWU solidarity actions of the last 32 years. We call on the International Officers to stop turning a blind eye to loading scab cargo in LA and to stop opposing the right of Local 30 members to picket. Let the ILWU rank and file be free to show solidarity with our locked out brothers and sisters.
Leo Robinson #6461 (Local 10 retired), Howard Keylor #20447 (Local 10 retired), Larry Wright #8534 (Local 10 & 91 retired), Anthony Leviege #9576 (Local 10), Jack Heyman #8780 (Local 10) , Richard Washington #9402 (Local 10), Clarence Thomas #8718 (Local 10), Jack Mulcahy #82013 (Local 8), Jerry Lawrence #81878 (Local 8), Debby Stringfellow #82031 (Local 8), Robert Irminger (San Francisco IBU), Bob Gregg (San Francisco IBU), Gabriel Prawl #57304 (Local 19), Mark Downs #55118 (Local 19 retired), Steve Ongerth (SF IBU)
Solidarity action is the only way to win this one!
While the Longshore Caucus was discussing support for locked out Local 30, scab containers were being loaded in LA! This must stop! According to locked out ILWU miners, scabs have stuffed thousands of containers which have been hauled by truck to terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach. Borax miners have been writing the numbers of the scab containers and passing on this information to longshore officials. Below is a current list of scab containers. Go to the website http://www.track-trace.com , hit “container” on the top of the page, then put in a container number from below. It gives you the terminal and the ship to be loaded. Go to http://marinetraffic.com/ais/ for ship location. For longshore gangs dispatched go to http://www.pmanet.org/ , then hit “Dispatch Summaries”. PMA and Rio Tinto have this information and it should be available to ILWU longshore members.
THESE SCAB CONTAINERS WERE NOTED BY A BORON MINER ON GATE DUTY ON 5/11/10, FROM
12:30PM THRU 5:30PM, OUTBOUND FROM U.S. BORAX: 42 CONTAINERS IN 5 HOURS.
PONU0140672 OOLU7733584 CLHU4539883 SUDU1871443
TRLU6473163 HJCU4094124 MSKU4436174 HJCU4379410
OOLU1654328 SUDU1866719 HJCU4372478 POCU0519960
HJCU7635433 HJCU4948964 CMAU9005250 ECMU4548767
SUDU1890910 OOCL1562709 MSKU5626409 CIXU7236590
HJCU2070669 SUDU1991140 MSKU4000257 HJCU8496944
MSKU4050704 OOLU7731489 OOLU7786769 POCU0475179
MSKU3056797 MSKU5187815 MSKU2357672 HJCU2085680
INBU5132729 MSKU5508345 MSKU3197645 APZU4432444
OOLU7494617 MSKU5290593 HJCU4712227 SEAU2217175
OOLU7731489 MSKU3274443
ILWU LONGSHORE SOLIDARITY ACTIONS OF LAST 32 YEARS
1978 - Local 10’s refusal to load bombs to the military dictatorship in Chile
1984 - Local 10’s anti-apartheid action against a ship from South Africa
1987 - IBU strike and mass picket that stopped scabbing in Redwood City
1996-98 - ILWU and Local 10’s solidarity actions for the Liverpool dockers
1999 - Coastwide stopwork meetings/action in defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal
1999 - Seattle anti-WTO protests with unions, environmentalists, and youth
2000-01 - ILWU’s solidarity actions for the Charleston 5 longshore campaign
2002 - Organized pickets, rallies and marches to protest PMA lockout
2004 - Organized the Million Worker March on Washington
2008 - Initiated ILWU’s May Day anti-war shutdown of all West Coast ports
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This is a good statement but too damm bad it's necessary ! The ILWU leaders hestitate on whether or not to handle scab cargo ? i wouldn't be surprised if it was a Andy Stern or his flunky replacement Mary Henry who didn't understand that ABC 's of Trade Unionism but Harry Bridges's successors ?
Also what about the Leaders of the Warehouse Division of the ILWU , Where do they stand on this basic question ? After all the Borax miners along with the Bayer Pharm production workers in Berkeley are the largest shops of that division . Any infro ?
Also what about the Leaders of the Warehouse Division of the ILWU , Where do they stand on this basic question ? After all the Borax miners along with the Bayer Pharm production workers in Berkeley are the largest shops of that division . Any infro ?
NO MORE BORONS! (LONGSHORE-WAREHOUSE MILITANT NO. 5 - 4 APR, 1975)
Below are excerpts from the Longshore-Warehouse Militant which was distributed at the April 1975 International Convention in Vancouver, British Columbia. This was after the four months lost strike of ILWU Local 30 in the fall of 1974. That strike was defeated with the loss of 400 jobs to scabs who remained employed after the strike ended.
Howard Keylor - Retired member of ILWU Longshore Local 10
howardkeylor [at] comcast.net
---------------------
NO MORE BORONS!
At Boron the International allowed a militant local to be defeated by company scabherding. The International allowed things to degenerate so far that Local 20A (in Wilmington) went back to work processing scab Boron products while Boron Local 30 was still striking. The international then refused to authorize the longshore division to stop scab borax shipments. Boron was a landmark defeat for our union and Fortune magazine, December 1974, has written the strike up as a management manual for future strikebreaking.
...........................
Monday morning some International Officials launched a direct attack on union democracy. Harry Bridges personally led an unsuccessful move to forcibly remove a table put up (in the Hotel lobby) by a grouping of oppositionalists in the union. Bridges objected to Longshore-Warehouse Militant's slogans which read: "For a Unionwide strike to Defend the Canadian ILWU and Win Jobs". "Defend the Boron Local Against US Government Attack". "For International Labor Solidarity - Union Action to Fight Deportations". "For a Militant Democratic ILWU - Oust the Bridges Machine"
Rank and file longshoremen and warehousemen were manhandled and one sign from the literature table was torn. A number of delegates spoke out against the attack. We stood our ground and the right of rank and file members to express their opinions and raise a fighting strategy for the union won out.
Then the officers moved to exclude union members who are in good standing but not delegates from attending the Constitution Committee. This was done in complete violation of the Convention Rules read Monday which specify that all proceedings are open to any member in good standing. An attempt to put through a similar exclusion in the Officer's Report Committee was defeated when delegates forced the issue to a vote. Delegates from Locals 13, 17, 500, and 142 spoke against the attempt to exclude non-delegates.
In the Resolutions Committee, a delegate from Local 10 moved that Stan Gow, a Local 10 executive board member, be allowed to speak on a motion that he and Howard Keylor had submitted. Again it was hotly debated with several speakers on both sides before the Committee refused him permission. Nothing in the international Constitution prohibits a non-delegate being given voice in Committee. But the pro-International forces didn't want a motion for a unionwide strike in defense of the Canadian ILWU and to win 30 for 40/6 for 8 debated.
Finally, the officers imposed a rule on the Officers' Report Committee that it could not amend the report in any way, i.e., it was either the officers' policies or nothing. This attempt was no doubt motivated at least partly to head off a fight over Boron. The Report of the Officers on Boron is a direct attack on rank and file militancy. It blames the ranks for fighting for "far out demands" which basically boiled down to a hefty wage raise to match the 25% inflation rate in Boron and maintaining jurisdiction on work the union has traditionally done. While correctly noting that Local 20A went back to work, it doesn't report that the 20A ranks were so disgusted at the anti-union policies of their own officers that they voted them out right after Boron was defeated.
Finally, the officers' Report attacks the concept that it should have authorized Local 10 longshoremen to refuse to handle scab borax. Local 30 directly requested this of Local 13 and longshoremen honoured the picket lines until ordered by an arbitrator and Bridges to go back to work. The whole idea of a joint warehouse and waterfront union is to bring concentrated power behind what would otherwise be isolated strikes. Boycotts on the docks are one of our strongest weapons. The Convention must reject outright this attack on the courageous Boron membership.
---------------------------------
Below are excerpts from the Longshore-Warehouse Militant which was distributed at the April 1975 International Convention in Vancouver, British Columbia. This was after the four months lost strike of ILWU Local 30 in the fall of 1974. That strike was defeated with the loss of 400 jobs to scabs who remained employed after the strike ended.
Howard Keylor - Retired member of ILWU Longshore Local 10
howardkeylor [at] comcast.net
---------------------
NO MORE BORONS!
At Boron the International allowed a militant local to be defeated by company scabherding. The International allowed things to degenerate so far that Local 20A (in Wilmington) went back to work processing scab Boron products while Boron Local 30 was still striking. The international then refused to authorize the longshore division to stop scab borax shipments. Boron was a landmark defeat for our union and Fortune magazine, December 1974, has written the strike up as a management manual for future strikebreaking.
...........................
Monday morning some International Officials launched a direct attack on union democracy. Harry Bridges personally led an unsuccessful move to forcibly remove a table put up (in the Hotel lobby) by a grouping of oppositionalists in the union. Bridges objected to Longshore-Warehouse Militant's slogans which read: "For a Unionwide strike to Defend the Canadian ILWU and Win Jobs". "Defend the Boron Local Against US Government Attack". "For International Labor Solidarity - Union Action to Fight Deportations". "For a Militant Democratic ILWU - Oust the Bridges Machine"
Rank and file longshoremen and warehousemen were manhandled and one sign from the literature table was torn. A number of delegates spoke out against the attack. We stood our ground and the right of rank and file members to express their opinions and raise a fighting strategy for the union won out.
Then the officers moved to exclude union members who are in good standing but not delegates from attending the Constitution Committee. This was done in complete violation of the Convention Rules read Monday which specify that all proceedings are open to any member in good standing. An attempt to put through a similar exclusion in the Officer's Report Committee was defeated when delegates forced the issue to a vote. Delegates from Locals 13, 17, 500, and 142 spoke against the attempt to exclude non-delegates.
In the Resolutions Committee, a delegate from Local 10 moved that Stan Gow, a Local 10 executive board member, be allowed to speak on a motion that he and Howard Keylor had submitted. Again it was hotly debated with several speakers on both sides before the Committee refused him permission. Nothing in the international Constitution prohibits a non-delegate being given voice in Committee. But the pro-International forces didn't want a motion for a unionwide strike in defense of the Canadian ILWU and to win 30 for 40/6 for 8 debated.
Finally, the officers imposed a rule on the Officers' Report Committee that it could not amend the report in any way, i.e., it was either the officers' policies or nothing. This attempt was no doubt motivated at least partly to head off a fight over Boron. The Report of the Officers on Boron is a direct attack on rank and file militancy. It blames the ranks for fighting for "far out demands" which basically boiled down to a hefty wage raise to match the 25% inflation rate in Boron and maintaining jurisdiction on work the union has traditionally done. While correctly noting that Local 20A went back to work, it doesn't report that the 20A ranks were so disgusted at the anti-union policies of their own officers that they voted them out right after Boron was defeated.
Finally, the officers' Report attacks the concept that it should have authorized Local 10 longshoremen to refuse to handle scab borax. Local 30 directly requested this of Local 13 and longshoremen honoured the picket lines until ordered by an arbitrator and Bridges to go back to work. The whole idea of a joint warehouse and waterfront union is to bring concentrated power behind what would otherwise be isolated strikes. Boycotts on the docks are one of our strongest weapons. The Convention must reject outright this attack on the courageous Boron membership.
---------------------------------
This is the button from the aftermath of the defeat of the Boron miners strike of 1974. Current again:
NO MORE BORONS!
FOR MILITANCY AND SOLIDARITY!
NO MORE BORONS!
FOR MILITANCY AND SOLIDARITY!
The ILWU, Solidarity And The War With Rio Tinto-Scab Cargo Moving In The Ports Of LA:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/05/14/18647964.php?show_comments=1
For UPDATES about lock out of borax miners in Boron see:
http://boraxminers.com/
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/05/14/18647964.php?show_comments=1
For UPDATES about lock out of borax miners in Boron see:
http://boraxminers.com/
http://londonminingnetwork.org/2010/04/rio-tinto-a-shameful-history-of-human-and-labour-rights-abuses-and-environmental-degradation-around-the-globe/
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=622
http://headwatersnews.net/mining-blog/rio-tinto-stomps-out-indigenous-rights-in-upper-michigan/
http://www.nodirtygold.org/undermined_workers_rights.cfm
http://www.hrdc.net/sahrdc/hrfeatures/HRF41.htm
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=622
http://headwatersnews.net/mining-blog/rio-tinto-stomps-out-indigenous-rights-in-upper-michigan/
http://www.nodirtygold.org/undermined_workers_rights.cfm
http://www.hrdc.net/sahrdc/hrfeatures/HRF41.htm
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
As you may know the Boron miners voted to accept a new contract with Rio Tinto last Saturday. First, I want to thank the organizations and individuals who participated in setting up of the Bay Area Boron Miners Solidarity Committee. Unfortunately, the committee was not able to organize a solidarity action because ILWU Local 30 members never were able to organize picketing before the tentative agreement was voted on. They were stopped by the ILWU International Officers who are calling the 6-year pact a "victory". Seeing no serious way to fight Rio Tinto's lockout after 100 days, the membership voted to accept the concessionary deal at the urging of the ILWU International Officers and the Local 30 president by a margin of 75% to 25%. This was the same percentage by which the historic 1934 maritime strike was ended, with Harry Bridges and the militants in the longshore union voting in the minority against the proposed settlement. Rio Tinto got what they wanted: gutting union seniority in promotions, hiring and training; the company can now contract out during busy periods and members can't sue the company over work related issues. The NLRB ruled that Rio Tinto had illegally locked out the miners. The company was liable for miners' back pay during the 3 1/2 month lockout but it was given away to achieve a pact.
In a change from the ILWU's militant history of organizing mass pickets and on the docks against employer attacks, the present International leadership had opposed picketing by the miners and instead called for carrying American flags, demonstrating at the British consulate (Rio Tinto is British-owned) and lobbying Rio Tinto shareholders. This "public relations" strategy didn't use the longshore union's power on the docks and made it difficult to organize support actions there when the miners themselves weren't taking such basic protest actions. In any case the longshoremen should never have handled the thousands (according to locked out Borax miners) of scab containers in the port of Los Angeles.
I've also forwarded to you, a rank-and-file leaflet [see original article above] distributed before the contract vote and signed by ILWU members who opposed this failed strategy and have organized historic ILWU solidarity actions going back to the 1984 San Francisco anti-apartheid action and before. Thanks again for your participation in the solidarity committee. I only regret that we were not able to organize solidarity actions as we've done in the past to support the Boron miners. It could have prevented what one longshore veteran characterized as "ILWU's PATCO".
In solidarity,
Jack Heyman
As you may know the Boron miners voted to accept a new contract with Rio Tinto last Saturday. First, I want to thank the organizations and individuals who participated in setting up of the Bay Area Boron Miners Solidarity Committee. Unfortunately, the committee was not able to organize a solidarity action because ILWU Local 30 members never were able to organize picketing before the tentative agreement was voted on. They were stopped by the ILWU International Officers who are calling the 6-year pact a "victory". Seeing no serious way to fight Rio Tinto's lockout after 100 days, the membership voted to accept the concessionary deal at the urging of the ILWU International Officers and the Local 30 president by a margin of 75% to 25%. This was the same percentage by which the historic 1934 maritime strike was ended, with Harry Bridges and the militants in the longshore union voting in the minority against the proposed settlement. Rio Tinto got what they wanted: gutting union seniority in promotions, hiring and training; the company can now contract out during busy periods and members can't sue the company over work related issues. The NLRB ruled that Rio Tinto had illegally locked out the miners. The company was liable for miners' back pay during the 3 1/2 month lockout but it was given away to achieve a pact.
In a change from the ILWU's militant history of organizing mass pickets and on the docks against employer attacks, the present International leadership had opposed picketing by the miners and instead called for carrying American flags, demonstrating at the British consulate (Rio Tinto is British-owned) and lobbying Rio Tinto shareholders. This "public relations" strategy didn't use the longshore union's power on the docks and made it difficult to organize support actions there when the miners themselves weren't taking such basic protest actions. In any case the longshoremen should never have handled the thousands (according to locked out Borax miners) of scab containers in the port of Los Angeles.
I've also forwarded to you, a rank-and-file leaflet [see original article above] distributed before the contract vote and signed by ILWU members who opposed this failed strategy and have organized historic ILWU solidarity actions going back to the 1984 San Francisco anti-apartheid action and before. Thanks again for your participation in the solidarity committee. I only regret that we were not able to organize solidarity actions as we've done in the past to support the Boron miners. It could have prevented what one longshore veteran characterized as "ILWU's PATCO".
In solidarity,
Jack Heyman
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