Fleming Warehouse Workers Beat Odds, Get Good Contract ILWU
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Important Notice see page 10 The Dispatcher (ISSN 0012-3765) is published monthly except for a combined July/August issue, for $5.00 a year and Vol. 62, No. 1 95 $10.00 a year for non-members by the ILWU, 1188 Franklin St., San Francisco, CA 94109. Periodical postage paid at San January 2004 Francisco, CA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Dispatcher, 1188 Franklin St., San Francisco, CA 94109. www.ilwu.org ILWU shows solidarity with grocery workers on the picket line page 3 ONE DAY AT A TIME: George Cobbs retires page 9 Fleming warehouse workers beat odds, get good contract page 6 INSIDE President’s Report: Beat Bush in November . .p. 2 Washington Report: Bush’s lunatic transportation policy . .p. 4 California elections . p. 5 WSF galley workers continue fight for jobs . p. 6 2• January 2004 Inside Line Who shall pay? If there was ever any question that the Bush administration’s eco- Beat Bush in November nomic, social and military policy was anything but a plan to transfer By James Spinosa pass laws taking away our rights to strike and bargain collec- wealth from the poor to the rich, if ILWU International President tively, is that we need friends in high places. And if we are to there was ever any question that In less than 10 months—D-day, Nov. 2, 2004—the future withstand the employers’ continuing onslaught of slanders globalization’s promise of prosperi- ty for the people of the world was of our country and that of the whole world will be decided. If against us, we need to make sure that those who stood up for anything but a lie and a scam, the George W. Bush gets another four years in the White House, if us then remain in a position to help us later. With your contri- last three years have finished off both houses of Congress remain controlled by the bution, the job you save may be your own. (See page 4 for such doubts. Republicans, the labor movement will be facing its biggest cri- details on how to donate to the ILWU Political Action Fund.) Under the policies of George W. Bush, the U.S. government has sis since the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s. But money alone is not enough. We need every ILWU gone from its largest surplus in his- The fate of all American working people—union and non- member to become a political activist. First you must be regis- tory to its largest deficit in history union—of working people around the world, of human and civil tered to vote so your voice can be added to the chorus calling in three short years. The ever- rights and of the global environment hang in the balance. for change. increasing tax cuts for the rich leave that debt—and its mounting Fathoming the depths of damage Bush has done in the three But the ILWU, although strong and vocal, is a small union. interest payments—on the backs of years since he lost the election—while knowing he faced So we need each member’s voice to be amplified. That means working taxpayers. As we pay for another race—it’s hard to imagine what he’ll dare to do if he you need to make sure everyone in your family eligible to vote the war in Iraq in money and lives, wins this time and doesn’t ever have to face voters again. is registered, and that all your friends and their families, friends as we pay for the cost of rebuilding Between war, globalization, unemployment and privatiza- and co-workers are registered and understand what is at stake what American bombs destroyed, and as we see how Bush’s pals at tion, working people haven’t faced so grim a reality since the for working people in November. Halliburton, Bechtel and SSA get Great Depression of the 1930s. Back then a desperate working From there we need to fan out to our communities. The millions to do that rebuilding, we class movement, inspired in large part by the West Coast ILWU needs to be visible in our communities, leading and are told there’s no money left for Maritime Strike of 1934 and its victory that established the inspiring by example. You can join these coordinated efforts by healthcare, schools and infrastruc- ture in the U.S. Who is paying for ILWU, stemmed the tide of the corporate greed of the 1920s. It volunteering at your local. Your local officers will help you plug this? brought unions, de- in with the work of the The Bush administration and cent wages and con- ILWU District the Republican Congress just elim- ditions and basic Councils—the politi- inated mandatory time-and-a-half human dignity to cal organizations of pay for overtime for millions of American workers, a legal right workers. It paved the We don’t stand the union in each they have held since 1938. way for employer- region—and the Republican-appointed judges are paid vacations, health area’s Central Labor allowing companies declaring care and pensions— a chance of Councils—the politi- bankruptcy to ditch their union contract obligations to pay pen- all now under attack cal coalition of all AFL- sions and healthcare to millions of by the employers moving forward CIO unions locally. retirees who worked their whole and the Bush admin- On Jan. 20 the lives counting on those agreements. istration. ILWU International High unemployment rates only go down as good-paying manufactur- Once again the on our programs Officers and Coast ing jobs exported to Chinese facto- ILWU is challenged Committeemen con- ries are replaced with low-wage to become a force in vened a meeting of service and retail jobs without ben- turning the labor until Bush is out the officers of our efits. Profits soar, but who pays? movement into the District Councils, our We need look no further than the grocery workers’ strike and leaders of a social Coast Legislative lockout in Southern California for movement. Even if of the way. Action Committee and the latest answer. Even though the the deck seems other political activists three grocery store employers are stacked against us, in the union to map hugely profitable, they are deter- mined to end the United Food and we are not without out and coordinate Commercial Workers union’s hope. This union has faced odds this tough before. our fundraising, campaigning and lobbying efforts. Your union health care program. They have The ILWU’s International Convention last spring decided has a plan and we are moving forward with it. said they are willing to take hun- almost unanimously that beating Bush in November 2004 is the But the ILWU will not be acting alone. We are already dreds of millions of dollars in number one goal of the union. We don’t stand much of a working with the national AFL-CIO to multiply our efforts. While immediate losses from the strike and lockouts because they will save chance of moving forward on our other programs until Bush is we will focus most of our attention on the states where we more in the long run not paying for out of the way. We are already moving on the Convention’s live—California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii—we benefits. When millions of people mandate and are continuing to develop our strategies to stop plan on taking our influence nation-wide. lose their health care coverage, who Bush’s war on workers. In the November 2002 Congressional elections we pio- pays—with their money and lives? But as Dispatcher Assistant First, all members must donate as much as they can to our neered a new program with the AFL-CIO, sending more than 30 Editor Tom Price reports (see page Political Action Fund. It is an unfortunate truth of politics and members to campaign in battleground states, those swing 3) the ILWU and the AFL-CIO are power that money opens doors when our rank-and-file legisla- states where the vote was close and we could help make the doing all they can to spoil the tive activists go to the halls of Congress to lobby for our issues, difference between victory and defeat. Our ILWU political road employers’ plans. Sometimes elections can make be they port security to protect our longshore members, or warriors were an inspiration to union members wherever they a difference in who pays. Califor- cabotage laws to protect our IBU members, or support for the went, galvanizing the campaign and getting out the vote. In nia’s March 2 primary has several domestic sugar industry to protect our sugar workers in Hawaii 2004 we are planning to send at least 100 ILWU activists out initiatives that do just that. As and California or occupational health and safety, Social on the campaign trail. Marcy Rein reports (see page 5), Security or trade agreements that affect all of us, including all We do not know yet who the Democratic candidate for California’s new governator, Ar- nold Schwarzenegger, is slashing American working people. president will be, but any one of the contenders is far better education and social programs to One thing we learned during the 2002 longshore contract than Bush. And if we apply ourselves to the task ahead, we can balance the budget deficit without struggle, when Congressional Republicans were threatening to send him back to Texas in November. seeming to create the new taxes he campaigned against. Instead, he is pushing Proposition 57, a bond measure that will dump the debt— increased by interest charges—into the future.