Outsource Bush’s job —see President’s Report, page 2

The Dispatcher (ISSN 0012-3765) is published monthly except for a combined July/August issue, for $5.00 a year and Vol. 62, No. 3 95 $10.00 a year for non-members by the ILWU, 1188 Franklin St., San Francisco, CA 94109. Periodical postage paid at San March 2004 Francisco, CA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Dispatcher, 1188 Franklin St., San Francisco, CA 94109. www.ilwu.org

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INSIDE The Washington Report: ILWU testifies at Senate port security hearing ...... p. 4 Another Bush lie: tax cuts for jobs ...... p. 6 Sticking to the Union: An oral history of Julia Ruuttila ...... p. 12 Basra and Umm Qasr—hot beds of labor revolt in Iraq ...... p. 13 Farewell, Asher Harer ...... p. 15 2• March 2004 Inside Line A personal touch You’ll see something a little bit different in this issue. Each March, The Dispatcher tries to include a Outsource Bush’s job story or two on women’s issues, but this year’s features take a more By James Spinosa steps and misstatements. Even in his foreign policy, in his war on personal tack. ILWU International President We don’t give grim numbers, terrorism and his war in Iraq, in those issues that he planned to even though a billion women News reports and entire books have been written recently base his reelection campaign on, he is floundering. A year after around the world will be victims of detailing the unbelievable statements coming out of the mouth of the invasion of Iraq, the occupation of that country continues to be sexual violence sometime in their George W. Bush, from the politically motivated lies to the laugh- a bloody mess, with Americans and Iraqis dying in larger numbers lives, according to Amnesty International. We don’t talk about ably absurd gaffes. But rarely have any of his pronouncements than in the war itself. Billions of American taxpayer dollars are the persistent wage gap, even fused both those elements so seamlessly as his recent declaration being spent there, using up resources so desperately needed in though U.S. women still earn only that outsourcing American jobs is good for the national economy this country. about three-fourths of what men earn. We don’t mention the fact and American workers. Employers save so much money out- All the while Bush’s corporate buddies are getting billion-dol- that households headed by women sourcing, Bush argues, that they will be able to expand their oper- lar, no-bid contracts and then are getting caught overcharging the are three times more likely to be ations and eventually hire more American workers. government. The Iraqi infrastructure American bombs destroyed a poor, or that only a third of women Try explaining that logic to the people standing in the unem- year ago still hasn’t been rebuilt by the American contractors, get health insurance on the job, compared with 53 percent of men. ployment lines, or to the laid-off mother whose new job doesn’t leaving the local population with miserable living conditions. Iraqi Instead, we look at the inter- have health insurance when her kids get sick, or the family of a workers face 70 percent unemployment, forcing them to work for play between society’s expectations Midwest industrial worker that just lost their home. Economic the- the low wage scales imposed by the occupiers who in turn and women’s needs, and the diffi- culty of fighting your demons and orists never seem to be able to figure cruelty and suffering into enforce Saddam Hussein’s old law banning union organizing. still organizing. their calculations. No wonder the conflict continues to escalate and Bush’s plan Women in the tugboat world But working people see it, we feel it and we have to endure to hand over power to some form of Iraqi self-rule by June 30 face the routine discrimination and and struggle to over- looks less and less like tunnel vision about what they can and should do, Maria Brooks points come it. Sometimes an exit strategy and out in her feature, “The Daughters we are more success- more and more like an of Tugboat Annie” on pages 10-11. ful than others, but the The democratically election ploy. But the women Brooks interviews also probe the tensions between scars of those experi- Meanwhile, the gaining respect in “men’s work” ences expose truths elected delegates evidence of the lies and retaining their womanliness— we can never forget, propping up his poli- and between motherhood and a deny or ignore no to our International cies piles up, showing vital life in the world of work. Julia Ruuttilla survived domes- matter how much the a pattern of deception tic violence, botched abortions and Bush public relations Convention last and a strategy of crushing depression—all while car- flaks spin, speculate deceit. rying on as a tireless organizer and year voted to agitator. “Ruuttila’s life in the and obscure. Iraq’s weapons of Pacific Northwest reveals a great ILWU members mass destruction, the deal about the lives of activist radi- are all too familiar make Bush’s ones we were shown cal women who have so often been with the “benefits” of U.S. intelligence satel- compelled to sacrifice or compro- defeat the number mise their personal lives in order to outsourcing. Once our lite photos of the ones act out their political beliefs,” brothers and sisters one priority that were an imminent wrote ILWU Education Director toiling in Hawaii’s big danger requiring pre- and Librarian Gene Vrana in his sugar and pineapple emptive war, turn out to review of her oral history, “Sticking of our union to the Union” on page 12. A long- industries fought, not exist. The real and time ILWU activist, Ruuttilla wrote struck and won the higher costs of the for The Dispatcher for more than best agricultural work- Bush pro-pharmaceuti- 40 years and helped mold the ILWU Auxiliaries into a political force. er contracts in the world, the corporate ag companies took off for cal company Medicare bill were withheld by the Bush administra- The short report on page 7 more exploitable labor in Thailand and the Philippines. Warehouse tion until Congress passed it. And new revelations suggest Bush points to more recent examples of Local 6 members at the Hexcel plant in Livermore, California have ignored numerous warnings of imminent terrorist attacks by his women’s union organizing and the been given notice that the company intends to move its operations own advisors before Sept. 11, 2001. His credibility has been lessons they offer. Women also played key roles in the ongoing gro- to Japan and the right-to-work state of Utah. And our Longshore blown out of the water. cery workers struggle (see page 5 Division is constantly fighting shipowners who force seafarers to Not since the Supreme Court installed him as president has for more UFCW updates) and in do our lashing work and stevedoring companies who use com- Bush been so vulnerable. We must take this moment to drive an ILWU Local 5’s just-concluded con- tract fight at Powell’s Books (see puter technology to secretly outsource ILWU marine clerks’ work electoral stake through his political heart once and for all. That this page 3). to non-union employees. The main issue in our protracted 2002 is the program of the ILWU—the democratically elected delegates —Marcy Rein, longshore contract struggle was keeping employers from using to our International Convention last year voted to make Bush’s ILWU Organizing Dept. technology to outsource our jobs. defeat the number one priority of our union—shows the wisdom Even though all the polls show Bush is most vulnerable on of the rank and file. As long as Bush is in power, working people Editor’s note: This issue we begin a new series domestic issues like the economy and jobs, he continues to trum- in this country will be under attack and on the defensive. on the Bush administration’s poli- pet the same failed policies as if no one is noticing that jobs con- We only have a few more months to assure Bush’s defeat and cies attacking working people (see tinue to disappear, wages continue to drop and corporate profits secure our future. We have him on the ropes, but we must finish page 6). Each story in the series focuses on a specific Bush social continue to increase at a record pace. Fortunately for the entire the job. That will take all of us doing all we can. You can get atrocity and is a condensed version American labor movement that has dedicated itself to the cause of involved in the union’s efforts by contacting your local officers of a chapter of a new book “The War laying off Bush, he keeps stepping in it knee-high and sticking his and volunteering. You can also see the information on page 4 of at Home: The Bush-Corporate foot in his mouth. this issue of The Dispatcher to find the way you can contribute Offensive Against American Workers and Their Unions” sched- But it’s not just on domestic issues that Bush is making mis- financially to this campaign. Let’s give Bush his pink slip. uled for release this summer by National Writers Union activist Jack Rasmus. Rasmus is also the author of “Fire on Pier 32,” a dramatic play ILWU Titled Officers capturing the history of the ILWU from its beginnings in 1934 to the Published monthly except for a combined July/August issue, for $5.00, $10 non-members, JAMES SPINOSA 2002 longshore contract struggle. a year by the ILWU, 1188 Franklin St., San Francisco, CA 94109-6898. The Dispatcher President The accompanying cartoons in the welcomes letters, photos and other submissions to the above address. © ILWU, 2004. series are from our very own award- ROBERT McELLRATH WESLEY FURTADO www.ilwu.org winning graphic artist Jim Swanson. Vice President Vice President Enjoy, copy, distribute. Steve Stallone —Steve Stallone, Editor WILLIAM E. ADAMS Editor Tom Price Assistant Editor Secretary-Treasurer March 2004 • 3

TROUBLE BEHIND, TROUBLE AHEAD at last year’s convention. Sierras said. change at home dominated the FOR LOCAL 6 “I want to give credit to every- “Our members are getting left remarks of all the invited guests at the one,” BA Darrin Woodard told the behind in the race to the bottom,” he convention and colored the comments OAKLAND, CA—Warehouse Local 6 is convention. “This was a collective said. The closures hit around 320 of the local officers as well. ILWU back in the black and back on track, effort.” members. International Secretary-Treasurer its officers reported to its 57th annu- That same spirit of unity showed The chill wind out of Washington Willie Adams, Coast Committeman al convention, held here Feb. 28. But in members’ response to contract nego- blew away the Local 6 contract with Joe Wenzl, Local 10 President Henry like unions all over, Local 6 is looking tiations. The Local renegotiated the Menzies at San Jose Airport. Menzies Graham, Local 34 President Richard at health costs shooting up, houses master warehouse contract last year, provides baggage-handling and clean- Cavalli, Local 17 Secretary-Treasurer closing down, and the do-or-die polit- along with agreements at 12 other ing services at nine airports around Jack Wyatt, Sr., California AFL-CIO ical fight looming in November. houses. Maintenance of health benefits the country. When a group of Menzies Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art “The Local is standing on its proved the sticking point all around. workers in Portland, Oregon tried to Pulaski, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D- own,” said President Richard Sierras. Members at Feralloy, C&H Sugar, organize in 2002, the NLRB decided Oakland) and Teamsters Port Division “We’ve made cuts and we’re back to Unisource and the California State that all Menzies workers should fall head Chuck Mack all drove home the normal.” Automobile Assn. rejected their under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), need for political involvement. By dint of some serious belt-tight- employers’ “last, best and final offers” meaning their work is considered so “Political decisions will determine ening, the local managed to cover its and prepared to strike, as did those important to national security their our effectiveness and our very sur- expenses in 2003, finishing without a covered by the master contract. But by collective bargaining rights are vival,” Mack said. “We have to organ- deficit for the first time in six years. standing firm, they avoided having to restricted. This not only wrecked the ize this year as never before to change The officers gave up their meal walk out. Though they took some hits, drive, but voided all the local con- the direction this country is going.” money, took cuts in their car they managed to protect retirees and tracts between Menzies and the “For American workers the floor allowances and took on extra work. in most cases avoid out-of-pocket pay- ILWU, HERE, the Teamsters and the has dropped as millions of jobs are They picked up the load for South ments on health premiums. Machinists, because the RLA also shipped overseas,” said Local 6 Bay/Fresno Business Agent Eddie The local saw seven houses shut requires unions to organize and nego- Secretary-Treasurer Fred Pecker. Gutierrez after he was laid off last down last year and got notice that tiate for national bargaining units. “Overtime pay is under attack, hun- April, and covered for TOPS Division two more will close soon. Nationwide Local 6 is now talking with the other dreds of thousands of federal workers BA Jill Duke after she retired in Paper, Bay Sheets and Premier unions about forming a joint council have lost their bargaining rights and June. The office staff got cut by lay- Roasters moved where labor and land to bargain a new agreement for the laws like the Patriot Act undermine offs and retirement, so they have had is cheaper. Naismith Oakland filed members at the San Jose Airport. our basic freedoms. This is unaccept- to carry extra tasks as well. And the bankruptcy. Dunhill and Pacific Meanwhile, Menzies lost its contracts able. Each of us needs to get involved membership stepped up, paying a $40 Rolling Door couldn’t compete with with airlines at the Oakland Airport, and then bring a co-worker along. It per person one-time assessment voted cheaper products from bigger firms, throwing about 120 other Local 6 is our job to work with each other and members out of work. take back America!” Local 5 signs new deal The urgent need for regime —Marcy Rein ILWU joins anti-war demos

Scott McCaughey ILWU Local 5 President Mary Winzig (leaning over table) signed the local’s second contract with Powell’s Books March 31. (From left) Powell’s CEO for Operations, Ann Smith, Powell’s owner Michael Powell and Local 5 bargaining team member Kevin Maniak. Bargaining team members not pictured are Tracey Trudeau, Jim Cowing, Jeff Hensley, Ryan Takas, John McMahon and Gin Enguehard. Members of warehouse, retail and allied workers Local 5 ratified the new agreement by a vote of 233 to 6 in mail-in balloting that concluded March 29. The three-and-a-half year contract took effect April 1. “This agreement bucks the national trend of workers losing their employer-paid affordable health care,” Winzig said. “That, along with wage increases and stronger language to protect people on the job, makes this a Jeff Smith victory all round.” ILWU longshore locals along the Columbia River and in the San Powell’s will continue to foot the whole bill for visits to doctors on the Francisco Bay Area moved their March stop-work meetings to the first preferred provider list, and will cover 80 percent of the cost of visits to doc- shift Saturday, March 20 so members could join in the anti-war demon- tors not on the list. Workers’ monthly premiums will continue at 15 percent strations marking the one-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. of Powell’s actual health care costs until April 2006, when they will go up About 12,000 people representing more than 120 organizations, includ- to 16 percent. Annual wage raises of two percent should keep Local 5 mem- ing ILWU locals, participated in the Portland march and rally, making it bers ahead of the increase in the cost of living in Portland. one of the largest protest demonstrations the city has ever seen. They gath- “The new agreement includes several language changes that will help ered in downtown’s Pioneer Square and marched around the city. the union build its power on the shop floor,” said Local 8 Labor Relations Organizers arranged for volunteers to pull a mobile stage with a P.A. sys- Committee member Leal Sundet, who worked closely with the Local 5 bar- tem that allowed speakers along the route to speak to the crowed at strate- gaining team. “For one thing, eliminating merit increases will reduce man- gically chosen locations. agement’s control.” Palestinian-American Hala Gores addressed the crowed beside the Union representatives will also have more access to members at work Oregonian building, criticizing the city’s main newspaper for its support of and fewer restrictions on their ability to conduct investigations and other the repressive Israeli policies in the occupied territories. Barbara Dudley, a union business. Management will have to notify the union of safety viola- PSU professor, spoke of the government’s attack on civil liberties in front tions and discipline, and the union will get 15 minutes of orientation time of the Federal Courthouse, and of the need to repeal the Patriot Act. Nancy with each new employee on the clock. Gonzalez of SEIU 49 talked about the “janitors for justice” campaign in “We will get face time with everyone so we can say, ‘Here’s the union, front of the Commonwealth Building in downtown Portland and of the contact us if you have any problems,’” said Local 5 Union Representative importance of getting a contract with management there that would Ryan Van Winkle. require the bosses to provide health insurance for janitors. ILWU International Vice President Bob McEllrath spent considerable Jack Mulcahy of ILWU longshore Local 8 spoke of how the American time in negotiations with Local 5, and gave the local full access to one of the occupation forces in Iraq busted into the headquarters of the Iraqi union’s attorneys, Rob Remar of Leonard, Carder LLP. The help from the Federation of Workers Trade Unions Dec. 6, destroyed much of the build- International proved invaluable, Winzig said. ing and contents of the office, and arrested eight union leaders. Mulcahy “Bob made an enormous contribution in leading the bargaining team continued on to say that “while the government is waging war against the and educating us on the process,” Winzig said. “He was amazing.” unions in Iraq, it is doing the same thing here in our own country. Last McEllrath offered his congratulations to the bargaining team and the April 7, during a peaceful anti-war protest at the Port of Oakland police local. opened fire on demonstrators picketing SSA and APL.” “The negotiating team stayed focused on the issues and worked long In San Francisco ILWU members joined tens of thousands of demon- and hard. Once again the support of the membership, getting behind the strators marching from Dolores Park to Civic Center for a rally. There team and sticking with them, proved that solidarity helps in getting a con- ILWU longshore Local 10 President Henry Graham and Business Agent tract,” he said. “And I want to personally thank Leal Sundet for all the Trent Willis addressed the gathering, announcing, to the roar of the crowd, work he did.” that they had closed the local ports that day in protest of the war. —Marcy Rein —Dispatcher staff report 4• March 2004

ILWU testifies at Senate hearing on port security

By Lindsay McLaughlin minal operators to immediately ILWU Legislative Director implement and maintain adequate Several weeks ago in the south- security measures in accordance with ern Israeli Port of Ashdod two suicide the Maritime Transportation Sec- bombers infiltrated the port, killing urity Act. 10 workers at a machine shop and Out of frustration that terminal injuring another 20. Currently, the operators were shirking their duties Israeli government is investigating to institute common sense security how the terrorists got into the coun- measures to keep port workers and try, including the possibility they hid communities safe, Spinosa asked the in a container on board a ship to gain Coast Guard to issue a directive that access. Investigators are looking into all security measures for handling whether the real targets of the terror- cargo should be implemented now ists were chemical facilities within without delay. Employers are relying the port that could have killed hun- on a technical final compliance date dreds of innocent people. of July 1, 2004 in the Coast Guard The U.S. Senate Committee on regulations to put off what they Commerce, Science and should do today. Spinosa told the Transportation held a hearing on the Coast Guard that the port security state of American maritime security law mandates the Coast Guard March 24, 2004. Mike Mitre, the requires terminal operators to put in Longshore Division’s Director of Port place cargo security programs before Security, testified for the ILWU. The the security plan is approved. Committee wanted to know whether Further, Spinosa wrote, “Com- West Coast ports had made progress mon sense would indicate that wait- in securing the facilities or whether ing until July 1, 2004 to institute nec- the incident in Israel could happen essary port security measures actual- here. Mitre testified that real port ly could heighten the risk of potential security has not been achieved, and in terrorism during this waiting peri- some respects, U.S. ports are less od.” Terminal operators know what secure than they were prior to the they need to do to make our ports terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. safer and more secure, and they need Mitre testified that, for example, to do it now. most marine terminals have not initi- The ILWU has enlisted allies in ated any new programs to check seals the effort to get real port security. At when containers enter a marine facil- the March meeting of the unions affil- ity. The Coast Guard has issued rules iated with the Transportation Trades requiring terminals to check seals Department, AFL-CIO, the ILWU when containers enter a facility and introduced a resolution entitled “Real when containers are stored. So far the it’s hard to gauge a best return on the first year—and $7.4 billion dol- Port Security Needed.” It passed terminal operators have not com- any investment, but after July 1, we lars over 10 years—just to make unanimously. The resolution called plied, and have erroneously insisted will prosecute any violations. It’s part basic, necessary physical improve- for the TTD to advocate real seaport that they do not have to comply until of the new cost of doing business.” ments at U.S. ports. But Bush is only security measures before the Coast their facility security plans are At the hearing Mitre criticized asking for $46 million in funding for Guard, the Bureau of Customs and approved by the Coast Guard. Some the lack of regulations on the treat- this task in the year 2005. Border Control, the Transportation terminal operators actually discontin- ment of empty containers. There Mitre spoke to the Senate Security Administration and other ued the practice of verifying seals should be no disagreement over the Committee about the need to devise a agencies with jurisdiction over sea- before and in months after Sept. 11, need for an inspection and verifica- “West Coast scenario” so that port security. The TTD will inform 2001. tion concerning containers marked as America could continue to move members of Congress on the state of Mitre emphasized the importance empty, he said. The fact that marine goods in the event of a terrorist seaport security and support addi- of checking the outside container terminal operators routinely conduct- attack. Mitre and his fellow legisla- tional legislation if necessary to seals. A broken seal would immedi- ed inspections of empty containers in tive action committee member Peter enhance seaport security and protect ately alert the port facility that the the past as a regular part of their Peyton have been looking at this issue the rights of seaport workers. The container may have been tampered security program to verify the and urging policymakers to plan for TTD will also work to inform the gen- with and needs to be carefully absence of harmful contents and to such an event. These Legislative eral public through the media about inspected. A systematic check of con- detect and deter possible terrorist Action Committee members are also the need to secure seaports. tainer seals also provides authorities attacks, only adds to the viability of looking at how we can build infra- The ILWU will hold its legislative with a record of the parties responsi- this procedure. structure for moving goods in a way conference in Washington, D.C. the ble for placing the seal on any con- Mitre strongly urged the Coast that meets the security needs of our week of April 26, 2004. Obtaining real tainer that may be used for a terror- Guard to mandate the inspection of ports. port security will be a major issue for ist attack. empty containers. If there ever was to This testimony before the Senate the ILWU delegates lobbying before Seal checks are vital to our be an attack using an “empty” con- Committee is only one step the ILWU Congress. You can help to by writing national security. Lloyd’s List report- tainer to transport and stage explo- has recently taken to raise the urgent your member of Congress and letting ed on April 8, 2002, that 47 warheads sives or chemical or biological agents, need for port security before the them know that terminal operators were found on a foreign flag ship La this would be the ideal manner to dis- nation’s policymakers. ILWU should be living up to their responsi- Tour Feb. 9, 2002 at the Port of New cover it. With the level and manner of International President James bility and implementing security York/New Jersey after the Coast intelligence gathering and the sophis- Spinosa wrote to Coast Guard measures for handling cargo. This is a Guard noticed that a “safety seal ticated techniques used by various Admiral Larry Hereth March 15, matter of true security for port work- appeared to differ from the one put organizations, nothing should be left 2004 to urge the Coast Guard to take ers and the port communities where on the box when it was loaded.” Port to chance. effective action to compel marine ter- ILWU families live. workers are prepared to perform Sen. John Breaux (D-LA) asked security checks on the containers, but the other panelists to respond to have been stymied by terminal opera- Mitre’s assertion that empty contain- The ILWU Political Action Fund tors more interested in moving cargo ers pose a threat to national security. The ILWU Political Action Fund has a goal of raising more than $500,000 quickly and profitably than in taking But the industry representative did the time for proper security. not directly answer why they should for the union’s work on the November 2004 elections and for contributions to Some terminal operators have not be inspected, mostly because pro-worker candidates’ campaigns. The International officers and the Coast suggested that technology such as there is no reasonable response. Committee are asking all members to donate $50 each to the fund. All contri- cameras can do the job of seal checks, Mitre’s written testimony said it best: butions are voluntary, are not part of your union dues or a condition of union but this method has not proven effec- “When there is a conflict between membership. You can give more or less than the officers suggest—all contri- tive. Cameras and scanners cannot efficiency in the maritime transporta- butions are valued—and there are no reprisals for giving less or not partici- tell if a seal has been tampered with. tion system versus additional security pating in the union’s political activities. Contributions to the ILWU Political The human eye and intuition cannot measures that will enhance the secu- Action Fund are not tax deductible. be replaced with technology. rity of the system and our port com- To satisfy federal election laws, please include with your check your munities, we believe that security Government officials appear to be name, address, occupation and employer. The ILWU International wants you listening. The chair of the Homeland should prevail.” to list your local number and registration number to track participation rates. Security Committee, Rep. Chris- Mitre also urged Congress and topher Cox (R-CA), was quoted in the the Bush administration to adequate- Retirees are not eligible to donate to the ILWU PAF. They should make dona- Orange County Register as saying, ly fund port security. When security tions to the Pacific Coast Pensioners Association or other pensioner groups. “Stopping seal checks is definitely a plans are finalized, it is critical that Donations should be sent to: matter of concern.” Los Angeles Port money be made available for opti- ILWU-PAF Captain Peter Neffinger told the mum security rather than minimal 1188 Franklin St., 4th Floor Register, “I know terminals see secu- security. Coast Guard officials have San Francisco, CA 94109 rity as inconvenient and costly, and said it will cost $1.4 billion dollars in Checks should be payable to: ILWU-PAF. March 2004 • 5 NorCal grocery workers grab the torch by Marcy Rein heering, chanting pandemoni- um broke out as the ILWU Drill CTeam stepped smartly into the UFCW mass meeting March 14. Around 900 members of nine Northern California locals had con- verged on the ILWU longshore Local 10 hall. Their banners ringed the bal- cony and their noise rattled the roof as they joined the yell raised by the Drill Team and their own chant team. “UF-C-Double-U! Safeway, we’re coming through!” they hollered. The energy unleashed at that opening carried through a day that was part pep-rally, part planning meet- ing for the upcoming Northern California grocery contract campaign. Smarting from the bitter end of the Southern California struggle just two weeks before, the members at the meeting vowed to learn its lessons and Mathew Hardy After a fiery morning rally, Northern California UFCW members broke into work groups and dove into the details of their hold the line. contract campaign. “Southern California began the war of 2004, and we’re going to win on the job. But they all voiced the “Every faith tradition shares a going to sit back and watch workers it!,” said Local 839 Shop Steward urgency of the looming fight not only commitment to justice,” she said. be persecuted,” he said. “Every work- Dorothy Smith. for health care, but for decent living “That gives you powerful allies in get- er in this country is at risk and every- After nearly five months on the standards for working people. ting your message to the public.” one deserves health care.” picket lines, the 70,000 UFCW members “I worked my way through col- After lunch, the meeting re-con- Pulaski reminded the crowd that in Southern California voted up a three- lege at Safeway, and had a baby vened for a skit put on by members of the fight for health care will extend to year contract marked by sharp cuts in daughter,” said Vince Herrera of Locals 648 and 1199 that envisioned a the ballot box this fall. The California wages and benefits for new hires. Local 428. “With the well-baby check- successful campaign—starting with legislature passed SB-2 last session, Current employees will see their wages ups and the immunizations, the flu apathetic and fearful workers in a cap- requiring employers that don’t offer stay flat, their pension accrual go down and earaches she had, I would still be tive audience meeting and ending with health insurance to pay into a state and their health care premiums go up, in debt today if I didn’t have a well- a group of members badgering Steve fund for uninsured workers. But big although they held off the premium funded benefit package,” he said. Burd till he gave up the fight. The retail interests funded an initiative increase until the last year of the deal. “This attack on our health care is like audience booed, cheered and rose up that would repeal the measure—so Watching the Southern California a rock dropping to the bottom of a on cue. By the end they were on their labor will need to get out the vote to strike and lockout unfold, nine locals pond. Everyone, not just retail work- feet yelling and ready for the brief defend its gains. formed the Bay Area UFCW Coalition ers, will feel the ripple.” rally that wound up the day. As the rally ended, members last October. They represent nearly “I knew I was never going to get At the rally speakers from the streamed out of the Local 10 parking 50,000 workers at Safeway, Albert- rich working at Safeway, but I could broader labor movement pledged soli- lot for a march around the Safeway sons, Ralphs, Cala, Raley’s and several provide for my family,” said Local darity and support, including Califor- across the street. And if they hap- independent stores. Eight of the 870’s Diane Powe. “Now they want to nia Labor Federation Executive Secre- pened to look up when they filed past locals—101, 120, 1179, 373R, 428, 648, take away health care and pensions, tary-Treasurer Art Pulaski, AFL-CIO the back of the store, they would’ve 839 and 870—sign on to a master con- because rich people like [Safeway Western Region Field Mobilization seen a few Bay Area activists on the tract that expires Sept. 11, 2004. The CEO] Steve Burd want to get richer. Coordinator Lisa Hoyos, San Fran- roof with home-made banners. union expects talks to begin mid-June. We built this country. We built this cisco Central Labor Council head “Safeway: Don’t Destroy Workers’ Sacramento-area Local 588 bargains industry. Why should we take a hit Walter Johnson and ILWU Local 10’s Healthcare” read one. “Our Fight is alone. Its agreement expires July 17. because he wants more? When is Trent Willis. Even though members of On!” read the other. Each Coalition local hired an enough enough?” the ILWU longshore division have To stay updated on the Northern organizer for the contract campaign The speakers recognized the dele- excellent health benefits, they’re still California grocery workers’ campaign, and began planning the mass meeting gations from their locals, who stood backing the UFCW fight, Willis said. go to www.bayareacoalition.org. months ago, with help in the last weeks amid more cheers and yells. And the “There’s no way the ILWU is from the California Labor Federation crowd roared for Southern California and the AFL-CIO Western Region. strike veteran Mike DiLeo, and the ILWU FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR THE GROCERY WORKERS They all know what they’re up against. representatives who’d come from The Harry Bridges Institute established the Adopt-A-UFCW-Family program Dec. 29, 2003 to “The store managers are already locals all over the U.S. and Canada— help the striking and locked-out grocery workers in Southern California. The HBI’s first official telling us the contract from Southern from Washington State, Michigan, fundraising announcements were made at the Jan. 12, 2004 stop-work meetings of ILWU Locals California is coming to Northern Hawaii, Kentucky and Calgary, 13, 63 and 94. The list below documents all the financial contributions from ILWU affiliates and California,” Local 839 President John Canada. members the HBI and The Dispatcher have been able to track. Many other individual contribu- Briley said in opening the meeting. Over lunch, breakout groups of tions were sent directly to the UFCW. “They’re expecting us to roll over and about 30 people discussed shop-floor play dead,” he said, drawing shouts of and public strategies for the coming ILWU International - $5,000.00 “Boo!” and “No way!” from the crowd. months. When the rank-and-file vigor- Following Briley, Rev. Phil Lawson, ously enforces their contract on the ILWU Local 63 - $25,000.00 per month for three months totaling $75,000.00 Rev. Carol Been and Fr. Louis Vitale of job, the employer will know they mean ILWU Local 63 - rank and file $8,217.00 the National Interfaith Committee for business—so the sessions began with a ILWU Local 13 - $100,000.00 directly to the UFCW for 272 families for healthcare Worker Justice delivered fighting invo- review of members’ rights under the ILWU Local 13 - rank and file $38,534.91 cations, and U.S. Senator Barbara contract and the National Labor ILWU Local 94 - $100.00 per member assessment totaling $30,638.00 Boxer (D-CA) and Teamsters Relations Act. (an additional $30,000. will come in next week) International Vice Presi-dent Chuck “We’re making sure people know ILWU Local 94 rank and file - $300.00 Mack promised support. Then speakers the ins and outs of their contract,” from each local hit the mike. said Local 648 President Mary ILWU Local 68 Port Pilots - $4,000.00 The Coalition locals represent Chambers. ILWU Local 68 rank and file - $1,200.00 workers from Salinas in the Central Rev. Carol Been spoke to each ILWU Local 63 Office Clerical Unit – $10,000.00 sent to UFCW trust for healthcare Valley to Eureka. The members at the group and encouraged people to sign ILWU Local 63 Office Clerical rank and file – $300.00 meeting ranged from 30-year veter- up for outreach to clergy and congre- ILWU Credit Union - $5,000.00 ans to baggers with just a few years gations in their communities. ILWU Southern California Pensioners Group - $5,000.00 ILWU Local 10 - $50,000.00 ILWU Local 46 - $10,000 ILWU Local 54 - $2,000.00 ILWU Local 34 - $5,000.00 ILWU Local 91- $1,000.00 ILWU Local 21 general fund - $100.00 ILWU Local 19 rank and file - $700.00 ILWU Local 23 - $1,000 ILWU Local 8 - $500 ILWU Local 40 $1,520 ILWU Local 6 - $3179.64 ILWU Ladies Auxiliary #8 - $200.00 Adopt–A–UFCW–Family (miscellaneous contributions from community and daily mail) $8,002.00 Marcy Rein The March 14 mobilization ended with a quick, loud march around the GRAND TOTAL—$383,571.55 Safeway across the street from the ILWU Local 10 hall. 6• March 2004 Another Bush lie: tax cuts for jobs By Jack Rasmus tator Lou Dobbs recently compiled a uring the three years of the list of 216 companies moving jobs Bush administration, more overseas, called the “Dobbs Rogue Dthan 3 million jobs in the U.S. Fund.” Others have calculated that have disappeared, been destroyed, “these 216 companies registered a dismantled, vanished. Not since the remarkable 72 percent return (i.e. early years of the Great Depression of profit gain) over the last 12 months.” the 1930s has America experienced TRUE JOB LOSS AND three consecutive years of net job UNEMPLOYMENT destruction. Nor has any president since Herbert Hoover faced the Officially, the number of unem- prospect of leaving office with the ployed during the current Bush reces- economy having fewer jobs than sion and jobless recovery that has fol- when he entered. lowed has remained at any given time The Bush recession began in chronically at around 8-9 million. This March 2001 and was declared official- does not count the so-called “discour- ly over in November 2001, six months aged workers” leaving the workforce later. Two major tax cuts, plus a in hundreds of thousands every series of additional corporate tax month, those 5 million employed breaks, were enacted between mid- involuntarily part-time, those involun- 2001 and 2003—tax cuts worth tarily forced into retirement or those $2.1 trillion—80 percent of which who have no jobs but claim when went directly to benefit those with interviewed to be employed as “con- incomes over $147,000 a year. sultants” earning an occasional dollar American workers were promised here or there “under the table.” at the time that these tax cuts were This alternative, more accurate the answer to economic recovery and measure of the unemployed is some- would create new jobs once again. It times called the “labor underutiliza- was Ronald Reagan’s old “trickle- tion rate.” This rate adds about down economics” argument, brought another 2.8 million unemployed for out of the closet, dusted off once those discouraged. When the discour- more, prepared for public consump- aged workers, the jobless who want tion—but larger than ever before. work but drop out of the work force, Even a trickle of that, a worker might are added to the official number of argue, could produce significant those out of work, the unemployment improvements in jobs or wages. And rate in the U.S. is generally around 10 that’s not counting some share of the percent, instead of the current official tax cut as well. But let’s look at these 5-6 percent. two—tax cuts and jobs—and how And even this 10 percent of offi- workers fared under George W. Bush cially unemployed and discouraged the past three years. doesn’t count those involuntarily To begin with, 84 percent of all Jim Swanson employed part time, or forced into taxpayers have incomes below budget yet another big cut for his The wealthy in America with retirement, or “consultants” not really $75,000. That’s the American working wealthy friends—this time a $1.8 tril- incomes over $147,000 a year have working full time by any measure- class, the largest part of which earn lion permanent cut in taxes for the been receiving their 80 percent share ment. The figure for these latter between $40,000 and $50,000, and wealthy over the next 10 years. of the $2.1 trillion tax cut pie. But the groups would add another 3 million many more earn less than that. The The long-held consensus among American worker is yet to see the equivalent full time unemployed to the tax cut in 2003 for the vast majority of economists is that the U.S. economy promised jobs. ranks of the jobless at minimum, and workers in the $40-$50,000 range needs to add a minimum of 150,000 to another 3-4 percent to the official amounted only to $380, and for those 200,000 new jobs each month just to IMPACT ON WAGES AND PROFITS unemployment rate. in the $50-$75,000 range, only $553. absorb those entering the work force While Bush’s tax-cuts-for-the- All total that brings the number In both cases that’s less than one and keep total joblessness from ris- rich solution has failed to produce of those out of work to more than 15 percent of their annual income. In fact, ing. During the non-recession years jobs, it has succeeded in reducing million, and the true unemployment with Bush’s tax cuts half of all income of 1993-1999 the average monthly wages. For the year 2003 aggregate rate to around 13-14 percent in the tax payers had their taxes cut by less gain in jobs was 250,000. And econo- wage and salary income has fallen by U.S. as of early 2004. than $100. On the other hand, those mists agree that by spring 2004, at 0.7 percent. Bush’s cut-taxes-for-the- HISTORICAL PARALLELS with annual incomes of more than $1 this stage of a recovery from the 2001 rich program has proved, for workers million received an average tax cut of Bush recession, monthly job creation at least, to be the equivalent of eco- George W. Bush may be the famil- $105,636 from Bush. That’s closer to should be at least at that level. nomic snake oil. But for the owning ial offspring of George H. W. Bush, but 10 percent of their annual income. So During 2003 the U.S. economy class, the employers, it’s been more he is more so the economic policy much for the benefits for workers from needed to produce 150,000 jobs a like manna from heaven. descendant of Ronald Reagan. George the tax cut. Let’s look at jobs. month, or 1.8 million jobs for the peri- From 2001 through 2003 a total W.’s $2.1 trillion tax cut for the rich is od, just to stay even. Instead, it actual- of 58.6 million workers in the U.S. a direct inheritor of Reagan’s similarly SLEIGHT OF HAND: ly lost 360,000. That’s in addition to were laid off at some point and about targeted tax cuts of $758 billion for the THE JOBLESS RECOVERY the 1.8 million new workers entering 55 million rehired or were newly wealthy enacted in the early 1980s. In early 2001 the President’s the economy, for a total shortfall of hired somewhere. Jobs that were cre- At that time the $758 billion was a Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) more than 180,000 jobs a month. ated in the last three years were often record give away. Just like George W., announced that if the first round of not of the same quality as those that Reagan’s term was also marked by a Bush’s $2.1 trillion tax cuts for the THE LAST SIX MONTHS: disappeared. In addition to lower pay more than doubling of defense spend- rich were passed quickly, it would THE DISAPPEARING JOBS TRICK and benefits, they were often tempo- ing. Similarly, Reagan’s record defense result in the creation of 800,000 addi- The grand predictions and assur- rary, part-time, contract-basis jobs. spending and tax cuts resulted in the tional jobs by the end of 2002, all due ances from Bush and his spokesper- Various studies show those laid off then-record budget deficits of the to the tax cut alone. sons about jobs have been no more during this period, and then rehired, 1980s that were used as a hammer by And, once again, in February accurate in the last six months than went to new jobs that typically paid Republicans at the time to attack and 2003 the President’s CEA assured they were in 2003 or during the last 30-35 percent less in wages and bene- cut social spending programs. that the adoption of a second round of three years. Since Bush’s trumpeting fits. A similar study by the Economic Even the element of corporate Bush tax cuts would create 1.4 mil- last October of the 8.2 percent surge in Policy Institute in Washington D.C. scandals under George W. Bush was lion additional jobs—510,000 in 2003 economic growth and promise of mas- estimated new hires were earning an first experienced under Reagan. Today and another 891,000 for 2004—all sive job creation, jobs have been creat- average of $14.65 an hour, whereas it is almost forgotten how Reagan tax- solely attributable to the tax cuts. ed at a rate of around only 61,000 a lost jobs were paying $16.92. The dif- and-deregulation policies encouraged All total, that amounts to a Bush month on average. That’s about ferential is even greater when med- and facilitated the massive Savings & promise of 2.2 million jobs created 90,000 a month short of the 150,000 ical and other benefits are added. Loan scandal that eventually cost the between 2001 and 2004 as a direct minimum jobs needed every month And companies are clearly pock- American taxpayers a trillion dollars consequence of passage of the $2.1 just to absorb new workers entering eting the difference. According to to clean up. trillion tax cuts for the rich. the labor force. Even the brief surge in recent government data, corporate In a Feb. 19, 2004 speech on the But three large dollops of hand- jobs that accompanied the 8.2 percent profits were up by 30 percent in the economy Bush arrogantly declared, outs for the rich have not stemmed the growth rate never came close, in the July-September 2003 period com- “We’ve been through a lot. But we destruction of jobs. Bush’s primary best months of job creation last pared to the same period in 2002— acted here in Washington. I led.” plan for job creation—tax cuts—has October-November, to reaching the the largest year-over-year growth in Yes, like the Pied Piper of Hamlin proved a dismal failure. 150,000 minimum per month needed profits in 19 years and reaching an led, playing the same tax tune on his On the other hand, facts have for net job creation. And after that annual rate of more than $1 trillion jobs flute all the way...right over the never deterred George W. True to his brief period last fall, job growth has dollars for the first time in history. cliff! “stay the course” mentality, even been down hill once again. Forecasts are for another 15 percent when faced with stark reality of 3 mil- If the government committed just gain in profits in 2004. That’s a 45 Jack Rasmus is the chair of the lion lost jobs, he today continues to 20 percent ($440 billion) of the $2.1 percent raise in just two years. San Francisco Bay Area local chapter propose further tax cuts for the rich. trillion tax cuts directly to job cre- A lion’s share of the above profits 3 of the National Writers Union, UAW After promising in August 2003 to ation, it would produce a total of surge accrued to those companies in 1981, AFL-CIO, and a long-time ask for no additional cuts, Bush has nearly 9 million new jobs, each paying the U.S. aggressively engaging in member of the Dramatists Guild. once again gone back to the trough in $50,000 a year. The 8.2 million unem- moving American jobs offshore. For Rasmus has a Ph.D. in Political early 2004 and requested in his latest ployed would be eliminated. example, TV business news commen- Economy. March 2004 • 7 Union continues the fight for worker safety by Tom Price National Association of Manufacturers f President Bush has his way and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. there could be something else to They had fought those regulations for Imourn this Workers Memorial more than 10 years and contributed Day on April 28—the beginning of the heavily to Republican candidates in the end of federal safety enforcement. 2000 election. Administration critics Since assuming office in 2001, the saw Bush’s action as a payback to cor- Bush regime has repeatedly attacked porate interests. They would certainly the enforcement powers of the profit if Bush passed the annual $40 bil- Occupational Health and Safety lion injury costs from corporations to Administration (OSHA), and there workers and taxpayers. might be more to come. One week later Bush’s Labor OSHA cutbacks are life-threaten- Secretary Elaine Chao axed a $4.8 mil- ing for the 91.5 percent of private sec- lion safety-training program. Con- tor American workers without union gresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) fired contracts. The 8.5 percent who are in off a protest letter to the secretary. unions can bargain for safety and “In rescinding the grants, the enforce contracts, but that can be an Dept. of Labor [DoL] cited ‘budgetary uphill fight. A case in point—as one of circumstances’ as the cause,” Pelosi his first acts in office, Bush scrapped wrote on March 30. “Sadly, workplace the ergonomic safety standards. That safety will suffer to once again fund presented problems the longshore tax breaks for the wealthy.” Coast Safety Committee now has to Bush’s April 2001 appointment of negotiate with the Pacific Maritime Eugene Scalia as the DoL’s Solicitor or Assn. (PMA). chief attorney raised such howls of “We have ergonomic issues the protest from Democrats that he with- Bush administration shot down,” com- drew the appointment during hear- mittee member and walking boss ings. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) voiced Local 94 Secretary-Treasurer Danny opposition to Scalia’s published opin- Miranda said. “This affects clerks, ions that repetitive stress injuries heavy equipment operators, mainte- were “psychological” in nature, and nance and repair mechanics and top questioned Scalia’s fitness for the job. handlers. These jobs often affect necks “Since most labor laws do not and backs, and Bush has eliminated include a private right of action [the OSHA protection on this issue.” right to sue], the Solicitor serves as the In the first 30 years since its workers’ lawyer by using his discre- founding in 1970, OSHA saved as tion and judgment to decide whether many as 220,000 workers’ lives by to enforce workers’ rights,” Kennedy enforcing safety standards, according said at the October 2001 hearing in to the AFL-CIO’s Safety and Health arguing that Scalia was the wrong vapor when containers or cranes are “We want the crane to work at a Director Peg Seminario. It also low- man for the job. heated with cutting torches. slow motion while carrying people, an ered workplace injuries by 39 percent. Bush waited until Congress was The union fought to get dockside emergency stop button and tie points Those results inspired the AFL-CIO out of session and appointed Scalia first aid for heart attack victims during on the beam so we can attach safety in 1989 to choose OSHA’s birthday, during its recess on Jan. 11, 2002. the last negotiations. Now the employ- lines directly to it,” Freese said. April 28, as Workers Memorial Day. That way a lawyer who had represent- er has agreed to install Automatic “They did agree we should have Canada and nearly 100 other coun- ed clients like UPS against OSHA External Defibrillators at some ports, anchor points on the beam to connect tries also remember killed or injured standards could become the chief legal most recently during grain negotia- our safety lines to. This doesn’t make workers on that day. officer in charge of enforcing those tions for the 2003-2006 contract. it a rule, but it would be a recommen- As well as mourning the dead, very standards. The appointment last- Defibrillators often save lives by send- dation to OSHA.” unions have to fight for the living. ed one year. ing an electrical charge through the MACOSH wouldn’t agree to place Rebuilding OSHA could become a Since then the Coast Safety heart, restoring its proper heartbeat. emergency stop buttons in the cages, vital interest for the ILWU if the Committee has drawn the line on The committee will vigorously nor would the employers agree to employers have their way. workplace hazards and is negotiating oppose vertical tandem lifts. This prac- slow down the crane movement while “At the last negotiations PMA with PMA and OSHA to ensure dock- tice requires a crane operator to lift people are in the cages. showed up at the table with as many er safety. two containers at once. Unlike the employers or the gov- resolutions on safety as we had, and “On the issue of speed limits, they The union raised these and other ernment, the safety committee sees most of them were to delete language refuse to put speedometers on yard issues at the Marine Advisory Com- these issues from the workers’ per- already in the safety code,” Safety trucks so we can know their speed,” mittee on Occupational Safety and spective, from the bottom of the hold Committee Chair and longshore Local Miranda said. The employer also refused Health in early March. That commit- to the cab of the crane. When acci- 13 member Mike Freese said. “At first to post speed limits on the docks. tee, representing government, indus- dents happen, it’s workers who pay they wanted to eliminate the code alto- PMA did agree to conduct a study try and labor, advises OSHA on dock and workers and families who mourn gether and just go by OSHA rules. We on dockside diesel emissions. There and shipyard safety issues. One issue them on Workers Memorial Day. wouldn’t agree to that.” has been no progress on emissions of the union brought to MACOSH was “We have been lobbying hard for the Bush’s attack on OSHA began another sort—container loads of ani- the practice of “riding the beam,” that container chassis safety inspections,” March 21, 2001, when he signed legis- mal hides that leak a nasty, fetid liquid is, riding in a cage on a crane’s spread- Miranda said. “Recently a container sep- lation killing OSHA standards on on dockers. The Safety Committee is er bar onto or off a ship. Workers wear arated from a chassis on an overpass and repetitive stress injuries. The rollback also trying to eliminate hexavalent full safety harnesses, but have no place fell onto a truck below, killing the driver pleased corporate lobbyists such as the chromium in paint. It becomes a toxic to fasten a tether to the beam. in that truck instantly.” Labor scholars say unions can win with women By Mark Gruenberg sor at Cornell’s School of Industrial leverage the employer inside and out- Public opinion also contributed to PAI Staff Writer and Labor Relations. “We have a con- side the workplace and emphasize per- the organizing wins of the 1930s and WASHINGTON, D.C.—The nation’s stant increase in proportions of union sonal one-on-contact in both the work- 1940s, Cobble said. unions must change their organizing members who are women and soon place and the community. “The powerful message then was methods and tactics to take advantage women will be a majority of union • Build and empower rank-and- that if the labor movement was strong, of their higher success rates among members.” file leadership committees with an so the entire country would be women workers, two prominent labor Women already hold a majority in ownership role in organizing drives. strong,” Cobble said. People viewed scholars say. unions such as the Service Employees • Focus on issues that resonate labor as “representing the social Speaking at a Feb. 6 forum at the International Union (SEIU) and the with the workers, not necessarily pay, good.” That message has since been AFL-CIO, Princeton historian Doro- American Federation of State, County but respect on the job, job security and buried under anti-labor laws and busi- thy Cobble and Cornell labor studies and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). issues such as work rules and flexible ness lobbying. professor Kate Bronfenbrenner point- Yet most union organizing campaigns, hours. Many successful unions start Female union membership rose ed out that strategies that worked to reflecting the long male dominance of planning for bargaining and setting from 800,000 at the beginning of the organize female workers in the 1930s union hierarchies, are geared towards bargaining goals even before winning 1930s to 3 million by the end of the and 1940s still work today. Organizing organizing men in male-dominated the organizing drive. 1940s, and there were successful, drives are more successful among professions, and a higher proportion of • Become tough on themselves, large, female-led strikes, she noted. women workers than among their them fail, Bronfenbrenner added. using benchmarks to determine These included a nationwide strike male counterparts, they added, but To change that imbalance in whether they should continue a cam- in 1947 by 230,000 female telephone unions fail to take advantage of this. organizing, Bronfenbrenner said paign or cut their losses. operators—members of what became “No union in America makes its unions must use different tactics and “We have to make organizing cam- the Communications Workers of priority the targeting of private-sector emphasize different issues. Winning paigns more aggressive and global, America (CWA)—and strikes by the female clerical workers,” Bronfen- unions—and those who are organiz- and we have to have organizing com- United Electrical Workers (UE) and the brenner said. ing female workers—share several mittees that are more representative International Brotherhood of Electrical Unions don’t target female work- approaches, she said. These unions: by race and gender,” Bronfenbrenner Workers (IBEW). UE shut down 78 ers even though “women are one of • Hire and train organizers who said. “Unions will fail if they only see General Electric and West-inghouse the few bright spots in the labor move- are a match for the unit being targeted. women workers as a pressure group to plants in 1946 by demanding equal pay ment,” said Bronfenbrenner, a profes- • Use community pressure to be accommodated.” for equal work, Cobble noted. 8• March 2004 The ‘Old Left’ and the union: Kei

Introduction by Harvey Schwartz his is the first of a new series featuring ILWU veterans of the “Old Left” who were once active in the American Communist Party (CP). Much has been said and written about the many trials of Harry TBridges, who was accused repeatedly by government officials of being a CP member. Nothing was ever proved, of course, and Bridges was left alone in 1955 after 20 years of near-constant hounding. On the other hand, little has been published about those ILWU veterans who were CP members, their Party-sponsored activities in the ILWU or their sincere dedication to the union’s cause. The present series addresses these oversights. Keith Eickman retired as warehouse Local 6 President in 1982 after 25 years as a full-time union offi- cial. He is the focus of this month’s article. Eickman shared the youthful idealism as well as the eventual disappointment experienced by many people who were members of the CP between the 1930s and the 1950s. His testimony, laced with self-reflection and humor, portrays the Party’s role in some pivotal events in Local 6 history. Eickman’s life-long dedication to social justice and to the ILWU has been extraordinary. When he cel- ebrated his 90th birthday in late 2003 he could look back on 60 years of service to the Warehouse Division. He is still president of the West Bay Local 6 Pensioners Club. The article below is based on an interview I conducted with Eickman in San Francisco during 1981, when he was still Local 6 President. That tape session was part of the ILWU’s initial oral history project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and co-sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley. Finally, thanks to Oscar Berland, Glenna Matthews and Nancy Quam-Wickham for their help. KEITH EICKMAN sectarian in that sense. Through YCL I got involved with the organiza- Edited by Harvey Schwartz, tion of Santa Clara County’s cannery workers. Curator, ILWU Oral History Collection Then a drive started to organize the dried fruit was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in workers in the Rosenberg plant into the militant October 1913. My parents got divorced, and I new United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Iusually stayed with my mother, but in 1930 I Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), CIO. UCA- came to San Francisco to live with my father. I’ve PAWA was set up by the CIO in 1937. This was been here most of my life since then. I went to when the AFL and the CIO were split and were Mission High School in the City my last two years fierce competitors. and graduated in 1932, right in the middle of the As an office clerk at Rosenberg I was not a Great Depression. Millions of people were unem- member of the plant bargaining unit. Still, armed ployed. My father worked for the Pacific Gas and with the virtue of my beliefs, I announced to every- Electric Company. He never lost his job, but his pay one in the plant that the production workers was reduced. It took me two years to get work should join the CIO rather than stay in the conser- Keith Eickman myself. I finally got a job in 1934 running a vative AFL affiliate that then represented them. Burroughs bookkeeping machine at the Rosenberg This was not received by the employer with great I quit one WPA job to attend the 1939 Dried Fruit Company in Santa Clara, California. enthusiasm. American Youth Congress (AYC) in New York. The With so many people out of work I was con- The workers in the plant weren’t in a position YCL in Santa Clara had formed a local Youth vinced there was something wrong with the system. to support me. But I was young and brash and Council and I became the secretary and a delegate I was looking for something that would give me thought I possessed the wisdom of the world. I was to the AYC. The AYC was not a revolutionary answers to the problems of society and life. Then I going to pass on all of my information to these organization. It was just trying to improve condi- met these young people at a night school in San Jose. lucky people. Well, they did not join the CIO, but tions for young people so they could go to school They were members of the Young Communist remained in the AFL. Subsequently they did and get jobs. It had a certain amount of influence League (YCL) in Santa Clara County. The YCL was become part of the ILWU-CIO in Santa Clara in the United States until World War II. Attending the junior section of the American Communist Party County, but that was a few years later. the AYC meeting, I think, shows how I always did (CP). I recall being im-pressed with the YCL slogan, Eventually Rosenberg laid me off. They said it work of a broader nature than just being a member “Life with a purpose.” was for lack of work. Unemployment insurance had of the YCL. I joined the YCL in January 1936 and became just come in, so I ran out my unemployment. There That is, I always tried to work with other people. quite active. There were some romantic tendencies were no jobs, but I wasn’t looking for a job very I wanted social betterment for it own sake, but also about the YCL. I was joining an organization that strenuously because of the excitement of being I had the idea that by doing this we really were was against the capitalist system. The Com- active in the YCL. We did all kinds of things that developing some concept of the revolution. I thought munists wanted to replace capitalism with social- seemed very important, like going to meetings the revolution was just around the corner. I remem- ism, which promised to divide the wealth of society every night. ber a friend who said, “You know what? The revolu- more fairly. Then I got hired under the New Deal’s Works tion is going to be within two weeks.” We were very We were really the most sectarian group in the Progress Administration (WPA). I was given vari- young at the time. But I was always very cautious in world. We sang revolutionary songs, like [singing] ous WPA jobs around San Jose. Some were pretty my analysis. I said, “I don’t think so, I think it will “Fly higher and higher and higher, our symbol is stupid, but they did give you enough to live on and take five years.” So I gave what you’d consider the the Soviet Star.” This I thought was marvelous—I you could survive. Once I worked in the Stanford very conservative estimate! He was the real radical. liked the songs, I liked to sing and I liked the peo- University labs counting fish scales. Apparently Well, the revolution didn’t happen in two weeks, and ple. Our attitude toward the U.S. was contemptu- this determined some factors about the fish, but I it didn’t happen in five years, either. ous, even toward the good things about it. We were can’t remember what. Although I was rather naive in my mid-20s, I did have certain questions. In 1939 the Nazi-Soviet Pact caused me some anguish. That was when the Russian Communists signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany that allowed Hitler to start World War II without fear of Soviet interference. But I was able to overcome my anguish because I believed that the Soviet Union knew best. That is what I was told by the CP. I’d gone to confession and received the answer I wanted to hear. In 1940 I went to work for Westinghouse in San Francisco as a Burroughs operator. But I really did- n’t like office work. In August 1941 I decided to get into the warehouse industry, where they were hir- ing. The United States wasn’t in World War II yet, but the work situation was improving because of increased defense spending. In the building where I was employed there were some Local 6 members. They were making more money than I was as a Burroughs operator. I thought, “This is ridicu- ILWU ORAL HIST lous.” I quit my job, went down to the hiring Volume IX hall on Clay Street and got on at Zeller-bach Paper company. In those days the The ‘Old Left’ a warehouse industry was

file photo not mechanized at all. Zellerbach had enor- Keith Eic mous cartons of paper,

Dispatcher 36 by 42 inches, and they warehous weighed an awful lot. Everything had to be Local 6 pickets during the long 1949 San Francisco warehouse strike. March 2004 • 9 th Eickman of warehouse Local 6

people wanted a third party. Only afterwards did I was being torn apart. It survived, but after this the realize that although there were lots of people at role of the CP within the union disintegrated, or at Wallace rallies in Northern California, in respect to least diminished. The CP just didn’t have the same the whole population, there weren’t that many. influence within the local anymore. When the actual vote came and Wallace did poorly, I stayed in the CP until I was expelled in 1955 on I was enormously surprised. the grounds of “white chauvinism.” At the very time As the steward at Zellerbach I used to bug peo- that Joe McCarthy was carrying on outside the ple an awful lot about Wallace. The day before the Party, there was a tremendous purge within the CP. election I went around to everyone in the plant and They purged anyone who said anything that could said, “Tomorrow you’re all going to go out and vote possibly be considered the slightest bit questionable. for Wallace.” A bunch of workers were sitting It became a hysteria within the CP. I had an argu- there. I guess by then they were fed up with my ment on the floor of the stewards’ council with a enthusiasm and my insistence that I knew what Black Local 6 leader who is still one of my friends. they were going to do. One of the old Italian men The motion we were considering was not that impor- said, “You’re going to vote for Wallace. We’re going tant, but the Party leaders felt this was an example to vote for Truman.” I said, “But Local 6 has of white chauvinism and they expelled me. endorsed Wallace and you’re obligated to support They probably did me a favor. I am extraordi- the position of the local.” He said, “Fuck the local narily devoted to concepts and organizations. It and fuck Wallace. We’re going to vote for Truman. would have been difficult for me to voluntarily sep- Don’t bother us anymore.” arate myself from the CP because of my history I’ve had a lot of lessons in my life, but that was within it, my background and the people I knew, one of the most devastating things that ever hap- even after Nikita Khrushchev’s revelations of “the pened to me. I really thought all the people in that crimes of the Stalin era” in 1956. But they took the plant were going to vote for Wallace because I decision out of my hands. wanted to believe it. After that I began to examine Local 6’s opposition to the Teamsters contin- everything I was doing in regard to political issues ued into the mid-1950s. This was not doing us any and my relationship with people. I think I really good. We were spending too much blasting the began to grow up from that time onward. Teamsters, and they were blasting us. You don’t In 1949 we had our famous warehouse strike in really build an organization on negative action like San Francisco that lasted over 100 days. By then I that. Then Louis Goldblatt, the ILWU had been elected chairman of the stewards’ council. International secretary-treasurer, started the con- During the strike I was secretary of the strike com- cept of the Teamsters and the ILWU working mittee. Those of us who were in the CP made some together in Northern California warehouse negoti- mistakes in that strike. One of them is that we ations. This was a wise and sensible decision that made the People’s World (PW), the CP newspaper, helped both of us from the latter 1950s onward. the official organ of the union. In the mid-1950s I remained very active in the This was a mistake because the majority of the stewards’ council and on negotiating committees. I members of the union didn’t read the PW and didn’t ran for business agent in late 1957, won a close race stacked on the floor, but there were no mechanical want to read the PW. I know because I used to sell and ended up serving from 1958 to 1970. Those contrivances to lift those cartons up. So you’d build the PW, and the number of papers you could sell at years included a lot of the Vietnam War, which the a pyramid. You’d start at the bottom and lay it over meetings was very, very small. We brought the PW union opposed. At the same time we supported the until you got to the top. The only way you had of around on the picket lines, too. The members would battle for integration. I was never the big hero, but moving anything around was to use a little four- throw them in the garbage can. They didn’t want I played my part in those activities. wheeler. There were no forklifts or electrical devices the strike to have some political aspect to it. I became Local 6 secretary-treasurer in 1970 of any kind. There was a certain amount of antagonism and was unopposed for re-election three times. But When I went to work at Zellerbach, they put among some of the members of the union over the when I ran for president in 1977 the CP put every me with one of these old Italians who was built like PW. That, plus the endorsement of Wallace, laid the effort they possibly could into backing their own a moose. Local 6 had a lot of Italian workers then. basis for a group that was organizing for the candidate against me. Evidently it was important to This man was very strong and I wasn’t. I got on one Teamsters union to try to take over Local 6. Three the Party to have enough influence to gain the pres- end of this cart and he got on the other. The next or four Local 6 business agents in the West Bay (San idency of Local 6. Yet I got 51 percent of the vote and thing I knew I was flying with the carton. So they Francisco) went over to the Teamsters and set up won against three other candidates. put me on something I could do. It was all heavy this rival Teamsters Local 12. This was close to Understand that I don’t want to indicate in any stuff, but it wasn’t this 150 to 200 pounds. when the CIO purged the ILWU, too, and another way that I regret my period in the CP. It had an I became active in Local 6 immediately. Joe little group emerged in Local 6 that wanted a CIO important impact on my life. The Party gave me an Orlando was the steward, but the job didn’t mean takeover. understanding of the class relationship of society. It that much to him. Of course, I was just panting to We did lose some members to the Teamsters, but gave me a political attitude that made me different be steward. Joe could see it. It wasn’t any big polit- the primary problem was that there was constant from any of the officers in the union who didn’t have ical or personal issue with him. In 1942 he just fighting within the local. It was like a civil war. After that background. I don’t think they understood pol- said, “Why don’t you be steward?” Everyone else the Korean War started in 1950, some people would itics to the same degree. I would not want to belong agreed. So I became the steward and I practically whip up hysteria and anti-communist sentiment at to the CP now because I don’t want to belong to an reached glory. I was elected secretary of the Local 6 meetings. When anyone who was considered a organization in which the decisions are all made stewards’ council in 1943, but the war cut that Communist got up to speak, they would chant, from above. Still, my life in the Party laid the basis career short. One month later I was drafted. I “Communist! Communist! Communist!” The local for whatever role I played in Local 6. served in England, France, Belgium and Germany in an Army railway battalion. In June 1946 I got discharged. Shortly after the war I became a member of the regular CP. When I got out of the Army, the union sent me to the California Labor School (CLS). The CLS was an institution in San Francisco which was close to the Party. It had a trade union program. I got something out of the classes and then went back to work at Zellerbach as the steward. A number of the leaders of Local 6 were also members of the CP. Normally there wasn’t any basic disagreement over what the Party and the union members wanted, but the Wallace presiden- tial campaign of 1948 was different. Henry Wallace had been vice-president under Franklin Roosevelt. Now he was running as a third-party candidate on the Progressive Party ticket with Communist sup- port. This was the elec- tion where Harry Truman, the Democratic TORY PROJECT president, beat Thomas Dewey, the heavily X, Part I favored Republican. Wallace called for peace with the Soviet Union instead of a Cold War. and the union: In Local 6 we passed a resolution in support of Wallace. It was not ckman of accepted whole-hearted- file photo ly, but it was done. I was se Local 6 gung-ho for supporting

Wallace myself because I Dispatcher thought the American San Francisco Mayor George Moscone appointed Eickman to the city’s Parks Commission in 1977. 10 • March 2004 The daughters of Tugboat Annie

Story and Photos by Maria Brooks

orking men look to John Henry and Paul Bunyan and a Wlist of other heroes. But what about working women? Who mirrors their lives in American lore? One stands out. She goes by the name of Tugboat Annie. Annie is an industrial worker, a working stiff, and for the most part she is alone in the world. No other blue-collar heroine has endured as long in popular culture as this bosomy mariner of the Puget Sound. Tugboat Annie Brennan worked as senior captain of a deep sea tug and towing operation in a mythical town that resembled Tacoma. She was a big lady, built like a fire plug. When she darted from tug to pier, buildings quaked and pilings quivered. Her ample girth was maintained by a diet of pork chops, mash potatoes and pan- cakes. The public met this unconvention- al woman in 1931 in the pages of The Saturday Evening Post. Tugboat Annie was created by writer Norman Reilly Raine, who sailed in his youth as an ordinary seaman. Annie’s heroics are described in 75 stories spanning 30 years. Hollywood made movies about her and Ronald Reagan starred in one of them. In the 1950s Tugboat Annie re-surfaced in a television sitcom. Tugboat Annie’s toughness on the seas captured the imagination of The Saturday Evening Post readers. Defying all feminine stereotypes, Annie touched America’s heart. And fun. Radio was still a weird idea and honored this private woman with the had morphed into a seagoing house- like a cork in the water, she refused to television didn’t exist. In its heyday largest funeral ever seen. Foss was wife. Apparently, Hollywood felt nerv- go away. The Saturday Evening Post was the the matriarch of the tug and barge ous that Tugboat Annie might be per- “The preconception of tugboat most popular magazine in America. company that bears her name. With ceived as a lesbian. The film flopped. workers,” says Captain Jean Pinto, When Tugboat Annie jumped out of her husband Andrew she raised three “It’s interesting as a woman, how “is we’re all big and we waddle. The its pages, the reader met a woman sons. It was from conversations with you have to change your whole image, public expects to see people with pumped up and full of herself. her sons that Raine developed the your public image, to get things thick arms, fat and tattooed.” “She cops an attitude because concept for “Tugboat Annie.” done,” says Melissa Parker, a tugboat Pinto, a tugboat operator on San she’s really good at what she does,” In real life Thea Foss was very owner and operator on San Francisco Francisco Bay for 18 years, looks trim says Pinto after skimming a Tugboat different from Annie. A motherly Bay. Women may change their image, and shapely. Annie story in the galley. Norwegian, Foss was a sharp busi- but they rarely move into a man’s If the public has a stereotype of Annie’s got plenty of attitude. ness woman and a good cook. But the world unnoticed. tugboat workers, chances are it came Tangling with her can be risky busi- Foss sons gave Raine story ideas, “You feel everyone’s watching from the pages of The Saturday ness. She’s brazen and smart and describing their tugboat operations you,” remembers Pinto of her early Evening Post a long time ago. Raine reads maritime law. She’s a seasoned around the Puget Sound. Raine used days on the bay. “I didn’t want to would eventually earn an Academy sailor on the Puget Sound, with 40 their anecdotes in his story lines. He screw up because it would mean ‘the Award for screenwriting. But when years of experience under her belt. No credited Thea Foss as the model for Girl’ screwed up.” Tugboat Annie dropped into his imag- one knows the job better. Tugboat Annie. But in actuality, Pinto worked her way up from ination, he worked as a journeyman In the late 1920s Raine moved to Annie’s character sprang fully formed deckhand to captain. On the bay sur- writer of short stories. Back then the Tacoma, Washington. He was living from the writer’s imagination. With prisingly few women drive tugboats. public read books and magazines for there when Thea Foss died. The town his creation, Raine gave a nod to Pinto, a union member represented working women everywhere. by Masters, Mates and Pilots (MMP), In the stories Tugboat Annie is the only one who works steady. faces down all kinds of riff-raff. Some “I don’t see a lot of women doing of these low-lives are shipowners. She this,” she says. “The wages haven’t outwits con-men and swindlers. She kept up with the cost of living. You’re gets little help from her male cohorts. on call 24 hours a day. Women who She must prove her smarts over and come out of maritime academies go over again. right on to ships, not many come on to “Not much has changed in that tugs.” regard,” says Marina Secchitano, San There’s not much glamour in driv- Francisco Bay Regional Director of the ing tugs. Deckhands embrace the cul- Inlandboatmen’s Union. “Annie works ture of the fo’c’sle. Tug captains often twice as hard as the guys. She’s a work their way up the “hawsepipe,” super achiever, but even so, she’s con- shunning prestigious maritime acade- stantly suspect for being a woman.” mies. Pride comes from having learned Annie may be a master mariner, your craft the hard way. but there’s one thing she’s not. She’s “I felt I had to prove myself,” says not a sexual being. Apparently the Pinto. “The lines are really heavy. I public could accept a woman as a could throw them up on the bits, like skilled seafarer, but they drew the line the other guys did. But they’d yell at on sex. She is sexually neutral, even me, ‘You’re not strong enough to undesirable. She “waddles.” She’s work on deck!’ So I’d lift weights. By often compared to ungainly animals. working on deck, I got stronger. The We’re told she looks like a hippopota- moment I showed up on the boat, till mus or a “baffled” rhinoceros. She I got off, I stayed busy. I felt I had to.” may beat men at their own game, but At 45 Jean Pinto shares little in the price she pays is her womanliness. common with her fictional counterpart, At times Annie seems forlorn in Tugboat Annie. As a young woman this world of men. When she sprains Pinto sailed in New England with her an ankle and is laid up, her buddies family. She was athletic and adventure- stop by and ask, “How’s your hoof, some. For a short time she attended a Annie?” Tugboat Annie moves Quaker college. Dropping out of school, through her life alone. When we first she moved to Brazil to study music. For meet her, she’s running at full throt- a time she worked for Amnesty tle. She’s 65 and a widow. Her crew International, feeling a need to do and seamen, down on their luck, make something meaningful. Frustrated in up her family. her pursuit of music, she returned to When Hollywood made its first the Bay Area to look for a job. “Tugboat Annie” movie, they fiddled Pinto hoped to make a living on with her character. Annie comes on the water, but at that time women Captain Jean Pinto. screen with a husband and son. She were invisible in maritime. She creat- March 2004 • 11 ed her own job. She started painting and repairing pleasure boats. While working, she watched the runty tug- boats pushing and prodding around the bay. “I wanted to do that,” she says. There was no welcoming mat for women. Companies resisted hiring them, unions offered little or no sup- port. “Without affirmative action it would have been difficult to get this job,” Pinto says. “I’d have had no legal recourse if I had been denied access.” Women sued for the right to work. In Pinto’s case she had an ally in her employer. Oscar Neimeth owned a family towing operation on San Fran- cisco Bay. He had daughters. “I saw that Jeannie really worked hard,” he remembers. “Why not give her a chance?” Feeling stymied is a theme in the lives of seafaring women. For Tugboat Annie it was no different. In every story, somebody trips her, tries to sabotage her best efforts. Often the adversary is the system itself. Tugboat Annie was sidelined dur- ing WWII when Raine, working in Hollywood, didn’t send stories to the magazine. At the end of the war Annie appeared again in The Saturday Evening Post. Her fans were anxious to know how she spent the war. They meet up with her on the Puget Sound. Annie is outraged. She’s been rebuffed by the Navy. Men who tangled with Tugboat Annie soon learned they shouldn’t. “I axed the Navy to take me,” seems delighted by the churning of felt alone. There was only one other Annie I feel it’s complimentary. Annie yells Tugboat Annie. “Me, who knows diesel motors. woman operator on the bay. drove boats because she loved it. I’m ships and the sea like the inside of me Before Mary Rose was born, “Nowadays when women come on here for the same reason. There’s hat. ‘Ye’re a woman,’ they says.” Parker bought a WWII tugboat she ships, it’s not a big deal. It’s no longer nothing I love better than to captain Later in the story, she discovers plucked from the scrap heap. In its shocking.” a tugboat.” that women are being recruited into prime the old tug, Nokomis tried vain- When Tugboat Annie pushed Tugboat Annie would be proud. the WAVES, so she applies again. ly to squelch the fires of Pearl Harbor freighters, it was shocking. Her pluck Following her lead is a new generation She’s rejected again. after the attack. Nokomis had been delighted a generation of readers. of daughters. And in a basket on the “’You’re too old,’ they says!” neglected for years, left to rot in the When men tossed verbal abuse at her, deck of the Nokomis sits Mary Rose, relates Annie disdainfully. mud flats in San Francisco. Parker she gave as good as she got. Annie grasping a toy boat. Maybe Mary Rose Operator Parker experienced a bought her at auction for 50 bucks. loved her job. She loved being boss. sees what we cannot—a big lady at the variation on Annie’s lament. “They “I thought a piece of history like “I’ve been referred to as ‘Tugboat wheel, who beckons with a hearty tell me, ‘You’re too young. You don’t this needs to be preserved. It’s too Annie,’” says Parker. “For a while I laugh to come race the wind. In a few have the experience,’” she says from important to end up in the scrap didn’t know what it meant.” years Mary Rose may do just that, and the deck of the tug, Nokomis. pile,” says Parker. Parker looked on the Internet for give Tugboat Annie a run for her “Some companies say they’d She believes the engines on information and then started buying money. rather have guys of any age than hire Nokomis will fire up once more after Tugboat Annie stories. a woman,” Parker says. “This atti- a little tinkering. “I think her image, even for my Writer Maria Brooks, is looking tude is still out there, but it’s not out “Nokomis has a diesel electric generation, is a good one,” Parker for information on women seafarers in the open. It’s still a fight to work.” plant,” she says. “I’ve worked on says. “Being female in a man’s world working on ships before WWII for a Parker graduated from Maine diesel tugs on the bay, but diesel elec- isn’t easy. Tugboat Annie wasn’t will- television documentary about women Maritime Academy. She looks tric is a completely new kind of plant ing to lie down and die—and neither in the maritime industry. If you know younger than her 30 years. Her long to learn. It’s cool!” am I.” old timers who might want to partici- chestnut hair hangs in a pony tail. Mary Rose squeals in her carrier Reflecting a moment, she adds, pate, please contact Brooks at mar- “I love tinkering around the on deck as she eyes sea gulls. Nearby “Now, when I’m called Tugboat [email protected] engine room,” she says. “I enjoy work- Parker inspects chipped paint in the ing on boat engines, taking them apart, galley. Not long after saving Nokomis, repairing them, trouble shooting.” Parker heard of another WWII tug in She holds a third mate’s license distress. This one was named and is also a member of MMP. Her first Wenonah and her engines actually jobs were on tankers. She noticed the work. Last week Parker and a group of tugs assisting the ships and fell in love. supporters piloted the old tug from Tugboats became a passion. Newport Beach in Southern California Six months ago Parker gave birth up the Pacific Coast to berth her next to Mary Rose. Motherhood adds to Nokomis. another dimension to the problems of “Once we’ve restored the Nokomis a seafarer. The first snag is unem- to her WWII state, we’ll offer educa- ployment. When it became obvious tional programs on her,” she says. that Parker was pregnant, she lost Parker plans for her tugs to assist her operator’s job. After Mary Rose the historic Liberty and Victory ships was born, Parker’s job prospects in San Francisco Bay. She’ll offer to became more problematic. She’s a carry ashes of fallen veterans to their single mother. burial at sea. Parker formed a non- In the last couple of months profit organization to maintain her Parker has put the baby in a basket boats and calls it “The Historic and climbed into the wheel house. Tugboat Education and Restoration “I’ve done a few jobs since she Society.” was born. One of them was 12 hours, “I’m currently trying to buy a the other 32,” she says. charter business,” she says picking up Parker is nursing Mary Rose, but a wrench from the floor plates. “I’m when the baby grows older, she hopes wheeling and dealing and talking cre- to find child care, although it won’t ative financing with a bank this after- be easy. noon.” Glancing at Mary Rose, she “If I hire somebody to watch my adds, “As long as I’m the boss, she can daughter for six hours, and go to a job come with me wherever I go.” and find out I’ve got to work 12 or 32 Across the bay in the Oakland, hours more, I’ve got to inform my Captain Pinto readies for work. She’ll child care provider. ‘Oh, it’s not six be assisting a mammoth container hours you need to watch my daugh- ship down the Estuary. She and the ter, it’s 32.’” she says. “People don’t ship’s pilot will work together in a call put up with that.” and response duet. For a while, Pinto Mary Rose has been toted on and studied to become a pilot herself. off tugboats all her short life. She Brushing her blonde hair from her plays with toy tugboats in her bath face she says, “I think I’ve shown and sleeps with a stuffed tugboat by other women it’s possible to have a her side. A good-natured baby, she career on the water.” For years Pinto Melissa Parker and daughter Mary Rose. 12 • March 2004

STICKING TO THE UNION: An Oral History of the Life and Times of Julia Ruuttila

Sticking To The Union: An Oral the waterfront. History of the Life and Times of Julia Unfortunately, however, Ruuttila Ruuttila. also received from her father a set of By Sandy Polishuk. personal demons that led more than Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2003. once to suicide attempts—one 288 pp.Hardcover $75; paperback, claimed him, another, her son and she $22.95. narrowly escaped her own. In hind- sight she seemed to have reduced Reviewed by Gene Vrana, these terrors and depressions to man- ILWU Director of Educational Services & ageable size with the same matter-of- Librarian fact simplicity that characterized her his is a gem of a book about a political decisions. larger than life, small-town, “I learned a great deal out of that Tworking-class hero by the name episode,” she said. “I learned that of Julia Ruuttila. Telling her own story when you get absolutely exhausted, through a compelling oral history you’ve absolutely got to stop. You’ve interview with historian and writer got to stop everything you’re doing Sandy Polishuk, Ruuttila’s life in the and get a good night’s sleep and play Pacific Northwest reveals a great deal some soothing music.” about the lives of activist radical And later, reflecting on her son’s women who have so often been com- death, she observed, “You know, the pelled to sacrifice or compromise their lives of working people are full of des- personal lives in order to act out their peration.” political beliefs and participate in the Whatever emotional scars she turbulent struggles of militant left- carried throughout her long life, they wing organizations and unions. were easily matched by the physical Most of her tale is set in Oregon ones inflicted during a succession of and along the Columbia River—and picket-line encounters with cops and much of her adult life there was in goons who left her unable to do much support of and in service to the ILWU. more than desk work. By 1934, dur- But the issues and events that ing the longshore strike in Portland, marked her tireless dedication to the Ruuttila was increasingly known for cause of workers and their unions as both her fearlessness and her skill an organizer and a journalist (includ- with writing leaflets and contract ing decades as a correspondent for proposals on her trademark type- The Dispatcher) have a universal writer. During one harrowing escape appeal that will move and inform from goons trying to keep her and unionists and their allies just about others away from the striking long- anywhere. shoremen, an older Italian woman This larger appeal is made possi- told her pointedly, “You with your ble through effective editing and fact- machine of writing could do much.” checking by Polishuk, and her superi- Soon after, Ruuttila found or ability to repeatedly set the histor- employment putting those writing activities, not just the big events. life, she wrote her own fitting epitaph: ical context for the twists and turns skills to work for unions and to sup- Her writings also helped readers “Died as she lived, shouting the sys- of Ruuttila’s life in recurring narra- port her family. It was also a way she of The Dispatcher better understand tem down.” tives that are clearly and concisely could directly join in and support politics and the ILWU in the written in a style that is simple, what she saw as the heroic struggles Columbia River and Puget Sound To order “Sticking to the Union” descriptive and dramatic. of workers trying to fight their way areas. All in all she wrote for The By mail: In a statement that echoes out of the economic Depression: Dispatcher for more than 40 years— VHPS descriptions of many left-wing women, “The strikes on the waterfront, in first as Kathleen Cronin then as 16365 James Madison Hwy. (Rte 15) Ruuttila’s story, writes Polishuk, “was the camps and mills and other mass Kathleen Ruuttila. Gordsonsville, VA 22942 one in which political beliefs—working production industries in the thirties She died in 1991 in Alaska, where class solidarity and antiracism—were all had this factor in common: We she had moved after a series of dis- By fax: (800) 672-2054 primary, and her personal life second- won them, and we were no longer abling illnesses to live with her grand- By phone: (888) 330-8477 ary.” Yet it is a great credit to timber beasts, sawmill stiffs, and son. Somewhere along the line, per- Online: www.palgrave-usa.com Polishuk’s skills as an interviewer— waterfront bums. We were the people haps during this latter period of her and to Ruuttila’s general willingness who loaded the ships and sailed them, to be open and honest about her life— who made the head rigs turn and the MAY IS MEDICAL, DENTAL CHOICE MONTH that the reader can feel, humming green chains run. We were the work- beneath this extraordinarily political ers of the world. Without us there Active and retired longshore families in the ports where members have a choice can change med- life, the tension of domestic violence, would be no world.” ical plans during the open enrollment period May 1 to May 31, 2004. The change will be effective July 1, 2004. San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Portland/Vancouver active and retired longshore failed marriages, botched abortions After World War II, Ruuttila’s life workers may change dental plans in the month of May for coverage effective July 1, 2004. In and recurring depression. centered around the Portland water- front, which she covered as a journal- addition to the May open enrollment period, members may change their health coverage once at This same tension between the any time during the Plan Year (July 1-June 30). personal and the political has been ist for left and labor publications, and described elsewhere in the life stories also as secretary to ILWU Internation- The July 1, 2002 Memorandum of Understanding between the ILWU and PMA provides that new of radical activists Elaine Black al Representative Matt Meehan (who registrants in the ports where members have a choice of medical plans shall be assigned Kaiser Yoneda (“The Red Angel”), Dorothy had previously been the union’s HMO Plan or Group Health Cooperative HMO Plan for the first 18 months of registration. After 18 Healy (“Dorothy Healy Remembers”), International Secretary-Treasurer). months, those registrants who have qualified for continued eligibility under Mid-Year/Annual and Peggy Dennis (“The Autobiogra- The period when she apparently Review hours requirement will have a choice of medical plans. New registrants in San Francisco, phy of an American Communist”). But came closest to unifying her political Los Angeles, Portland/Vancouver and Washington will have a choice of dental plans on the first unlike these women, Ruuttila never and personal goals began in 1951 of the month following registration, and may change dental plans during the Open Enrollment belonged to the Communist Party. Her when she married then-ILWU Astoria period and one additional time during the Plan Year. family roots were in the Wobblies (the warehouse Local 18 (as opposed to MEDICAL CHOICE: The medical plan choice is between Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and the Industrial Workers of the World). She now Sacramento longshore Local 18) ILWU-PMA Coastwise Indemnity Plan for Southern California Locals 13, 26, 29, 63 and 94; learned early on an independent brand activist and Communist Party stal- Northern California Locals 10, 18, 34 (San Francisco), 34 (Stockton), 54, 75 and 91; and Oregon- of socialist politics. As Polishuk writes, wart Oscar Ruuttila and moved to live Columbia River Locals 4, 8, 40, and 92. In the Washington State area, the choices for Locals 19, “She wasn’t in the Party...her father with him in Astoria, Oregon. There 23, 32, 47, 52 and 98 are Group Health Cooperative and the ILWU-PMA Coastwise Indemnity had raised her to think for herself and she began her decades of devotion to Plan. building the ILWU Auxiliaries—and she couldn’t submit to its discipline.” DENTAL PLANS: For Los Angeles Locals, dental choice is between Delta Dental Plan and the Fortunately for many workers helping Lois Stranahan and Clara Fambro to transform them from Sakai, Simms, Simon and Sugiyama group plan. For San Francisco Locals, dental choice is and members of the ILWU, Ruuttila between Delta Dental Plan, City Center Dental and Naismith group plan. For Portland/Vancouver “ladies clubs” into a racially integrat- also learned from her father that, Locals dental choice is between Blue Cross of Oregon Dentacare, Oregon Kaiser Dental Plan and “you had to build a base of support” ed, progressive political force, first in Oregon/Washington Dental Service. For Washington Locals dental choice is between before fighting for unpopular views. Astoria and then in Portland where Washington Dental Service and Dental Health Services. Her skills at developing allies and she relocated in 1965 after Oscar’s coalitions inside and outside the death. Information on the dental plans, and Kaiser and Group Health Cooperative medical plans, and House of Labor won her respect, sup- As with other portions of her jour- forms to change plans can be obtained at the Locals and the ILWU-PMA Benefit Plans office. The ILWU-PMA Coastwise Indemnity Plan description booklet is under preparation and will be fur- port and admiration from many who ney, Ruuttila’s experience in the nished as soon as it is available. did not share her radical politics, yet Auxiliaries includes anecdotes and joined with her to oppose racial and observations that help the reader All enrollment cards must be completed and submitted to the Benefit Plans office by May economic injustice—both on and off understand the nuts and bolts of those 31 for the change to be effective July 1. March 2004 • 13 Basra and Umm Qasr—hotbeds of labor revolt in Iraq By David Bacon local workers refused to budge. The ongshore workers in the U.S. company asked workers to accept a 50 took another step closer to percent foreign staff, and then just LIraq’s dockworkers in March, five percent, two percent and even when Henry Graham, president of one percent. ILWU longshore Local 10, sent a let- “Iraq will be reconstructed by ter of support to workers in Umm Iraqis, we don’t need any foreign in-ter- Qasr. Graham’s letter was inspired by ference,” Ju’ma said. “Drivers are the reports coming from Iraq that work- only foreigners we allow anywhere.” ers on the docks of the country’s Then, in December, oil workers largest port have begun to organize a began challenging the wage sched- union, and have already faced the fir- ules. This followed an attempt by the ing of union supporters. Coalition Provisional Authority “We salute you for your bravery,” (CPA) to set a new schedule in Graham wrote. “We want you to September—Order 30 on Reform of know that we oppose any violation of Salaries and Employment Conditions your rights. Workers everywhere of State Employees—that would have have the right to form unions. It is lowered the bottom rate for industri- the only way we can win better pay, al workers in Iraq from $60 a month better conditions, protect our jobs, to $40. The order also eliminated all and secure our rights.” previous housing, food, family, risk Since the U.S. occupation began, and location subsidies. Iraqi dockworkers there have been Oil workers throughout Basra sur- receiving the same emergency veyed prices, and then announced that salaries—roughly $60 or $120 month- instead of lowering wages, the CPA ly—decreed by the U.S. occupation needed to raise them. Southern Oil authority for all Iraqi public sector Company workers proposed their own workers. Iraqi longshoremen are wage schedule, setting the minimum employed by the port authority, a gov- at approximately 155,000 ID per ernment enterprise. month ($85). They backed up the pro- When the occupation started, posal with a threat to strike and shut however, their income dropped off oil production. Workers also threat- because their profit-sharing arrange- ened to join the armed resistance if ment was terminated. All Iraqi Port market to one based on ownership by prises at its heart are sold off to pri- occupation troops were called in to Authority workers had been paid two transnational corporations, sending vate, foreign investors. take over the pumps, prompting the percent of the profits accrued from their profits out of the country. To Stevedoring Services of America, Minister of Oil to come to Basra. He unloading fees. The loading fee per many Iraqis, Umm Qasr represents a now SSA Marine, is poised to take agreed immediately to return to the container was $150 with two ships new era of foreign domination. advantage of both aspects of the old $60/120 monthly scale. docking per week, unloading approxi- Following Iraq’s revolution of growth of the private sector. The com- In January electricity workers at mately 250 containers each. 1958, which overthrew the monarchy pany, which has a history of tight the Najibeeya, Haartha and Az Then in October, the occupation and threw out the British, 1,000 long- political connections with the White Zubeir generating stations mounted a authorities decreed a new salary shore workers labored on Umm House, received a $4.8 million no-bid wildcat strike, stormed their work- schedule, in which workers’ wages Qasr’s docks. Even in the heady days contract to operate the port of Umm place administration buildings, would be paid in Iraqi dinars instead of Arab nationalism, however, they Qasr March 24, 2003. According to declared the CPA wage schedule void of dollars. That meant another size- still had no guarantees for their the U.S. Agency for International and vowed to shut off power if wages able loss in income, and workers rights and jobs. At first, subcontract- Development, which granted it, the were not raised. The Minister of began organizing as a result. ing companies were allowed to hire contract covers the assessment of the Energy also agreed to return to the Port Director Abdel Razzaq issued dockers in a daily shapeup. Finally, port’s needs, assistance in making it old emergency wage scale. a notice Oct. 25 banning any employee workers rebelled. After winning operational and the ongoing manage- “We hope that this strike can be working for the Port Authority from recognition for their union, they ment of dockside operations. conducted safely and legally,” speaking to any reporter or represen- demanded and won a hiring system San Francisco’s Bechtel Corp. explained Samir Hanoon, vice presi- tative of any non-governmental organ- under their control and a daily guar- began dredging the harbor in May. dent of the Iraqi Federation of Trade ization without his permission. On the anteed wage, whether or not there Then, on July 16, SSA began accept- Unions in Basra. “But if we cannot day the workers were set to vote on was a ship at the dock to work. ing commercial cargo, including con- win through the legal procedures, we officers for their new union, the man- These achievements are still tainer, break-bulk and roll-on/roll-off will take other actions—protests, ager removed the banner announcing remembered by older workers, and shipments. Despite its dilapidated demonstrations and total shut- the election. Workers were told they form a backdrop to the current effort state, Umm Qasr is still a highly downs. We realize that there may be had to wait until a new law was to reorganize unions on Umm Qasr developed facility, with 23 berths for some sacrifices, but we are ready to passed, since the current labor code docks. Nevertheless, they seem like a ships, four modern container cranes, accept them. Our real problem is with contains a provision decreed by distant dream. Life in Umm Qasr has and a grain and cement dock. (Oil the CPA, with Bremer.” Saddam Hussein in 1987 banning changed completely for the people on exports are handled through another, Finally, in mid-January, Southern unions in the public sector. The Bush the piers. A decade-long war with unrelated port.) Oil Company unionists won the first administration, through the occupa- Iran, then the first Gulf War followed battle when the CPA agreed to imple- tion authority, continues to enforce by 12 years of sanctions, and finally a UNION ORGANIZING SPREADS ment the union’s wage schedule in this law. new invasion and occupation, have all As the organizing efforts in Umm the oil industry. By February, the In November, according to the taken their toll. Much of the port lies Qasr unfold, workers in other indus- Southern Oil Company schedule was head of the Basra Federation of Trade in shambles, although the basic infra- tries near it in Basra are also organiz- being implemented only in the oil sec- Unions, Razzaq fired three port work- structure is still in place. ing and challenging low wages. In tor (the biggest public sector employ- ers for trying to organize. Umm Qasr is an object lesson in Basra there have been three general er in Iraq), while other public sector Workers were not deterred, how- the privatization of Iraq. Its fate will strikes over wages. industries, especially electricity, were ever. In mid-January they organized a have a profound effect on the degree In October 2003 a two-day wild- still in negotiations. Many workers six-hour strike over the low wage to which any future Iraqi government cat strike took place at the believe, however, they will receive the scale, blocking people and vehicles will be able to control the country’s Bergeseeya Oil Refinery, part of the same, since a strike in the power sec- from entering the main gate into the economy. By the same token, the jobs, Southern Oil Company, Iraq’s largest tor would halt all other industries. Umm Qasr port. Iraq issued new the standard of living and the labor crude oil pumping and refining com- bank notes last fall, but port man- rights of the port’s dockworkers will pany. Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY agers continued to pay workers in the be a bellwether for the fate of hun- a division of Halliburton Corp., was Henry Graham’s letter recog- old bank notes that could only be dreds of thousands of other workers given a no-bid reconstruction con- nized the struggle undertaken by exchanged for new money at 75 per- in formerly state-owned enterprises tract last summer. Umm Qasr and other Iraqi workers, cent of their face value. In the melee throughout Iraq’s economy. Vice-president Dick Cheney was and offered his local’s support. that ensued, the accounting office The free trade ideologues of the Halliburton’s CEO, and still collects a “You are not alone,” he wrote and that of Razzaq himself were Bush administration see the occupa- million-dollar-a-year pension from the them. “If dockworkers in the rest of occupied. The demonstration ended tion of Iraq as a beachhead into the company. KBR brought in a Kuwaiti- the world hear about your situation, when occupation troops were called Middle East and south Asia. Their based construction company, Al you can count on their support. On out. Since then workers charge that first objective is the transformation of Khoorafi, that began using Indian and March 20, there will be national Razzaq is being protected by a unit of the state-dominated economy of what Pakistani workers in place of the exist- demonstrations throughout the private militia, the Badr Brigades. was once one of the region’s wealthiest ing, experienced Iraqi workforce. United States to oppose the occupa- and most industrialized countries into Unemployment in Iraq is currently tion of Iraq, and to demand the rights SSA OCCUPIES IRAQI PORT a free-market, free-trade economy. about 70 percent, so to protect their of the Iraqi people. Our union will be The port of Umm Qasr is being This massive introduction of free jobs Iraqi workers threw out the for- actively involved in those demonstra- operated by Stevedoring Services of enterprise began even before the inva- eign workers and protested outside the tions, and on that day dockworkers in America. It was the first Iraqi enter- sion, with the granting of the first con- company’s offices. Tribal leaders rep- many ports on the Pacific Coast will prise to be turned over, not just to a pri- tracts for servicing the military and resenting the workers eventually not work on the ships. We will use the vate owner, but to a foreign one. Even building its bases. Those were followed resolved the dispute. demonstrations to show our support before U.S. troops had reached by others for rebuilding the infrastruc- At the Southern Oil Company, for you, the dockworkers in Um Qasr.” Baghdad, the Bush administration gave ture of the country itself, destroyed by workers organized a union. Headed SSA the concession for operating it. war and sanctions. But this transfor- by Hassan Ju’ma, they also banned This article includes important Privatizing Umm Qasr began the mation is not limited simply to recon- foreign workers from its facilities fol- information reported by Ewa transformation of the Iraqi econo- struction contracts. The pre-existing lowing the Bergeseeya plant action. Jasciewicz on the ground in southern my—from one based on nationaliza- economy of Iraq is set to be trans- KBR tried to get indigenous workers Iraq during December and January on tion and production for a domestic formed as well, as the state-run enter- to accept its foreign staff, but the behalf of Occupation Watch. 14 • March 2004 Longshore history makes dramatic play “Fire on Pier 32” reviewed by Larry Shoup your union brothers and sisters. It is he many-faceted play “Fire on wonderfully entertaining and instruc- Pier 32” takes its title from a tive at a time when we face the Bush- Tdramatic historical event. Leaguing and Wal-Marting of Worker demands for an organized America. voice on the waterfront during the crisis of the Great Depression led Larry Shoup grew up in a union longshoremen to burn their company household, his father was a member of union contract books, the infamous the Machinists Union. He has had a “blue books,” on San Francisco’s Pier varied work career and has been a 32 in 1933. member of both the old Retail Clerks This collective act of defiance was Union (today’s UFCW) and American pivotal in the history of both the Federation of Teachers. He now International Longshore and makes his living writing and is a Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the member of the National Writers larger American labor movement. Union, serving on its steering commit- The blue books were concrete repre- tee and as its delegate to the Alameda sentations of the slave-like conditions County Central Labor Council. Shoup imposed on working people. Their has written three books and numerous burning was a mass act of rebellion magazine articles. He is currently that posed larger questions of the working on his fourth book: “Rulers union shop, of how jobs were to be and Resisters: A People’s History of allocated, (the workers’ demand for a California.” union-controlled hiring hall), of pay and pensions, as well as bigger social Get your copy of “Fire on Pier 32” and political questions. DVD or VHS video are $15 + $3 s/h There was no turning back for Audio CD or cassette tapes are $10 + the courageous workers who organ- $3 s/h ized this waterfront bonfire. Their To order send check or money order lives were now committed to the con- to: Kyklos Productions, 211 Duxbury Ct., San Ramon, CA 94583. Or order cept of democratic industrial union- ocratic power enforce safety stan- it can be said that “Fire on Pier 32” is ism by and for the workers, and they by credit card on the Internet at dards and make a real difference in one place where the soul of American www.kyklosproductions.com. now survived only through solidarity people’s daily lives on the job. labor resides. “Fire” is now on video and struggle, through building their At the same time, “Fire” enter- and DVD, get a copy and see it with union. Their direct action and the tains, with six new songs in contempo- actions of others around the country rary musical styles, performed by a during the 1930s breathed life into a chorus of three singers-dancers and near moribund labor movement, the cast of actors. The lyrics and music showing that the way forward was of the play’s two theme songs, “The militant democratic industrial union- Song of Solidarity and “Song of the ism, organizing all workers irrespec- New Unionism,” are particularly tive of skill, race, gender or status. memorable, representing in musical CONSERVATIVE TERRORISM? bership may have a problem with The history of the ILWU repre- form the main premise of the play. I do believe The Dispatcher staff those who speak for our union. sents one of the purest expressions of Other key songs include “The Song of has hit a home run with the posting of President Bush is criticized because of class consciousness and class militancy Desperation,” “Government Man,” those conservative letters. These [fel- treatment to Iraq union members. in the U.S., making its past, present “The Web,” and “Moving the Money lows] could be the most valuable tool Good grief, regardless if the war was and future of immense interest to us Around.” These songs focus on sec- to this union since the fork lift. Give appropriate, as far as American inter- all. Perhaps no union in the U.S. has a ondary themes: government always these guys some column space, give ests are concerned, you have to be an more inspirational history for advo- siding with the bosses, the infamous ’em a topic to butcher and watch the ideological cripple to believe Iraqi peo- cates as working people, real democra- Taft-Hartley law and how the corpora- response. When it comes time to ple are not better off with the monster cy and social justice. “Fire on Pier 32” tions play games during negotiations. renew the contract, let them report Hussein out of there. A union in that reviews this dramatic history in three The acting is also outstanding. their stand. I believe we can turn the regime supporting the dictator that acts, with a cast of twelve, over two- “Fire’s” central protagonists, Frank tide of apathy and non- involvement murdered his own people is no brother and-a-half hours, covering the ILWU and Joe, are two young workers who that some have into a union tidal of mine or any American. story from 1933 to 2003. It is about grow and develop as they build a wave. After we have succeeded, we can Kerry voted for NAFTA and the repeated employer offensives against union that resists corporate attacks turn them on the AFL-CIO and boost rest of the trade agreements that put labor, and organized, militant solidari- through solidarity. Their passionate a national return to unionism that has the American worker on an even ty as the only effective union response. portrayals of the rank and file helps never been seen before. Sign these worse uneven playing field. President The play begins with the 1934 us feel in our guts what it must have clowns up before the Bush administra- Bush supports NAFTA also. I assume maritime and San Francisco general been like to be a worker with only his tion has them put away as a terrorist if Kerry wins, any Democrat for that strike, then covers the epic “march fists, courageously facing police and threat for the way they incite good matter, we hope they listen. inland” to organize warehouse work- National Guard machine guns and union men to jump into action. If President Bush wins, or any ers, the successful organizing in tanks during the decisive battles of Republican, our hostile rhetoric has Marty Kiilsgaard Hawaii, and the great strikes of 1948 July 1934. denigrated any kind of respect and Local 98 and 1971, using solidarity to turn This play is a powerfully impor- communication that might have been back successive employer offensives. tant contribution to the entire A REPUBLICAN VIEW possible. That’s not politics, that’s Final scenes of Act 3 include the lock- American labor movement. In “Fire” Quite remarkable that some stupid. out of 2002, when the union’s solidar- historical events and the union move- Mike Sheldon ity and strength was tested as the brothers and sisters we have in our ment live again through art, allowing union cannot understand why one IBU, Puget Sound Region ILWU had to face down both the cor- our collective history to emerge clear porate bosses and the Bush faction of would be a Republican or a Democrat. THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT and true. We see the personal and From my perspective I can see that the national power structure. Although I was at the grocery social transformations that take place some Democrats are friendly to unions In “Fire” National Writers Union chain that did not strike, they signed as workers and their leaders debate and can also see some propaganda and playwright Jack Rasmus uses the a sweetheart because we only have the strategy and tactics of resistance lip service that comes our way. Epic and American Musical theater 155 stores in the Inland Empire, but while facing the manoeuvres of the I am a Republican for some basic traditions, as well as historic photo we are the same Local 1428, and bosses and the betrayals of some cor- reasons. I believe the responsibility of montage, to capture the conflict, many of us walked the picket line rupted leaders. the federal government is to provide spontaneity and passion of varied sit- also. I just wanted to thank you for The play succeeds in giving a for the security and defense of our uations as the ILWU leadership and helping out with your cash donations human face and emotion to the mean- nation. I believe in capitalism and the rank and file collectively made the various times during the strike. ing of solidarity—born of struggle, providing a tax structure that awards history together. By establishing con- We were just fortunate that we, nurtured by sacrifice and cherished those who succeed in business and text using a narrator and ILWU Stater Brother’s Markets, weren’t forever in the hearts of those who does not penalize those once they archive photographs projected on an affected as far as our jobs. I myself come to know it as more than just a have succeeded. Also it makes no overhead screen, along with long- was disappointed more unions didn’t concept. The universality of Rasmus’ sense to tax those on a lower income shore workers and their key leaders show support. People do not realize art helps us see deeper truths about level, especially when some are at as central characters, Rasmus is able one contract will eventually affect ourselves and our current predica- such a low-income level they receive to educate by provoking critical them also, in time. So just thank you ment. The result is a useable past, government help. Property rights, thinking and raising consciousness for your support at those crucial helping us see that our ultimate goal human life, personal liberty, justice about social, economic and political times when these people needed help. must be democratizing the world, con- and swift punishment for those who relationships. His portrayals of boss I have been with my company 24 fronting the corporate capitalist commit crimes are important issues and politician scheming at secret years, and who would have thought it usurpation of our inalienable rights to me. Making sure our families are meetings expose the totalitarian would be like this. You make many of and emancipating all working people not taxed to death I believe are issues impulses and venality of those who everywhere. us proud. rule the corporate capitalist system. both parties agree on. It has been said that the theater One look at this newsletter and Sheri Staggs In another scene he shows how soli- houses a nation’s soul. If this is true, Glendora, Calif. darity and the union’s collective dem- many may see why some of our mem- March 2004 • 15

Farewell, Asher By Alan Benjamin working people across the globe.” sher Harer, a longtime member In presenting this “Hands Across of the ILWU and steadfast fight- the Globe” award, Johnson told the Aer for social justice, died Feb. 16 585 trade union delegates from 56 in San Francisco. He was 91 years old. countries gathered at the conference: Harer was born in Calexico, Calif., “I have the honor of presenting a Aug. 14, 1912, in an impoverished lifetime achievement award to a trade household. His mother raised six chil- unionist who has given his entire adult dren on her income as a night tele- life to the trade union movement and phone operator. to worker internationalism. It’s some- After one year at community col- one I have had the pleasure of know- lege in Calexico, Harer moved to San ing and working with for about 25 Francisco, inspired by the 1934 gen- years, and that is Asher Harer. eral strike and the power of the trade “Asher is a retired member of the union movement. In 1937 he went to ILWU. He is one of those persons, work in the San Francisco food indus- whenever we had picket lines, wher- try. After joining the waiters’ union, ever there was a problem where he helped to organize small restau- everybody had to fight a battle, he rants. During the 1941 hotel workers’ was always there—together with his strike, he helped edit the union strike wife, Ruth. And he made sure that his bulletin. voice joined the voices of those crying Harer then began work on the for freedom for workers fighting for waterfront, where he became a mem- everything that could go on.” ber of ILWU Local 10. He participated In receiving the award Harer in the longshore strike of 1946 and thanked his entire family, particular- served on the ILWU Strike Committee ly Ruth, without whose constant sup- during the 1948 strike. While organiz- port and collaboration, he said, he ing the picket lines against the scabs, could not have done any of this work. Harer’s neck was broken. “We were together on picket

“In those days, they had no lines, demonstrations and so forth,” file photo health plans,” Ruth Harer, his wife of he said. “We are a union family.” more than 50 years, said. “He didn’t In his last public appearance on behalf of workers in struggle, Harer Dspatcher know he had a broken neck. He just Asher Harer at a Fair Play for Cuba rally in 1961. knew it hurt.” addressed a solidarity rally Oct. 10, Harer suffered a back injury on 2002 with the ILWU workers, who Asher’s lasting devotion and example of APL’s passenger boats at Pier 50 the docks in 1965 and transferred to were facing a union-busting Taft- to the causes of union, labor, civil and how he won a $10 bet by out- ILWU clerks’ Local 34 a couple of Hartley injunction imposed by the rights and peace.” smarting a second mate. years later. In 1971 he participated in Bush administration. At the rally Another ILWU retiree, Reg his last waterfront strike, and took an Harer recited one of his favorite MEMORIAL MEETING AT LOCAL 34 Theriault, then read a few pages from early retirement in 1974. poems, Shelley’s “Rosalind and A memorial meeting to celebrate his new book “The Unmaking of the Helen,” published in 1819: Harer’s life and contribution to the American Working Class” that LEGENDARY FOR ANTIWAR AND labor and progressive movements was described in vivid detail how Harer CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVITY “Fear not the tyrants shall rule forever, held March 6 at the ILWU Local 34 and fellow ILWU Local 10 members Over the years Harer was active in Or the priests of the bloody faith, hall. About 170 people, including Willie and Tony “educated” the scabs many other labor struggles, as well as They stand on the brink of that mighty river, many longshore workers, attended. during the 1948 strike. civil rights and antiwar movements. Among the ILWU members who Longtime friends and family Whose waves they have tainted with death; Throughout his life Asher could be spoke to honor Harer’s memory were members also spoke about Harer’s found on just about every picket line It is fed from the depths of a thousand dells, Jack Heyman, business agent of ILWU tremendous and lasting influence on for workers’ rights and social justice in Around them it foams, and rages, and swells, Local 10; Clarence Thomas, executive their lives, and his deep confidence the San Francisco Bay Area. And their swords and their sceptres I floating board member, ILWU Local 10; and that working people and their diffi- He organized support for the see, Brian McWilliams, ILWU delegate to cult fight for dignity and justice United Farm Workers, was active in the S.F. Labor Council—all of whom would ultimately prevail, no matter Like wrecks in the surge of eternity.” the Congress for Racial Equality recounted details about Harer’s histo- the obstacles, over corporate greed. (CORE) and was executive secretary of ry in the union and spoke of the influ- The meeting concluded with a the Bay Area Fair Play for Cuba On the occasion of Harer’s 90th ence Asher had on them. brief thank-you statement from Ruth Committee in the early 1960s. In 1963 birthday in August 2002 the San Hal Yanow, a Local 10 retiree who Harer to ILWU Local 34 for hosting he coordinated the mayoral campaign Francisco Labor Council issued a was Harer’s partner on the docks, the memorial meeting, to all who of Sam Jordan, a Black community “certificate of honor in public appre- also paid tribute to him. came to pay tribute to Harer, and to activist in the Bayview/Hunters Point ciation of Asher Harer’s special lead- “Though I didn’t share Asher’s the ILWU for holding fast in preserv- district, who ran on the independent ership role in San Francisco’s labor passion to change the world, I always ing the union’s pension fund. Freedom Now ticket. and social justice movements for over admired him for being the best worker “It makes it possible for retirees Years later it was revealed six decades.” The certificate com- in whatever job he did,” Yanow said. “I and their spouses to make ends meet, through Freedom of Information Act mended Asher, in particular, for serv- was proud to work at his side.” even after they’re gone,” she said. disclosures that a COINTELPRO dis- ing as “a mentor and example for all Bob Carson, a Local 34 clerk and Harer is survived by his wife, ruption campaign was carried out by young people striving for a more just editor of the book “The Waterfront Ruth; his brother Homer; his three the FBI to try to promote a political and humane world.” Writers: The Literature of Work,” children, Michael Harer, Corie Tripoli split between Sam Jordan and Harer, Likewise, the San Francisco Board recounted some of his memories of and Katharine Harer; and his two something that never succeeded. of Supervisors issued a Certificate of Harer, and read from one of Harer’s grandchildren, Matthew Tripoli and Harer was also a leading figure in Honor “in appreciative public recogni- essays. The book is a collection of Leo Maxam. opposition to the war in Vietnam, tion of distinction and merit to out- essays and poems produced over the helping to organize the huge antiwar standing service on behalf of working years by a group of full-time dock- The family suggests donations to rallies and marches in San Francisco men and women in the ILWU, as well workers on the San Francisco water- the UFCW Grocery Workers State and serving as a central organizer of as the community at large.” The Board front. Harer’s essay tells the story of Council Strike Fund, at P.O. Box the 1967 Prop P campaign, a local of Supervisors went on to “salute when they were loading cargo onto one 5158, Buena Park, CA 90620. ballot initiative to allow the people of San Francisco to cast a vote on the U.S. war in Vietnam. He participated Smolin-Melin Scholarship Fund announcement in the pro-choice movement and the rustees of the Smolin-Melin scholarship funds, deceased mem- Local 10 and a friend of Victor defense of clinics, helping women to Scholarship Fund are prepared bers and retired members. The Smolin, and Eugene Vrana, Associate enter Planned Parenthood and other Tto accept applications for schol- Trustees interpret “collegiate” to Director of Education and Librarian family planning clinics being attacked arships for the academic year 2004- apply only to full-time study (at least for ILWU. throughout the Bay Area. 2005. Now is the time to indicate your 12 units per semester or quarter) at If you have a son or daughter who After retiring in 1974 Harer interest. June 1, 2004 is the applica- either a four-year college or an aca- is applying to enter college next fall, became active in the ILWU pension- tion deadline. demic junior college. or is already a college student who is ers’ organization and in the Gray Victor Smolin and Carlton Melin Based always on available assets, planning to continue, and the above Panthers. were long time members of Local 10. the Fund historically has awarded requirements are met, you might “HANDS ACROSS THE GLOBE” AWARD They left a sum to establish the schol- scholarships in a range from $1000 to want to apply for one of these schol- arship fund. They specified that schol- $2500 for full-time students at four- arships. On Feb. 11, 2000 at the Open arships were to be available to chil- year colleges or universities, and from To request an application, simply World Conference in San Francisco, dren of Local 10 members to further $750 to $1750 for full-time students call Mathilda Mendonca, secretary to Walter Johnson, secretary-treasurer of their “collegiate” education. Trustees at two-year colleges. Mr. Zuckerman at (415) 771-6400. the San Francisco Labor Council, pre- of the Fund interpret “members” to Trustees are Richard Zuckerman, She will then send you the application sented Harer with a plaque in appreci- mean active members in good stand- counsel for ILWU and for Local 10, form with the necessary explanatory ation of his “lifelong commitment to ing at the time of disbursement of Reino Erkkila, a retired member of material. 16 • March 2004

ILWU Book & Video Sale

Books and videos about the ILWU are available from the ORDER BY MAIL union’s library at discounted prices! BOOKS: ___ copies of ILWU Story@ $7 ea. = $______copies of The Big Strike @ $6.50 ea. = $_____ The ILWU Story: unrolls the history of the union from its origins to the present, complete with recollections from the men and women who built the union, in their own words, ___ copies of Workers on the Waterfront @ $16 ea. = $_____ and dozens of rare photos of the union in action. $7.00 ___ copies of The Union Makes Us Strong@ $15 ea. = $_____ The Big Strike By Mike Quin: the classic partisan account of the 1934 strike. $6.50 Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s ___ copies of A Terrible Anger @ $16.50 ea.= $_____ By Bruce Nelson: the most complete history of the origins, meaning, and impact of the ___ copies of We Are the ILWU @ $5 ea. = $_____ 1934 strike. $13.00 The Union Makes Us Strong: Radical Unionism on the San Francisco Waterfront By ___ copies of Life on the Beam@ $28 ea. = $_____ David Wellman: the important new study of longshoring in the ILWU. $15.00 (paper- ___ copies of The March Inland @ $9 ea.= $_____ back) A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strike in San Francisco By Total Enclosed $_____ David Selvin: the newest and best single narrative history about the San Francisco events of 1934. $16.50 No sales outside the U.S. The March Inland: Origins of the ILWU Warehouse Division 1934-1938 By Harvey Schwartz: new edition of the only comprehensive account of the union’s organizing cam- paign in the northern California warehouse and distribution industry. $9.00 Name______

Street Address or PO Box ______VIDEOS: A 30-minute color video introducing the principles and traditions of the We Are the ILWU City ______State______Zip______ILWU. Features active and retired members talking about what the union meant in their lives and what it needs to survive and thrive, along with film clips, historical photos and an original musical score. $5.00 Make check or money order (U.S. Funds) Life on the Beam: A Memorial to Harry Bridges A 17-minute VHS video production by payable to “ILWU” and send to California Working Group, Inc., memorializes Harry Bridges through still photographs, ILWU Library, 1188 Franklin Street, San Francisco, recorded interviews, and reminiscences. Originally produced for the 1990 memorial serv- CA 94109 ice in San Francisco. $28.00 Prices include shipping and handling. Please allow at least four weeks for delivery. Shipment to U.S. addresses only

A Helping Hand...

...when you need it most. That’s what we’re all about. We are the representatives of the ILWU-sponsored recovery programs. We provide professional and confidential assistance to you and your family for alco- holism, drug abuse and other problems— and we’re just a phone call away.

ILWU LONGSHORE DIVISION

ADRP—Southern California ADRP—Oregon Jackie Cummings Jim Copp Bound Dispatchers for sale 870 West Ninth St. #201 3054 N.E. Glisan, Ste. 2 2003 Edition Now Available! San Pedro, CA 90731 Portland, OR 97232 (310) 547-9966 (503) 231-4882 Beautiful, hardcover collections of The Dispatcher for 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 are now available. ADRP—Northern California ADRP—Washington These are a must for Locals and individuals keeping a George Cobbs Richard Borsheim 400 North Point 506 Second Ave., Rm. 2121 record of the union’s activities. Get your copies of the San Francisco, CA 94133 Seattle, WA 98104 ILWU’s award-winning newspaper while the limited supply (415) 776-8363 (206) 621-1038 lasts. Send a check for $50.00 for each volume (year) to The Dispatcher at: ILWU WAREHOUSE DIVISION ILWU CANADA DARE—Northern California EAP—British Columbia Bound Dispatchers Gary Atkinson Ted Grewcutt 22693 Hesperian Blvd., Ste. 277 745 Clark Drive, Suite 205 c/o The Dispatcher Hayward, CA 94541 Vancouver, BC V5L 3J3 1188 Franklin Street, 4th Floor (800) 772-8288 (604) 254-7911 San Francisco, CA 94109