Wayners...looks like some of hussein obama's private army may be refusing orders?
Occupy hopes to shut West Coast ports Monday; union balks
By Michael Winter,
USA TODAY
Dec 08, 2011
content.usatoday.com
The Occupy movement hopes to shut down ports along the West Coast on Monday, but its show of solidarity against "Wall Street on the waterfront" is facing a formidable opponent -- the dock workers' union.
Occupy blockades are planned in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, Portland, Ore., Tacoma, Wash., Seattle, Anchorage and Vancouver, B.C., the Associated Press says.
Why bring them to a halt?
The ports play a pivotal role in the flow and growth of capital for the 1% in this country and internationally. For that reason alone it is the ideal place to disrupt their profit machine. The workers on these ports have always understood that; they have consistently staged shutdowns for political reasons, honored community picket lines, and led the labor movement. A general disruption of commerce, in protest of the nationally coordinated attacks on Occupy movements alone is warranted, but additionally, the specifically targeted attacks on workers at these ports by the 1% further necessitate this call to action.
But the International Longshore and Warehouse Union is not aboard the sympathy shutdown.
"Support is one thing, organization from outside groups attempting to co-opt our struggle in order to advance a broader agenda is quite another," Robert McEllrath wrote in a Dec. 6 letter to ILWU locals.
"Any actions organized by outside groups, including the proposed Dec. 12 shutdown of various terminals on the West Coast, have not been vetted by our union's democratically led process. Any decisions made by groups outside of the union's democratic process do not hold water, regardless of the intent," the ILWU also said, a San Francisco Chronicle business columnist adds. (He then takes a swipe at Occupy, saying the "movements that make a fetish of applying direct democracy and near absolute consensus to its own decision making might want to take note of that.")
Dock workers have been locked in a long-running dispute with grain exporter EGT at the Port of Longview, Wash., along the Columbia River, while port truck drivers have battled outsourcing of union jobs at a terminal owned partially by Goldman Sachs.
But the Longview local is saying "no" to Occupy Portland's call for the waterfront strike, Willamette Week reports.
"If I wanted to shut down the port, I could do it without Occupy. I don't need 'em," says Jeff Smith, president of ILWU's Columbia River District Council. "This is a question for the Occupy movement: Why would I want to send my people home? Why would I take a job away from somebody?
"I don't get what they're thinking. It's my job to put people to work. I've got jobs for 'em, so I'm going to put 'em to work. And I'm going to take some of Wall Street's money."
The union's contract forbids West Coast longshoremen from walking out in sympathy, but workers can exercise their First Amendment rights by not showing up Monday at the hiring hall, AP notes.
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