Occupy Oakland Calls for TOTAL WEST COAST PORT SHUTDOWN ON 12/12

Source: Occupy Wall Street Home page

Proposal for a Coordinated West Coast Port Shutdown, Passed With Unanimous Consensus by vote of the Occupy Oakland General Assembly 11/18/2012:

In response to coordinated attacks on the occupations and attacks on workers across the nation:

Occupy Oakland calls for the blockade and disruption of the economic apparatus of the 1% with a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on December 12th. The 1% has disrupted the lives of longshoremen and port truckers and the workers who create their wealth, just as coordinated nationwide police attacks have turned our cities into battlegrounds in an effort to disrupt our Occupy movement.

We call on each West Coast occupation to organize a mass mobilization to shut down its local port. Our eyes are on the continued union-busting and attacks on organized labor, in particular the rupture of Longshoremen jurisdiction in Longview Washington by the EGT. Already, Occupy Los Angeles has passed a resolution to carry out a port action on the Port Of Los Angeles on December 12th, to shut down SSA terminals, which are owned by Goldman Sachs.

Occupy Oakland expands this call to the entire West Coast, and calls for continuing solidarity with the Longshoremen in Longview Washington in their ongoing struggle against the EGT. The EGT is an international grain exporter led by Bunge LTD, a company constituted of 1% bankers whose practices have ruined the lives of the working class all over the world, from Argentina to the West Coast of the US. During the November 2nd General Strike, tens of thousands shutdown the Port Of Oakland as a warning shot to EGT to stop its attacks on Longview. Since the EGT has disregarded this message, and continues to attack the Longshoremen at Longview, we will now shut down ports along the entire West Coast.

Participating occupations are asked to ensure that during the port shutdowns the local arbitrator rules in favor of longshoremen not crossing community picket lines in order to avoid recriminations against them. Should there be any retaliation against any workers as a result of their honoring pickets or supporting our port actions, additional solidarity actions should be prepared. In the event of police repression of any of the mobilizations, shutdown actions may be extended to multiple days.

Read more: http://occupywallst.org/article/occupy-oakland-calls-total-west-coast-port-shutdow/

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Please spread the word far and wide!!!

Add to this, the idea of Marching to DC from EVERYWHERE in the Spring...this movement is growing and You can't Stop it!!! :bounce:

(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2350192) GREAT CONCEPT, too

... if we can get a major coordinated strike action, we can shut them down and have the leverage for REAL change!

and my parents raised me to never cross a picket line, and as a middle aged adult I couldn't agree more with my parents.

I will not cross a picket line. With the exception of accompanying a spouse, friend or family member to a medical clinic being picketed by anti abortion nuts, or teabaggers picketing against unions. I will never cross any picket line fighting for freedom or social, political or economic justice.

The ILWU's model is "An Injury To One Is An Injury To All"

warfare against y'all.

Even thinking about this type of coordination between the Occupy movement and the ILWU is a BFD. I'll support you as much as I can.

Doesn't the ILWU have a clause in your contract that says you don't have to take any work without penalty? That would mean that a west coast wildcat strike on the 12th would be VERY doable.

(at least I think it's still on page 2) by Willy T. There are some good post on that thread about this.

As for your contract question. While I am fairly versed with our contract, I am not familiar with all of it. I do know our contract, like most labor contracts, has a no strike clause. However, not crossing a picket line isn't striking.

Also, as a "class-A" longshoreman we have a very liberal attendance policy. So I'll simply not be going to work that day. Here's a link to our contract if you're interested:

http://www.ilwu13.com/category/4-contracts.html?download=63

That "class-A longshorman" thing is pretty much what I was getting at. :) Just get the labor bureaucracy out of the way and this can work.

As to the picket line, would that include pickets set up by Occupy Oakland or just picket lines by other unions?

From our contract:

Scroll down to page 70: Section 12: (Rule 11.51)

11.5 Picket Lines. (See Addenda, Picket Line Language.)

11.51 Refusal to cross a legitimate and bona fide picket line, as defined in this paragraph, shall not be deemed a violation of this Agreement. Such a picket line is one established and maintained by a union, acting independently of the ILWU longshore locals, about the premises of an employer with whom it is engaged in a bona fide dispute over wages, hours or working conditions of employees, a majority of whom it represents as the collective bargaining agency. Collusive picket lines, jurisdictional picket lines, hot cargo picket lines, secondary boycott picket lines and demonstration picket lines are not legitimate and bona fide picket lines within the meaning of this Agreement.

So an informational picket by OO wouldn't be considered a legitimate picket line for the ILWU. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that everybody couldn't take the day off on the 12th. :)

with a question. Let me know. Thanks.

Well unfortunately not exactly. What I mean is there are contractual obligations we (the ILWU) have to meet or we jeopardize law suits and our contract itself. We are contractually obligated to fulfill the labor needs for all the jobs covered by our contract. If everybody were to take the day off on the same day, it would certainly be found to be an illegal work action/stoppage and allow the companies not only to file large law suits against us, but, also, the contract allows employers to hire outsiders to fulfill jobs that we don't. That would be a major problem.

However, there are other options which could be legitimately considered/used. But I do not speak for my union and would only refer such inquiries to my elected reps at our website.

:fistbump:

:hi:

Nt