For the last nine months, the 800 members of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) in Charleston have been in a fight to defend union rights. In December, the Nordana Lines shipping company began to use nonunion stevedores to unload its ships here, at substantially lower wages than what ILA members receive.

On January 20, some 600 cops assaulted hundreds of ILA members on the docks who were demonstrating to defend their union. The cops, media, and state officials went on a campaign to smear the workers as violent. Nevertheless, after months of further protests, gaining broader public support, the ILA won an agreement with Nordana to resume hiring ILA members May 1.

Five longshore workers remain under indictment on federal charges of "instigating a riot" stemming from the January 20 police attack. These workers, expected to go on trial in October, face draconian restrictions such as a 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. curfew, according to ILA Local 1422 president Kenneth Riley. They can only be outside their homes at night if they are working or at a union meeting, and are restricted from leaving the state.

ILA Local 1422 and 27 individual members of the union also face a civil lawsuit for "damages" filed by the nonunion stevedoring company hired by Nordana.  
 
Struggles for union rights
Other workers at the port have stepped up their fight for union rights. The large majority of Port Authority employees who work on the docks--including crane operators, clerks, and yard crews--have signed cards to join the ILA. South Carolina's antiunion laws, however, prohibit state agencies from negotiating with unions, but the workers continue to fight for better pay and working conditions. The ILA seeks to overturn the antilabor laws.

Truck drivers who haul cargo to and from the port are also trying to win union recognition. Robert Bates and Richmond Truesdale, leaders of the United Container Movers Association of Charleston, came to the Labor Day rally. In an interview, they said many drivers have signed up to join the Teamsters union, but they anticipate a fight because the bosses and government claim that as owner-operators they are "independent contractors" who cannot join a union and bargain collectively.

Port truck drivers in nearby Savannah, Georgia, involved in a similar fight, held a protest and work stoppage that same weekend. Bates reported that the Charleston drivers are planning protest actions for later this month.

The militancy of the dockworkers in Charleston is a pole of attraction for other workers in the region. Sharon Brown, president of International Union of Electronic Workers (IUE) Local 175, said about 30 members of that local caravaned to the Charleston rally. They work at Yuasa Inc., a battery plant in Sumter, South Carolina, and are in the third year of their first contract. Brown said that since becoming president of the local a year ago, "I drive to Charleston to learn how to fight" from the Longshoremen.

Workers at Yuasa, 87 percent of whom are Black, are fighting against the company's racist discrimination and for safer conditions. Larry Maple, a maintenance technician, explained that he and other maintenance workers who are Black are hired and remain at $10.22 an hour, while many of the workers who are white start at $12.02 or $13.02, and go up to $14.65. Maple said, "When I confronted management about the difference they said, 'The Black workers have the potential while the whites have the experience.' Then why am I training them?" Maple said he was terminated in March on trumped-up charges of "violating company policy," but has just won his fight for reinstatement and expects to start work soon.

Delores Charles, another IUE member, reported, "I was injured when an acid pump burst and acid got in my left eye." She was off work for three days, but the company reported it to workmen's compensation as one day, so it was not listed as a "lost-time" accident. "I still haven't been paid for two days," she said.  
 
Take pride in struggle
The mid-afternoon rally included brief remarks by a range of local politicians and Democratic Party candidates. Kenneth Riley gave an update on the defense of the indicted ILA members. He encouraged contributions to the Dockworkers' Defense Fund, which helps finance the workers' defense campaign, and urged participation in a union-sponsored blood drive.

Nelson Rivers of the NAACP pledged support for the ILA members, and vowed, "We're going to take that flag off the pole," referring to the Confederate battle flag that was recently moved from the top of the South Carolina legislature dome to a pole on the statehouse grounds. Tens of thousands of workers from across the state, including many members of the ILA from Charleston, rallied in Columbia in January to demand the racist symbol be removed.

James Harris, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. president, who was one of the speakers at the Labor Day rally, saluted the union fighters present. Referring to the frame-up tactics used by the employers and their government against working-class militants, he said, "When we fight, they say it's a riot."

"We should be proud" of the longshore workers' resistance to union busting, and "stand with the five brothers under indictment," Harris stated.  
 
 
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