Vol. 75/No. 17      May 2, 2011

The longshore unionists were doing what they were supposed to do, as many union members told the Militant, responding to a call from the AFL-CIO and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) to stand in solidarity with public workers in Wisconsin on the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Some hung Wisconsin flags from several giant gantry cranes at the port to symbolize their solidarity. Many participated in rallies in San Francisco and in Oakland. Five members of the ILWU Local 10 Drill Team went to the April 4 labor rally in Madison, Wisconsin.

The bosses of the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) are hopping mad. They’ve slapped a lawsuit against Local 10 and its president, Richard Mead.

In response, the San Francisco Labor Council passed a resolution April 11 calling for a mass mobilization of Bay Area labor councils and unionists in front of the PMA headquarters here April 25 to defend Local 10 and call on the bosses to drop the lawsuit. The labor council initiated a defense committee, which met April 14 at the Local 10 union hall. About 75 people participated in the meeting. Unionists were urged to pass resolutions in solidarity with Local 10 and build the April 25 action.

“I’m working at a truck dock at the Port of Oakland, and because of the union action the second shift was told not to report to work,” Carole Lesnick told the meeting. “I was happy not to work, and went to the solidarity rally instead. Local 10 is not alone—thousands demonstrated in solidarity with Wisconsin across the country and will stand with Local 10 against the bosses’ attacks.”

“I’ve been working since I was eight years old,” ILWU member Andre Dawkins said, “and I have learned that it’s the people who change things. I don’t like what’s going on in Wisconsin, and I don’t like what’s going on against my union. Labor solidarity works. For example, the Co-Op coal miners from Utah came to our union hall to ask for support in 2004, and we went to Utah and stood with them in the snow. They were fighting to win the union at their mine. We can force the companies to back down.”

“We have to ensure that Martin Luther King did not die for nothing,” Trent Willis, former Local 10 president, told the meeting. “So we stood by on the anniversary of his assassination.”
 
 
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