Charleston Five information

ILWU INTERNATIONAL DOCKWORKERS SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF
THE CHARLESTON 5

Long Beach, California
August 2, 2001

Participants of the ILWU International Dockworkers Solidarity Conference held the week of July 30, 2001, in Long Beach, California and attended by dockworker union representatives from fifteen countries, unanimously pledge to support and defend the Charleston 5.

We fully endorse the August 1, 2001 statement issued by the AFL-CIO Executive Council demanding justice for the Charleston 5. The union-busting persecution of the ILA and its members in Charleston, South Carolina must end.

There is no peace without justice and we will, as the AFL-CIO statement declares, "wage and escalate this fight until they are free and justice is done!"

ILA and Nordana Reach Agreement

After a five-month labor battle with the International Longshoremen’s Association, including a riot, the folks at Nordana Line have agreed to use ILA members to unload their ships calling in Charleston, S.C. The union and the company last week issued a joint statement announcing the deal, which will take effect on May 1.

The union will work the Nordana ships under its small-boat agreement that allows for smaller work crews and more flexible work rules. The dispute came to a head on Jan. 20, when union members - angry over the use of non-union dockworkers at the Columbus Street Terminal - fought with police at the terminal before being turned back by tear gas.

On January 20, 2000 hundreds of dockworkers clashed with police as a Danish company used nonunion workers to unload one of its container ships.

The dockworkers had marched to the State Ports Authority Columbus Street Terminal, where the Nordana Line freighter was being unloaded by about 20 nonunion workers guarded by about 600 police officers.

This move by the Nordana Shipping co to not hire the skilled members of the ILA local 1422 is a mistake on their part. As president of local 13,I spent a week in Charleston at the ILA convention in 1998 at the invite of the President Kenneth Riley Jr, I am very familiar with the operations of the Port of Charleston and of the fine upstanding Union Leader that President Riley is.

The ILWU must throw their support with the Charleston local as this operation is no different than what happened in Australia with Patrick Stevedoring and the Australian Government joining forces and bringing in the trained scabs to take over the docks and throw the Maritime Union of Australia out. This whole thing about right to work states is dangerous for unions as we see in Charleston.

The ILA in general have been fighting scab labor for years around these same issues. Nordana Line freighter was being unloaded by about 20 nonunion workers guarded by about 600 police officers the force included officers from the ports authority, Charleston, Mount Pleasant, Charleston County, the State Highway Patrol and the State Law Enforcement Division.

What a disgrace that the main taxpayers, the working stiff has to see this kind of money being spent to protect scabs. Every working man and woman in Charleston should be in front of the gates at State Ports Authority Columbus Street Terminal and show your elected and appointed officials that you are against this waste in taxpayers money and stop this foreign shipping line from making the decisions about how things should be done in the United States of America. Scotty