40th ITF Congress
Vancouver, Canada 2002

Issue no 4: 17-08-2002 We back the West Coast dockers Port unions around the world have signaled their willingness to help over 10,000 US West Coast dockers faced by intransigent employer demands for job cuts and attacks on their collective bargaining agreement. The ITF Dockers' Section conference yesterday unanimously backed a call for "maximum support and solidarity" with the dockers' union, the ILWU.

The emergency motion carried by delegates said that unions should "take whatever action they can within their national laws until the ILWU achieves a fair settlement". The motion noted that the ILWU has a tradition of support for other ITF affiliates and for contributions to international solidarity and the ITF's flag of convenience campaign.

The union is currently locked in a bitter stand-off with the Pacific Maritime Association, representing US port employers from Alaska to California, over demands for the introduction of new technology which, says the union, would spell thousands of job cuts over the years and the removal of jobs from the scope of the collective bargaining agreement. The employers' demands form part of negotiations with the ILWU on a new three-year contract.

The US government is reported to have threatened to invoke emergency legislative powers to delay any strike action by the ILWU and to use troops to carry out dockers' work. The employers meanwhile have threatened to tear up the union agreement and force the union to negotiate port by port. Moving the unanimously carried motion at the Dockers' Section Conference, Bob Crow, of the British RMT transport union, warned that fine words on paper were not enough to defeat employer attempts to smash trade unionism. 

"An attack on the ILWU is an attack on every dockers' union in the international trade union movement," he added. His words were welcomed by Bob McEllrath, First Vice President of the ILWU, who said that off-the-record threats to his union had been made from government officials from Washington. He went on to accuse the port employers of "wrapping themselves in the flag" in their efforts to defeat the union. Like other motions carried by section conferences, the emergency motion on the ILWU will now go before the plenary Congress for ratification.

Note from Kees Marges, ITF Dockers' Section Secretary: The motion as adopted by the ITF Dockers' Section Conference will be endorsed by the full Congress. The Dockers' Section Conference in Vancouver was also addressed by a representative of the AFL-CIO indicating the support of this organization for the ILWU.