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As Occupiers Block Port, Labour Questions Tactics

'Take protest to Bay Street and Howe Street, leave the poor working stiff alone': longshore union president.

Tom Sandborn 14 Dec 2011TheTyee.ca

Tom Sandborn covers labour and health policy beats for the Tyee. He welcomes feedback and story tips here.

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Line of police that met demonstrators, close to port gates in Vancouver. Photo by Tom Sandborn.

Demonstrators with ties to the Occupy Vancouver movement stopped the flow of traffic onto Vancouver's port docks three times on Monday, Dec. 12, in morning and afternoon blockades. But as demonstrators were arrested in Vancouver and Seattle, local labour leaders distanced themselves from the day's actions.

After a series of coordinated demonstrations up and down the Pacific coast -- first called for by the Occupy Oakland movement -- a few demonstrators were arrested for breach of the peace around 3:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon at the Clark Drive entrance to Vancouver's docks. Three others were arrested shortly after, a few blocks away.

Activists from the Occupy movement massed at port entrances throughout the day. They carried drums and homemade banners to display solidarity with longshoremen in Longview, WA, who are currently fighting an employer attempt to bust their union, according to a press release announcing the port-side picketing.

The demonstrations were also designed, the release said, to convey a message that "This economy belongs to ALL of us -- not just those who disproportionately profit from trade."

Demonstrations linked to the Occupy movement shut down port operations in Oakland, Portland and Longview on Dec. 12, while demonstrators also appeared outside port facilities in Anchorage, AK and Seattle, WA. The Seattle demonstrations saw 11 activists arrested on Monday afternoon.

No endorsement from labour leaders

An officer of the union that represents local longshore workers told The Tyee that while he supported the goals of the Occupy movement, he did not endorse the attempt to shut down the docks.

"We do need a spotlight on the issues that Occupy Vancouver has raised, and my union is known for our solidarity with such causes," Tom Dufresne, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Canada, said. "But some of these people are not doing their cause any good. They should take their protest to Bay Street and Howe Street and leave the poor working stiff alone. I was down at the Clark Drive entrance around 3:30, and I saw demonstrators hitting cars with their picket signs. By then, I think, the people with legitimate concerns had left."

The BC Federation of Labour also dissociated itself from the port action, issuing a statement that read in part:

"The B.C. Federation of Labour does not support this action, or any action by the Occupy Vancouver group at Vancouver area ports that seeks to prevent our members from carrying out their assigned duties and working safely, and notes that the demonstration will not constitute a picket line as defined in the B.C. Federation of Labour's picket line policy."

Activist Mya Mayhem said her group had conversations with rank and file members of the ILWU in advance of the shutdown attempt. She said more than half of the port workers they spoke with expressed support for the action.

The demonstrations at West Coast ports played to similarly mixed reviews in the U.S., with ILWU leadership criticizing the shutdown attempt, and at least some rank and file members and union officers enthusiastically supporting the actions. Clarence Thomas, a third generation longshoreman in Oakland and former officer of ILWU Local 10 argued recently that:

"A picket line is a public demonstration -- whether called by organized labor or not. It is legitimate. There are established protocols in these situations. To suggest to longshoremen that they shouldn't follow them demands clarification. It is one thing to state for the record that the union is not involved, but another thing to erase the historical memory of ILWU's traditions and practices."

Leo Robinson is another ILWU member, now retired, who criticizes his union's leadership for not welcoming the solidarity actions taken on Dec. 12.

"Any number of times this union (Local 10) has observed picket lines, including Easter Sunday, 1977, when the community put up a picket line at Pier 27 to picket South African cargo. Longshoremen observed that picket line for two days. So I don't understand how all of a sudden the sanctity of the contract outweighs the need to demonstrate solidarity. It just does not compute. It doesn't make sense," Robinson recently told the Bail Out People website.

Three times during Dec. 12, bands of protesters filled the streets at port entrances -- at Clark Drive and Heatley at the beginning of the day, at McGill and Commissioner at mid-day and again at Clark Drive at the end of the day -- blocking all traffic on and off the docks, and leaving long lines of freight trucks idling outside the port. The Tyee spoke with one of the stalled truck drivers, a cheerful young man named Dimos Carvalho.

"I'm not sure what all their issues are," Carvalho said, referring to the demonstrators. "But yea, I support what they're doing."

Mixed perceptions of action's impact

Mayhem told a noon rally at Callister Park near the docks that she and a dozen other activists had shut down traffic into two port entrances that morning.

"We're here in solidarity with ILWU members who face union busting in Longview," the slight, intense young woman told the crowd. "We're showing that if we all stand together, we can change the world."

The dispute at Longview, where grain terminal firm EGT Development has been trying to break the power of the ILWU at the port, has been a bitter one, erupting into violence in September as union members allegedly stormed company property, broke windows and dumped grain at the dockside operations.

The dispute has also featured close to 200 arrests and charges of police brutality. EGT has been accused of union busting for going around the ILWU, which has traditionally represented West Coast dock workers for decades, by contracting out the work formerly done by ILWU members to a company tied to a less militant union.

Another target of the co-ordinated West Coast actions was SSA, a port operator in California with ties to the notorious financial firm Goldman Sachs. SSA has been involved in union busting activities against truck drivers at southern California ports.

One speaker at Callister Park, who identified herself as Rain, brought greetings to the rally from Teamsters who have been locked out by the Rocky Mountaineer luxury train service in Vancouver since June 22.

She reminded the crowd that the company locking out the mainly female workforce at the Rocky Mountaineer belonged to Peter Armstrong, who headed up the campaign fundraising for the Non-Partisan Association in the last city election. The speaker then led the crowd in the chant, "Union busting is disgusting."

"I'm here to support my brothers and sisters," Occupy Vancouver protester Jordan Aleister Malcolm said, as he watched a long line of trucks enter the port at the McGill and Commissioner ramp as protesters withdrew around 2:20 p.m. Later, the group moved back to Clark Drive, where traffic had been stopped for an hour during the morning demonstration. Again, protesters thronged the ramp leading to the docks off Clark, slowing all traffic.

The noon rally was told by speakers that work had been disrupted on the docks that morning, with some longshoremen refusing to cross the picket lines.

According to employer and port administration spokesmen, however, the day's activity had little impact on the ongoing work of the port. Greg Vurdela of the BC Maritime Employers Association told The Tyee that all shifts were filled and completed on Monday without incident.

Peter Xotta, vice president, planning and operations, for Port Metro Vancouver, also said the demonstrations had no impact on work on the docks.

"To my knowledge," Xotta said, "there was no slow down of work."

[Tags: Labour and Industry, Rights and Justice.]  [Tyee]

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