Fight Back News Service is circulating the following resolution passed by Locals 10 and 19 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. It calls on port workers to stop work on May 1, International Workers Day, and participate in the Great American Boycott II for immigrants rights. Work stoppages will take place in the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle, Richmond, Benicia and Redwood City.
Resolution of International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 10 - Adopted Feb. 15, 2007, San Francisco, California. [This resolution was later adopted by ILWU Local 19, the Longshore local in Seattle, Washington.]
WHEREAS, Local 10 adopted a resolution for our April 2005 Longshore Caucus reclaiming May Day (May 1st) which commemorates the struggle for the 8 (eight) hour work day in the United States;
WHEREAS, Local 10 endorsed May 1st, 2006 and participated in the Great American Boycott to protest the criminalization of immigrant workers by legislation such as HR4437 and the Marine Transportation Security Acts criminal background checks on dock workers;
WHEREAS, On May 1st, 2006, 90% of the container cargo at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach was halted as the result of immigrant truckers not going to work;
WHEREAS, Agribusinesses such as Tyson Foods and Cargill closed down several of their plants in anticipation of immigrant workers not going to work on May 1, 2006 in support of immigrant rights;
WHEREAS, Our own Harry Bridges, an Australian immigrant worker, faced four prosecutions by the U.S. government, was wrongfully convicted, illegally imprisoned, fraudulently stripped of his citizenship, and his attorneys sent to jail for defending him;
WHEREAS, ILWU in 2008, will start very difficult contract negotiations with the employer which requires we start to mobilize our members and build coalitions; and
WHEREAS, Hornblower Cruises has yet to hire skilled and experienced ILWU and other union ferry workers as well as to negotiate a fair contract;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the membership instruct Local 10 s president to convey our intentions of having our stop work meeting on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 9 a.m. to Pacific Maritime Association;
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Local 10 participates in the Great American Boycott II, in support of workers and immigrant rights, including the workers of Hornblower Cruises, on May Day, 2007 and that the ILWU Local 10 Drill Team perform; and
THEREFORE BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be sent to all ILWU locals, the International, and affiliated central labor councils.
In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. This is the first time in decades that an American union has decided to undertake industrial action against a U.S. war. The action announced by the powerful West Coast dock workers union, to stop work to stop the war, should be taken up by unions and labor organizations throughout the United States and internationally. And the purpose of such actions should be not to beg the bourgeois politicians whose hands are covered with blood, having voted for every war budget for six and a half years, but a show of strength of the working people who make this country run, and who can shut it down!
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