Posts tagged longshoremen
Commentary: How organized labor shames its traitors − the story of the ‘scab’
September 16, 2024 // In the 19th century, American workers started using the word to attack peers who refused to join a union or worked when others were striking. By the 1880s, periodicals, union pamphlets and books all regularly used the epithet to chastise any workers or labor leaders who cooperated with bosses. Names of scabs were often printed in local papers. Scab likely caught on because it directed visceral disgust at anyone who put self-interest above class solidarity.
The Next Target for Protests Against Israel: Ports
November 8, 2023 // “Workers have committed to not load, unload, or facilitate the tasks of any boat containing weapons,” the Spanish publication El Diario reported. The announcement in Barcelona follows a group of transport unions in Belgium — which included some port workers — that about a week ago “called on their members to refuse to handle military equipment being sent to Israel,” according to Reuters. The effort to stop the Cape Orlando, a military ship with a long wartime resume, started Friday at the Port of Oakland when a wave of people descended on the docks early that morning, armed with megaphones, banners and Palestinian flags. Operating on a tip that the ship was allegedly bound for Israel and hundreds of protesters organized by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) in the Bay Area showed up early in the morning determined not to let the Cape Orlando leave.
Connecticut: While the longshoremen strike, Orsted brings other union workers to load ships at State Pier
October 29, 2023 // “It’s another sad day for labor when unions will cross other unions' picket lines, regardless of what the issue is,” said Jim Paylor, assistant general organizer for the ILA. He was at the port when buses unloaded with workers from the Building Trades and Operating Engineers Unions.
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe; The Ballad of Tom Odom
January 18, 2023 // Will Swaim, journalist and president of the California Policy Center, educates us on CA Assembly Bill 5 (AB5,) which seeks to turn independent contractors into employees, and how it’s negatively affecting 70,000+ independent California truckers; truckers like Tom Odom, who calls in from the road to let us know why he is A.) part of a class action lawsuit and B.) moving to Texas. Spoiler Alert: it’s because of AB5!
West Coast port union, employers say no plan for strike or lockout
June 16, 2022 // The news came just hours before the nation’s busiest ocean trade gateway in Los Angeles, which employs the lion’s share of West Coast port workers, reported near record imports for May. Import volumes at the Port of Los Angeles are easing from the levels seen during the throes of the pandemic, when home-bound shoppers binged on everything from exercise equipment to garden supplies. Still, they remain about 20% above normal Lisa Baertlein
On the waterfront: the political fight over organised crime at the Port of New York
June 7, 2022 // Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/f2d12689-411c-4bbd-a475-4c8254568ee4?segmentID=7d17e2be-f805-4a42-dc3f-87fd464309c1 One of the watchdog’s first salvos was to publicise the many instances of longshoremen earning more than $400,000 a year for what it said was little or no work. Thanks to an antiquated union contract, some lucky dock workers were, miraculously, paid for 27 hours of work a day. Some beneficiaries were the kin of men like Vincent “the Chin” Gigante, the late head of the Genovese crime family. In 2012, Gigante had nine well-paid relatives employed at the port. Malcolm Johnson, loan sharks, Alfred Driscoll, Ronald Goldstock, Harold Daggett,
Op-Ed: Big Labor fights dirty over control of Southeast port jobs
May 20, 2022 // Daggett and Co. are counting on pro-forced unionism bureaucrat Lauren McFerran, whom President Joe Biden elevated to the NLRB chairmanship last year, and two other NLRB members selected by Biden last year to sit on this case while they continue to break the law. If top ILA union bosses turn out to be right about the NLRB, then the hybrid work model that has greatly enhanced the competitiveness of the major North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia ports will be in grave jeopardy.