Scab ship stopped from unloading in US
By James VassilopoulosInternational solidarity, has stopped the Columbus Canada, one of 23 ships loaded by non-union labour during the wharves dispute, from unloading its cargo in Los Angeles.
Ìý
A number of the ships loaded by scabs are destined for the US west coast. If what has happened to the Columbus Canada is anything to go by, these ships maybe stranded for months.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the wharfies' union on the west coast of the US, is perhaps the most militant maritime union in the world. The union was set up in the early 1900s by the revolutionary syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World.
When 500 dockers from Liverpool in England were sacked because they refused to cross a picket line, the ILWU refused to unload the cargo of the Neptune Jade, a ship which had been loaded at the port of Liverpool.
The Columbus Canada arrived in the port of Los Angeles on May 9. On that day, 1500 demonstrators set up a picket line to support the Maritime Union of Australia. As of May 19, the ship still had not been unloaded.
Members of the ILWU refused to cross the picket line because they believed there was a risk to their health and safety; their contract with the employer allows this.
The employer called in an arbitrator, who ruled that there was no health and safety risk. Members of the ILWU did not enter the terminal because the employer, Matson, locked the gates due to the large solidarity demonstration outside. Demonstrators chanted, “We support the MUA, no scab cargo in LA”.
One dock worker said, “Longshore jobs are good jobs, and the union makes them good jobs. Shipping and dock operators are trying to take the union out of these jobs in Australia now, and last year in England [referring to the Liverpool dispute]. Next time, they may attack the union here. It's time to take a stand.”
The delay has been estimated to be costing Columbus Line, the company which owns the ship, $US13,000 a day.
According to the Daily Commercial News on May 18, Columbus Line is taking legal action against the ILWU. In an attack on the right to organise, protests are now being videotaped by the company.
Another of the scab ships, the Direct Kea, is headed for the US port of Oakland, and activists are planning to stop it from unloading its cargo also.