Bush invoked powers today under the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 to appoint a fact-finding commission to investigate the ongoing lockout.
The ILWU website, which should be the most informative source for info in the midst of all this, unfortunately leaves much to be desired (like many union webpages). But there is a press realease on there, issued just today (Oct. 7), where ILWU Pres. James Spinoza states, "Their [PMA] strategy has been all along to use the lockout to push this situation to crisis and get the government to bail them out with the Taft-Hartley injunction." And the union's demands are reaffirmed: "that the jobs left over after the implementation of technology and the new jobs created by the technology be ILWU jobs."
With even Democrats calling for Bush to use Taft-Hartley, it looks like we have another disgusting display of bipartisanship against the working class in common. The struggle for control of ports is vital to the corporate globalization process, and many people, like myself, have suspected this is simply an attempt by US elites to break the ILWU to clear these important channels of international commerce of any worker control. This follows the privatization of docks in other countries, such as England, Australia, New Zealand, and Korea.
Today's ILWU Press Release is at: http://www.ilwu.org/solidarityday/20021007PressRelease.htm
Interestingly, a CBS-New York Times Poll on Sunday said 7 in 10 Americans would rather hear candidates address the economy than war with Iraq.
Things you can do:
Faxes can be sent at AFL-CIO expense to various CEOs and relevant organizations from these webpages:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/ilwu2
http://www.aflcio.org/news/2002/1004_ilwu_campaign.htm
I think someone else on the list posted one of these links before. Well, here it is again.
Brian
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"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid." - Friedrich Nietzsche