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ILWU denounces Taft-Hartley as
anti-union employer-government collusion
Oct. 9, 2002
ILWU members will return to work today after a federal judge ordered the PMA to open the ports and let the workers back in to their jobs. But the union is angry that the Bush administration gave PMA the gift it blackmailed businesses, farmers and consumers for—the Taft-Hartley injunction.
The Taft-Hartley Act was passed in 1948 as an anti-union law. It enjoins both the employers and the union to return to the conditions of the old contract for 80 days. But its provisions for fines, contempt of court citations and prison sentences for those violating the terms of the contract are aimed at workers.
“We fully expect PMA to use all the anti-union provisions of the Taft-Hartley injunction. These 80 days will not be a ‘cooling off period,’” said ILWU International President James Spinosa. “PMA will start alleging ‘slowdowns’ by Thursday and will continue that. Taft-Hartley gives them 80 days of free shots at the union and we expect the employers will be dragging us to court daily, trying to bankrupt the union and throw our leaders in jail.”
The PMA’s nearly two-week long lockout, coming at the busiest time in the history of the West Coast, has created a monstrous backlog of cargo. Clearing out these clogged docks will be a logistical nightmare that will take many weeks. PMA has already stated that it expects productivity to be at normal levels during these 80 days—a physical impossibility—or it will cry “slowdown.”
All terminals will need a full compliment of workers to be dispatched from union hiring halls. But those orders will be impossible to fill. PMA has previously accused the union of withholding labor when orders exceeded the number of workers available or not enough skilled workers were dispatched. Ironically, it is PMA’s responsibility to register more longshore workers and to provide training. The union has long pushed for more registration and training for its members, but PMA regularly stalls those requests.
The congestion and gridlock on the docks also creates an extreme workplace hazard. The speedup of this peak season has resulted in an increase of accidents and injuries and a record number of fatalities—five in the last six months—in an industry the U.S. Dept. of Labor cited as second only to mining as the most dangerous occupation in the country.
“We are tired of burying our people,” Spinosa said. “All PMA President Joe Miniace ever talks about is how many containers get moved how fast. You never hear him cite statistics of the deaths and injuries, of the human toll of his profits.”
The Taft-Hartley injunction requires the parties to abide by the terms of the old contract and the safety regulations are a part of that contract. In compliance with the court order, the ILWU has instructed its members to obey the letter of those regulations and to follow all mandated procedures. The preamble of the safety code says that “In a question of tonnage vs. safety, safety first.”
PMA wanted Taft-Hartley
Although the PMA is saying it regrets Taft-Hartley was invoked, this was what the employers planned all along. They had ample time and offers to avoid it if they wanted to.
From the beginning of the lockout PMA said it would open the ports if the union would only sign a day-to-day contract extension. On Sunday, Oct. 6 the ILWU offered something more—a seven-day extension—but PMA suddenly changed terms and demanded 90 days. On Tuesday, Oct 8, minutes before Bush went on national TV, PMA rejected a deal the White House was trying to broker—a 30-day contract extension. The ILWU had already agreed to it.
The 80 days of the Taft-Hartley injunction gets PMA through the peak shipping season and to the slowest time of the year, relieving companies of any urgency to bargain. They also get the bonus prize of being able to harass the union in court for 80 days.
Back in January 2002 Miniace previewed to the press his plan to lockout the union. He also bragged about taking out a $200 million line of credit to help PMA last through the lockout.
Robin Lanier, the head of the West Coast Waterfront Coalition, the retailer group PMA set up in Washington, D.C. to lobby on its behalf, told her members last spring that they should prepare to hold out for a two-week lockout.
In mid-June an attorney with the Bush administration’s Dept. of Labor threatened the ILWU with the Taft-Hartley injunction, with special legislation to take away the union’s legal rights to collectively bargain and to strike and with sending in military personnel to seize the ports and operate them as scabs and strikebreakers. (L.A. Times 7-5-02)
“No one should be surprised by the turn of these events,” Spinosa said. “Bush has always actively sided with employers against workers. This collusion between the government and the employers was planned well in advance.”
This Taft-Hartley injunction sets an ominous precedent for the American labor movement.
In a statement given to CNN yesterday AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka called the President’s invocation of Taft-Hartley “a tragedy with historic ramifications.”
This is the first time in history that an employer lockout was used aggressively to implement the anti-union Taft-Hartley law. The message to employers is that you can create a crisis by locking out your workers and then get the government to intervene with Taft-Hartley that violates all the rights of workers to collective bargaining.
“This is the most egregious attack on workers rights in 50 years,”
Ron Judd, AFL-CIO Western Regional Director. “ If they can do it to the ILWU, they can do it to any union.”