<HTML>The ILWU is NOT on STRIKE. They are LOCKED OUT, ordered to leave with the gates padlocked behind them! Oakland isn't the only place with military cargo; local Seattle ILWU folks are on the news talking about military cargo too. For the life of me I am not sure why: the Co is who locked out, but the military cargo sounds like a pretext for Bush to send in the national guard, except of course several local politicians are on record telling the Feds to butt out! I would be curious to know if people on this list have heard from union folks concrete descriptions of the job actions they have been doing. I do not entirely believe the corporate flacks, but here the union themselves have alluded to such in semi-public presentations. For myself, I entertain romantic visions of local union supporters camping out at the gates of the docks with the workers inside als Solidarity backers outside the Lenin shipyards. It didn't happen and as far as I can tell wasn't even asked for, but there's the idea.... DoreneC In a message dated 10/1/02 5:23:29 PM Pacific Daylight Time, cgrimes@rawbw.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">. All the other west coast ports are on strike, but the Oakland locals put on a slow down so the PMA was paying for getting nothing done and locked them out. Forcing the PMA into a lockdown was a tactic to avoid the national security issue (Oakland, I think is the primary port for military shipping) and dodge the WH threats. Or at least that is my theory. Either way, at the moment nothing is moving. </BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>