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Subject: World-wide union buster gets Iraq contract
According to Reuters, the White House today awarded a $4.8 million contract to Stevedoring Services of America (SSA) to manage the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.
SSA is a notoriously anti-union company that has led efforts to break longshore unions around the world.
Last year's lockout of West Coast longshore workers was driven in large part by SSA. International Longshore and Warehouse Union president James Spinosa termed SSA "the primary roadblock to an effective West Coast longshore contract settlement," and accused them of "undermining negotiations, because their primary interests are in breaking the union." Even before the West Coast lockout -- which was prompted SSA demands that the Pacific Maritime Association crack down on workers -- the company had already moved 150 union jobs from the Los Angeles port to a non-union logistics location in Utah.
In the late 1990s, SSA was part of an effort to break the Australian dock unions.
Most recently, SSA pressured the government of Bangladesh to let it open a private port that would compete with or replace a government-owned port and its unionized workforce. Despite having the support of the US ambassador to Bangladesh, SSA's proposal was ruled illegal by the Bangladesh High Court in November 2002.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the shipping industry gave 68% of its $4.3 million in campaign contributions to Republicans in the 2000 election cycle. SSA CEO Jon Hemingway personally gave three-quarters of his nearly $10,000 in personal political contributions over the past three years to Republicans.
It is hard to overstate how repulsive it is that a company which has made a career of attacking unions and undermining job standards around the world is now going to make money off the blood spilled in Iraq. All I can say is, I pray to God that no longshore workers, and no children of longshore workers, lost their lives in the battles that led to this contract.
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