HOORAY FOR UNIONISTS willing to be arrested! In a dispute raging
through the summer in Longview, Washington, over 120 members of
International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) have been detained
by cops, including Local 21 President Dan Coffman and International
President Robert McEllrath. The unionists are fighting to stop international
conglomerate EGT Development from breaking a longstanding master
agreement the ILWU has at the Port of Longview’s publicly subsidized
grain terminal.

Members of the ILWU are contractually entitled to work the 50 jobs at the
terminal, but EGT sued the port for the right to bring in nonunion workers,
and inflamed tensions by importing members of Operating Engineers
Local 701, who have crossed picket lines to work.

On September 7, hundreds of ILWU members stood on railroad tracks to
block a train carrying grain to the facility. Police in riot gear attacked
protesters with clubs and pepper spray. The next morning, police reported
that hundreds of ILWU members from Northwest locals and supporters
broke down the gates of the EGT terminal, damaged railroad cars, and
dumped grain. Security guards retreated and no one was hurt or arrested.
An emergency meeting of ILWU locals also shut down other
Washington ports.

THE ILWU SEES THIS BATTLE as critical to thwart unionbusting drives
at other grain terminals. It is all that and more. The struggle at Longview is
part of the nationwide resistance against the bosses’ austerity attacks. It
continues the mobilization begun in Madison, Wisconsin last year.

Longview originated as a timber town and longshoremen have worked the
Columbia river port for more than 80 years. The community and ILWU won’t
roll over for EGT, scabs or court orders.  The challenge for the rest of
organized labor is to mount real national support for this struggle, including
stopping the Operating Engineers Union Local 701 from providing scabs.

Readers can support these brave unionists by defending them in the press,
and by sending donations and messages of solidarity to President Coffman,
ILWU Local 21, 617 14th Ave, Suite B, Longview, WA 98632, or email:
ilwu21@iinet.com.15.09.11

For background information on the struggle see: Here’s why Longshore
workers are so angry.

Freedom Socialist Party