1.1. In the globalized world
order transportation unions in the
US, particularly the Longshore union and
the Teamsters, are being
attacked, witch-hunted, and privatized, in
order to silence any
effective workplace opposition to the introduction
of goods
produced under exploitative working conditions.
1.2. The current transportation costs of overseas
production
cannot be sustained indefinitely, due to
the finite nature of the
world's oil reserves and to demand eventually
outstripping the
available supply. Thus corporations
must make hay while the sun
shines. It is, after all, only cheaper
to manufacture in Taiwan
if it is cheap to drag your goods half way
round the world in
search of cheap labor and then also cheap
to drag them back half
way round the world again to the market.
The mobility of goods
from the "low wage" nations to the consuming
nations can only be
sustained so long as transportation costs
compensate for this
geographical inefficiency. The assault
on labor, pitting poor
workers in the third world against unionized
workers in the
first, must occur now, not simply because
of the global mobility
of Capital but also because of the ultimate
unsustainability of
hop scotching all over the planet.
1.3. In 1995 the Mersey Docks & Harbours
Co fired five hundred
dock workers in Liverpool, England for refusing
to cross a picket
line. Under the Thatcher regime privatization
had become a tool
of unionbusting, and the docks that had been
under the control of
the government were turned over to Mersey
Docks & Harbours Co.
1.4. Coincidentally in 1995 I introduced a
course in computers
and organizing on the internet in the Laney
College Labor Studies
Department. The purpose of the class
was to explore the promise
of this new technology to flatten hierarchy,
allowing direct
worker to worker communication across borders.
1.5. Using solidarity as a motivational tool
to gain computer
efficiency proved successful. Students
were urged to select a
project with workers who were doing similar
work in a different
country, or, in some cases, doing the same
work overseas that the
student had done before losing his job, due
to the provisions of
the North American Free Trade Agreement.
1.6. On hearing about the Liverpool Dockers,
one of the Laney
students decided these were the workers he
would contact.
Frustrated by being unable to reach the Liverpool
dock workers
successfully except by phone, he coached
them how to use e-mail
and establish a web page. The strikers
subsequently used the web
to call for several days of solidarity work
stoppages globally.
1.7. During the next two years of the locked
out workers'
struggle to win back their jobs, these web
actions "kept the
issue alive" (Lannon, 1998) through various
tactics, including
two shutdowns of US ports on the west coast
by the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).
1.8. On 28 September 1997, the second anniversary
of the
Liverpool lockout, the Neptune Jade, a Mersey-loaded
ship,
arrived in Oakland, California. The
student project came full
circle as the ship, docking at dawn that
Sunday at the Yusen
Terminal, Berth 23, was greeted by a picket
line of community
activists, retirees, and students, called
out by internet
invitation from Liverpool. The picket
line included the banners
of the International Workers of the World,
the Labor Party Golden
Gate Chapter, and the Laney College Labor
Studies Club.
1.9. Longshore work at Oakland is governed
by contract between
the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA)--the
multi-national
corporation that rents the pier from the
Port of Oakland, and the
union (ILWU). The contract includes
a no strike clause
preventing longshore workers or their union
from refusing to
unload cargo, except when there is a "bona
fida health and safety
hazard". Under California State law
(the CAL-Occupational Safety
and Health Act), workers may refuse to work
under unsafe
conditions without reprisal.
1.10. At shift change (5 AM and 5 PM) on 28
September 1997
longshore workers encountered a boisterous
crowd maintaining a
picket line, which they refused to cross.
Frantically, the PMA
called the police. However, on no occasion
did the Oakland
police department see fit to arrest any of
the picketers. The
PMA then called for instant arbitration to
force the ILWU members
to cross the community picket. Arbitrator
Gerald Sutliff ruled
that the size of the crowd constituted a
health and safety risk
(International Committee for Victory to the
Liverpool Dockers).
1.11. PMA called again for new arbitration.
Of the six occasions
in the next four days when an arbitrator
was dispatched to the
Oakland scene, twice a ruling was made that
the crowd had thinned
to a level of safety and thus there was no
bona fide health and
safety danger. Nevertheless, on those
occasions, too, the
longshore workers still did not cross the
picketline of labor and
community activists (Lannon, 1998).
Most of these workers were
sacrificing a day's pay to honor the community
picket.
1.12. The Mersey Harbour Company issued statements
that there had
been some mistake, that its subsidiary, Mersey,
was a separate
company, and that it was unfair to pick on
the Neptune Jade. The
Liverpool dock workers responded quickly,
dispatching a message
via the web that the ship was indeed associated
with their
dispute and carrying scab cargo, and urging
the community to keep
up the good fight.
1.13. Most employers (98%) rely on the arbitration
process to
settle grievances with their unions.
Only a tiny fraction
attempt two bites at the legal apple, seeking
to get relief from
a judge that the arbitrator found unwarranted.
"Fed up with a
wave of job actions, employers say the only
way to dissuade
illegal disruptions is to make the union
pay.... Internal
arbitration -- the time-honored system that
West Coast waterfront
employers and leaders of the International
Longshore and
Warehouse Union use to settle their differences
-- has been
shattered. It is being replaced by
an aggressive employers'
organization that brings the union to court
and files
multimillion-dollar damage claims whenever
the ILWU engages in
what employers believe are illegal work stoppages"
(Mongelluzzo,
B. 1997).
1.14. Rushing to the courts on Monday 29 September
the PMA
requested an injunction, which judge Sandra
Margulies denied "on
its merits" (International Committee for
Victory to the Liverpool
Dockers). The picketing continued day
and night. On the
following day (Tuesday) a different judge
granted the employer's
persistent attorney a temporary restraining
order (TRO) limiting
pickets to four at Berth 23. Armed
with the TRO, the company
sought to coerce the Oakland longshore workers
to unload the
Neptune Jade. But the crowd had swelled
in defiance of the
judge's order, and it now included mayoral
candidate Jerry Brown,
the former Governor of California.
Again the dock workers
honored the picket line. "Many ...
ignored the TRO; mass
picketing continued" (Lannon, 1998).
But picket captain and
Laney alumnus Robert Irminger was cited for
contempt.
1.15. At one point the ship attempted a feint
by leaving the
port, only to surreptitiously return and
find the pickets still
in place. On day four the ship set
sail for San Francisco Bay,
then went up to Vancouver, Canada.
It became a point of honor
among longshore workers to refuse to unload
her. The Neptune
Jade crossed the Pacific, and at Kobe and
Yokahama, Japan, the
dock workers likewise refused to unload the
Mersey Dock cargo
from the Neptune Jade. Finally the
ship was sold to a Taiwanese
company, cargo still in her hold (Stallone
and Price, 1997).
1.16. Three months later the Mersey Corporation
returned to the
bargaining table rather than risk future
disruptions abroad.
Eventually, the lockout was settled when
the Liverpool dockers
were offered 20,000 pounds and an offer to
return to work.
1.17. Meanwhile, stymied by this infuriating
solidarity, the PMA
sued the Oakland local of ILWU in federal
court. It argued that
the crowd on the community picket line was
safe, the Oakland
longshore workers could have crossed it,
and by refusing to do so
had violated the no strike clause of their
contract.
1.18. In addition, PMA filed a lawsuit in
California state court
against all the community organizations that
it could visually
identify as having participated in the Oakland
action, such as
the Labor Party, the Labor Party Golden Gate
Chapter, the Peace
and Freedom Party, and the Laney College
Labor Studies Club, as
well as all individual pickets ("John Does").
The Laney College
Labor Studies banner, lovingly hand painted
by Oscar Toback (a
retiree from the sign painters union) made
the school name easy
to spot from across the street where Pinkerton
private eyes were
spying on and videotaping the festivities.
1.19. Contrasted with its claim of a safe
crowd in its federal
suit, in its lawsuit against community groups
PMA alleged that
flyers carried by picketers with the message,
"Crossing a picket
line can be hazardous to your health," constituted
a threat of
physical harm (Lee, 1998). The company
sought millions in
damages from the community pickets.
1.20. The defendants in PMA's suit were required
by subpoena to
name all persons known to have participated
in the picket on the
pier. Additionally, Laney College and
its Labor Studies chair,
Albert Lannon, were required to produce membership
lists of the
Labor Studies Club and minutes of all the
club meetings, and to
name all students enrolled in or associated
with the program of
labor studies at Laney College (Eisenscher,
1998).
1.21. In their pre-trial interrogatories the
employers demanded
to know all current and past political and
organizational
affiliations of each and every participant.
Defendants were
asked questions like, "Name everyone you
know who attended the
demonstrations", and, straight out of a McCarthy-era
witch hunt,
"What political parties have you ever belonged
to?", etc.
"Faculty cannot be asked to be stool pigeons
against students,"
declared department chair, Albert Lannon
(Neilson).
1.22. Initially, and somewhat reluctantly,
the administration of
Laney College agreed. California law
protects student privacy:
names and academic information cannot be
turned over to anyone
without their express permission. Privately,
however, the
college administration indicated that if
the subpoenas were not
quashed, they would not risk contempt of
court penalties. Lannon
consistently stated that he would go to jail
for contempt before
he would betray the name of a single student.
1.23. To make matters worse, the college administration
refused
initially to provide attorneys to defend
the college in the PMA
lawsuit. Legal assistance was donated
by Oakland attorneys Will
Flynn and Kirsten Spalding, until the Peralta
Federation of
Teachers (AFT, AFL-CIO) threatened a grievance
and assigned a
union attorney to demand that the college
defend itself and its
instructors.
1.24. While PMA attorneys did not explain
why they wanted the
names of all Labor Studies Club members,
Labor Studies students,
and alumni, Terry Lane, a senior vice president
at PMA, said the
questions sent to the school were part of
a "`fact finding'"
expedition by association attorneys.
He wouldn't say what they
planned to do with the facts they found (Johnson,
1997).
However, at least three persons, Laney student
Rod Neves and two
alumni, Brian Wiles, ILWU, and Michael Eisenscher,
who testified
as witnesses in the temporary restraining
order hearing about the
peaceful nature of the picket, were subsequently
told they would
be named as defendents in an amended complaint
of the million
dollar lawsuit from the company. It
is reasonable to assume that
every name the employers acquired would become
a lawsuit target.
Wasting thousands of dollars extending their
legal dragnet in
pursuit of monetary damages they couldn't
realistically expect to
recoup from working class defendants, PMA's
motivation was to
chill the dissidents' ardor for future protests.
1.25. The strategy of filing SLAPP lawsuits
(Strategic Lawsuits
Against Public Participation) to discourage
the exercise of First
Amendment rights provoked a legal backlash.
Thus California law
allows targets of SLAPP suits to relatiate
for litigious
harassment. Charging that the PMA's
suit was insincere,
attorneys Rob Remar and Dan Siegel filed
pro bono a counter suit
for damages against PMA.
1.26. A community campaign was needed to infuse
courage into the
college administration. Deciding the
best defense was a good
offense, a Neptune Jade defense committee
was formed to call to
task the PMA for attacking a community college
and the First
Amendment.
1.27. At each hearing of the motions in the
case the courtroom
was packed with students and retirees.
The judge, at the behest
of the plaintiff's attorneys, ordered all
picket signs to be left
outside. But the presence in the courtroom
of engaged citizens
provoked the judge into tripling his contingent
of sheriff's
deputies.
1.28. Thousands of letters poured in from
around the world to the
PMA, stating that the signatory would have
come out to picket had
they known of the arrival of the Neptune
Jade and requesting that
they, too, be sued. The PMA spokesperson
began to claim
defensively that PMA harbored no ill will
toward the college in
its attempt to hold students "responsible
for their actions."
1.29. On February 26, 1998, the day SLAPP
suit motions were to be
heard, a large protest of several hundred
people, including dock
workers from up and down the west coast,
converged at the Oakland
offices of PMA and ended with a march to
Laney College. Judge
Needham ruled that in the case of all picketers
present, except
Bob Irminger, the PMA had not proved its
claim of damages, since
all activity was protected by the First Amendment.
He ordered
the PMA to reimburse defendant Jack Heyman
and the Labor Party
Golden Gate Chapter for their legal expenses.
1.30. In the case of picket captain Irminger,
the court decided
to allow PMA to present evidence to substantiate
its allegations
in a full trial, since the industry, as the
judge conceded, had
shown it was likely to prevail (Lee).
Irminger, who had
continued to lead the picketing after the
company secured a
Temporary Restraining Order, had been found
in contempt earlier,
ordered to pay a fine of $100 and do two
days of community
service for his violation, which the judge
decribed as minor
(Eisenscher, 1998). As the PMA legal
strategy collapsed in a
rather public embarrassment for them, the
Mersey Co. made a final
settlement offer in February to the Liverpool
dock workers.
[Update: the employer dropped all its suits
against Irminger and
others in November 1998. However, there
are no more unionized
ports in England, including the docks in
Liverpool.--DB]
Can Academics Expect to Resist Corporate
Domination with
Impunity? Lessons Learned from the
Neptune Jade Experience
2.1. Teachers do not possess express legal
rights to refuse to
disclose students' names, as do, for example,
journalists with
respect to sources, or researchers who can
shield a subject in a
research study. Compelling public interests,
as we have seen in
this instance, may owe their ultimate success
to the court of
public opinion. The Neptune Jade victories,
both in court and in
public opinion, were won through concerted
organization on campus
and in the larger Oakland community.
2.2. In California the Leonard law declares,
"no private
post-secondary educational institution shall
... make or enforce
any rule subjecting any student to disciplinary
sanctions solely
on the basis of conduct that is speech or
other communication
that, when engaged in outside the campus
... is protected from
governmental restriction by the First Amendment
to the United
States Constitution" (O'Neil, 1997).
2.3. Working student and I.W.W. member Rod
Neves reminded the
student government--in calling upon them
to challenge the
administration's new rules--that the McCarthy
witchhunt did not
begin in Hollywood but in academia.
In so far as we can
anticipate this avenue of retaliation against
solidarity to
become part of the arsenal of the New World
Order, we can
anticipate that schools will have to respond
to harassment of
student organizations.
2.4. Obviously the multinational corporations
had little hope of
recouping millions of dollars from an innercity
college district
with relatively meager resources. The
lawsuit imputed an aura of
deviance to the Labor Studies Department
faculty and students, in
an attempt to ostracize us from the college
community at large
and place us at odds with the administration.
2.5. The best defense against attempts to
chill the free speech
of students and the Labor Studies program
was the assertive
offensive strategy of activism. Left
to their institutional
devices alone, without student and community
pickets, letters of
protest, hearings by the city council, and
demonstrations at the
courthouse, etc. the college, the corporation,
and the courts
would probably have dispatched the matter
administratively, with
less than full consideration for the students'
First Amendment
rights.
2.6. The Peralta Community College District,
once sued by the
Employer, made no attempt to defend itself
in court, refused to
provide legal counsel, and failed to turn
over the names of
students in answer to a subpoena by the plaintiffs
only when the
student body and the Labor Studies department
chair, Albert
Lannon, flatly refused to cooperate (Fuller,
1997). In refusing
to honor the subpoena, Lannon said: "No teachers
should be asked
to snitch on their students."
2.7. The Labor Studies Club sought to mobilize
support on campus
for that position, and the student body passed
a resolution
addressed to the President of Laney College,
Earnest Crutchfield,
demanding that the college not turn over
names of students.
Crutchfield agreed that Laney college would
not turn over any
names of any students and staunchly held
to that position
throughout. Mr. Crutchfield, an Afro-American
student at San
Francisco State University during its student
strike in the
sixties, had been an active participant in
the anti-apartheid
struggle of the eighties. However,
had the Laney College Labor
Studies Club not taken aggressive measures
to educate the campus
community about the issues at hand, sternly
reminding everyone of
the constitutional issues involved, the situation
could have been
dramatic and unfortunate.
2.8. The college administration sought twice
to rewrite the Laney
student club constitution to preclude the
display of "banners
bearing the school name off campus."
In response, the Labor
Studies club recruited allies from among
other student clubs to
successfully resist any changes to club constitutions.
2.9. In the aftermath of the lawsuit against
the college, school
administrators, hoping to avoid future retaliation
against the
institution, issued new rules to stop clubs
from exercising their
right to "picket, boycott, protest."
These attempts to restrict
the civil rights of student organizations
affiliated with the
school were rejected by vote of the Associated
Student Body, and
protested by the Inter Club council of students,
the academic
advisors to many of the campus clubs, and
the faculty senate. Of
the thirteen other clubs on campus eight
faculty advisors
co-signed a letter of protest to the administration.
All of
those who signed represented minority student
groups. (These
eight faculty advisors work with clubs dedicated
to promoting
participation of racial minorities and the
disabled. None of the
white tenured faculty signed the letter of
protest.)
Nonetheless, the grassroots organizing that
came out of this
effort had a profound effect on the campus
and the student body's
sense of empowerment. They went on
to demand that no sweatshop
clothing be sold on campus, and the Peralta
Community College
Board later adopted the student resolution,
creating the most
progressive rules protecting garment workers'
rights on any US
campus.
2.10. In addition, the courts denied PMA the
opportunity to
review e-mail between ILWU staff and members.
The intent of the
1996 Congress in passing the Communications
Decency Act, to
forbid the transmission of certain materials,
was set aside by
the court. The Act nonetheless demonstrates
the nervousness with
which the elite considers the Internet.
The courts have held
that both print and electronic media receive
the same
Constitutional protection. Written
or e-mail messages both are
protected free speech (O'Neil, 1997).
2.11. These legal victories are not merely
the result of
brilliant lawyers. The social context
in which the courts
considered the evidence was powerfully marked
by the presence of
an engaged citizenry. The PMA's decision
not to appeal the
court's ruling, and, ultimately, to fire
their chief spokesperson,
was probably heavily influenced by the level
of public
embarassment the students and community supporters
were
able to generate.
Strategies for Community Alliance with
Labor Resistance
3.1. First we must not succumb to the rhetoric
of inevitability.
The New World Order of unaccountable corporations
displaces
democratic government only to the extent
that we collectively
allow it. Economics are a function
of society's values and serve
the interests of the elite few only if the
rest of us abdicate
our civic responsibilities. If we agree
by silent acquiesence to
the degradation of factory workers in Vietnam,
because as
consumers we find Michael Jordan's hucksterism
irresistable,
we
will soon be accepting those degraded living
conditions as our
own.
3.2. Second we must defend those institutions
with a vested
self-interest in promoting equality: unions.
Particularly the
transportation unions now under attack, and
those third world
labor movements demanding a fair share of
the fruits of their
labor.
3.3. Economic models must serve the best interest
of the
community. They are tools, not forces
of nature. If human
society wants living wages, child care, humane
working hours,
holidays and universal medical care, it is
the obligation of the
economic system to adapt to our social needs
and priorities.
What we can no longer do is expect to have
abundance in one
nation at the expense of the pillage of resources
of other
nations. We must behave as world citizens,
because the world is
a small planet, with finite resources.
Works Cited
Eisenscher, Michael (1998). "Shipping
Company Uses Courts to
Harass Pickets and Thwart International Solidarity."
Special
Report Western Hemisphere Conference, p.
7.
Fuller, S. (1997). "Emergency aid 'must
be loans'--Council
approves Labor Studies Club petition."
Laney
Tower 35.7 (Nov.
26): 1.
Griswold, Belinda (1997). "Laney docks
free speech." San
Francisco Bay Guardian (Dec. 3).
International Committee for Victory to the
Liverpool Dockers
(1998). "Scab Ship Neptune Jade Sails
from Oakland: No Scab
Cargo Unloaded!" Flyer, San Francisco.
Johnson, Chip (1997). San Francisco
Chronicle (East Bay
Edition) (December 13): A17.
Lannon, Albert (1998) "Neptune Jade
Update and 2/26/98
Demonstrations." Internet posting,
Jan. 24.
Lee, Henry K. (1998). "Part of Ship
Protest Suit Rejected."
San Francisco Chronicle (March 12):
A19.
Mongelluzzo, Bill (1997). Journal
of Commerce (Los Angeles)
(December 18).
Neilson, Julie (1998). "Laney Labor
Club joins demonstration."
Laney Tower 35.13 (March 5).
Olsen, Bob (1998). "MAI not a 'foreign'
threat." Internet
posting, Feb. 28.
O'Neil, Robert M. (1997). Free Speech
in the College
Community. Bloomington IN: Indiana
UP.
Stallone, S. and Price, T. (1997). "The
Neptune Jade Saga
Continues." The Dispatcher (ILWU)
55.10 (November): 1, 5.
Ellen Starbird (ellen_s@mindspring.com)
teaches in the Labor
Studies programs at Laney College in Oakland
and at San Francisco
State University. |
Compelling public interests, as we have
seen in this instance, may owe their ultimate success to the court of public
opinion. The Neptune Jade victories, both in court and in public
opinion, were won through concerted organization on campus and in the larger
Oakland community.
First we must not succumb to the rhetoric
of inevitability. The New World Order of unaccountable corporations
displaces democratic government only to the extent that we collectively
allow
it.
|
