From: Jobs with Justice (feedback@jwj.org)
Date: Tue Sep 03 2002 - 17:16:11 EDT
Last week in cities across the country, JwJ activists
turned out to leaflet at Payless Shoe Stores to send
a clear message:
We support the Dockworkers!
On August 28, activists turned out at Payless (and
some Gap and Home Depot) stores in Tacoma, Seattle,
Bellingham, Milwaukee, Washington DC, Portland, Salt
Lake City, Albequerque, Philadelphia, Detroit, Vermont,
Boston and St. Louis!! The following weekend allies
from Friends of Labor leafletted several stores in
the Bay Area.
We need to keep up the pressure!
The AFL-CIO is producing a short organizing kit for
more actions at Payless Stores. (We'll send it out
as soon as we have it, along with a sample press release
you can use locally!) Our goal over the next few weeks
is for local coalitions along with CLCs, State Federations
and other allies to hit Payless stores as often and
in many places as you can. Better even to have a few
people visit several stores with our message than one
event with large turnout.
Go to the JwJ website at http://www.jwj.org for a sample
flyer and more info. If you haven't already, visit
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/0711zRY1S1qj/ to send a
message to Payless CEO Steven J. Douglass.
Following is some background on the struggle and a
great action report and a press clip from Portland
JwJ!
--------------------------------
Report on Dockworker Support Action 8/28
by Chris Ferlazzo at Portland Jobs with Justice
A brief report about our small, quick, and powerful
action.
August 28 -- People started drifting over to the Jobs
with Justice crew in Portland's Pioneer Square right
at Noon today. After a few minutes, there were about
20 of us (more than 40 people participated overall--includiong
folks from AFSCME, Oregon Nurses Association, Alliance
for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment, Cross Border
Labor Organizing Coalition, and others). After a brief
orientation to the plan, we snuck into the mall in
small groups, and headed to the Gap store on the first
floor. When we reached critical mass, we busted out
with the leaflets, signs and chants. Security approached
us and informed us that we needed to go talk to the
manager about getting a permit to do this. We said--tell
them to come talk to us here. Meanwhile people are
chanting "Union Busting, That's Disgusting", and leafletting
all over the place. We handed out more than 300 flyers
describing the Gap's role in pushing Bush to bust the
ILWU. More security guards showed up whining about
private property and police on their way and stuff,
but we held strong. After we felt like we had made
our point, we gathered up and headed for the elevators,
chanting "We'll be back".
Then we headed over to Payless Shoes, two blocks away.
We leafletted and chanted there for another 20-30 minutes.
Finally the police showed up, but pretty much left
us alone.
Overall, we felt like this was a great action, and
we plan to organize more actions like it.
Background:
The ILWU longshore contract with the employer group,
the Pacific Maritime Authority (PMA), expired on July
1st. The large corporations who use the ports most
- including Wal Mart, Payless Shoes, Home Depot, Target,
The Gap and Best Buy - are pushing the federal government
to intervene militarily in negotiations. These corporations,
as well as the PMA, have formed the West Coast Waterfront
Coalition (WCWC) as a way to lobby policy makers and
recruit other retailers in an anti-worker/anti-union
campaign. The full list of WCWC members can be found
at http://www.portmod.org/membership/general.htm .
The PMA still hasn't made an acceptable proposal, so
the workers are without a contract. The employers have
no incentive to negotiate, because the Bush administration
has threatened to send in the military to take over
west coast docks and Longshore jobs to pre-empt any
action on the part of the ILWU. They claim that a strike
or slow-down would threaten national security. Bush
Cabinet members have also threatened to introduce legislation
to take away the Longshore workers' right to strike,
or to break up their industry-wide contract.
Here's the story from Page 1 of the Oregonian Business
Section:
Protest moves from the docks to area retailers
08/29/02
DYLAN RIVERA
A labor conflict previously limited to West Coast docks
spilled Wednesday into malls and retail shops primarily
from Los Angeles to Washington state. "We're here to
tell the Gap: Stay off the union's back," protesters
chanted at the Gap apparel store in downtown Portland's
Pioneer Place.
The approximately 25 protesters, joining activists
in several other states who rallied the same day, were
decrying the role of a shippers' coalition in ongoing
labor talks over the longshoremen who keep the West
Coast's ports running.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, representing
10,500 dock workers, and the Pacific Maritime Association,
representing shipping lines and terminal operators,
have negotiated off and on since before the union's
three-year contract ended July 1.
Union negotiators have complained that officials with
the Bush administration have threatened to replace
workers with military personnel if labor talks fail
and work stops.
The protesters said retailers are partly to blame for
the administration's pressure on the negotiations.
The target of their ire is the West Coast Waterfront
Coalition, a group formed in 2000 to represent importers
and other shippers who have billions of dollars worth
of goods crossing docks each year. The membership list
reads like a roster of the nation's top retailers,
including Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target Stores.
"The WCWC doesn't care who's running the docks -- scabs
or union workers -- as long as their ships run on time,"
said Chris Preucil, a volunteer with the Portland-based
Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment,
which helped organize the protest in Portland. "If
it came down to a strike or lockout, the WCWC, because
they're business interests, would lobby for some kind
of scab labor, and the president has said it could
be military."
Robin Lanier, the coalition's executive director, was
not available for comment Wednesday. But in recent
weeks, she has defended the group's right to voice
shippers' concerns to Congress and the administration.
The coalition has asked that both labor and management
negotiate a new contract as soon as possible, she said.
"Shippers are not happy about the prospect of a lockout;
we don't want a slowdown," Lanier said. "We're the
people whose ox gets gored."
Jack Suite, a spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Association,
called the union's clamor over the possibility of a
military role on the docks an "old chestnut" of union
rhetoric.
"The likelihood of that is extremely remote," Suite
said. "That's something the union has been grabbing
onto to divert attention from the real issues at the
table."
In all, hundreds of protesters on the West Coast and
in Montana and North Carolina on Wednesday chanted
and passed out leaflets at giant retailers such as
Home Depot.
In Portland, the protesters chanted and handed out
leaflets at Payless ShoeSource on Southwest Sixth Avenue
and Alder Street and at Pioneer Place's Gap store.
Both are members of the shippers' coalition.
Payless ShoeSource managers wouldn't comment on the
protest, and corporate officials could not be reached
for comment Wednesday.
Claudia Hawkins, a spokeswoman for San Francisco-based
Gap Inc., confirmed that the apparel-maker is a member
of the coalition but would not discuss the group's
work or the longshoreman negotiations in detail.
"We certainly do hope that an agreement is reached
amicably and quickly," Hawkins said.
Dylan Rivera: 503-221-8532; dylanrivera@news.oregonian.com
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