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by Scott Sunde, Seattle Post-Intelligencer SEATTLE, USA, 6 April 2000 -- If longshore workers refuse to unload PCB-laced waste onto Seattle's docks, their defiance would have plenty of precedents. Political activism has been as much a part of the job for West Coast longshore workers as hiring halls and container cranes. Harry Bridges, the San Francisco man who led the union for 40 years before he died in 1990, was renowned for his political stands. His activism was a reflection of the feelings of his rank and file. From scrap iron bound for Japan during the first days of World War II to toxic waste destined for Tacoma in 1999, longshore workers have frequently refused to load or unload cargo based on concerns other than wages and working hours. Last summer, longshore workers threatened to refuse to unload cargo from Taiwan. It included potentially hazardous waste and was supposed to be sent to an Idaho landfill. Environmental groups and the Environmental Protection Agency also objected. In the end, the cargo was left in Taiwan. "They have a long history of this kind of action," University of Washington Professor David Olson said yesterday. Olson has been one of the holders of the Harry Bridges chair, a labor studies professorship at the UW funded by active longshore workers and retirees. Among the more notable actions by the union, Olson said, have been: * Refusing to load scrap iron bound for Japan in 1936 after that nation invaded Manchuria. The union considered Japan a "proto-facist" regime, Olson said. Several years later, the U.S. government established a similar embargo against Japan. * Refusing to unload cargo from Chile after a military coup in that country in 1973 overthrew Salvador Allende, its Marxist president. * Refusing to unload coffee from El Salvador in 1989 to protest union busting on Central American coffee plantations. * Refusing to unload ships in 1997 and 1998 that the union believed were loaded by non-union, "scab" labor in foreign ports. * In addition, the union joined the effort to organize California farm workers in the 1960s by refusing to load California grapes. * Longshore workers also protested the system of racial apartheid in South Africa by not touching cargo from that nation, Olson said. Bridges' political stands caused his enemies to label him a "Red" and the U.S. government to try repeatedly to deport him to his native Australia. The government failed. FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Basel Action Network is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a `fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond `fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. More News |