Unions That Used to Strike

Click here to access article by Robert Brenner and Suzi Weissman from Jacobin. 

The ILWU, once known for its militancy and political radicalism, faces a choice between nurturing rank-and-file power and a slow, painful death.

As usual there has been a mainstream media blackout on the issues affecting a number of workers in the port cities of southern Washington and northern Oregon. I only learned of it by driving through Longview, Washington a few years ago and seeing a number of signs supporting workers that were in front of working class homes. At that time I did some followup of the story in local media of the immediate area and realized how serious these issues were for thousands of working people. And now I read this.

...the International has at no time sought to mobilize the grain handler rank-and-file — the only way to amass power to win gains — but has done what it could to squelch all independent initiatives from below.

It is another illustration of the diminishing power of unions to protect their workers. The writers conclude their article with this observation:

It is a mystery how the leadership believes it can continue on its present course of passively standing by as scabs do its members’ work and still prevent the PNGHA [Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association: four giant corporations] from permanently imposing the devastating concessions extracted by EGT [Export Grain Terminal, a giant multinational grain combine] in Longview throughout the Northwest grain export business.

Nor is it even clear at this point how the union can stop the PNGHA from...the total destruction of the ILWU’s jurisdiction in Pacific Northwest grain handling.