Dockworkers

Athens Dockworkers Block Ammunition Shipment Bound For Israel

October 19, 2024 People's Dispatch. Resist! Blockade, Dockworkers, Greece, Israel, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Piraeus Port, Shipping industry

Workers at the Piraeus Port in Athens successfully blocked a shipment of ammunition bound for Israel in a late-night action on October 17. Following a call to action by the dockworkers’ union ENEDEP, port workers and activists mobilized to prevent a container of bullets, designated for the port of Haifa, from being loaded onto the ship Marla Bull, owned by Israeli company ZIM Integrated Shipping Services. In addition to ENEDEP, the action was supported by several workers’ organizations, including the Labor Center of Piraeus and unions of metalworkers and the shipbuilding industry. The workers declared they would not be complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza by allowing the container to sail, as its cargo would be used to kill more Palestinians.

Port Strike Is Suspended Until January After Days On Picket Lines

October 4, 2024 Ian Kayanja and Claire Weber, MSN. Resist! Dockworkers, Protests, South Carolina, Victory, Worker Rights and Jobs

Local International Longshoremen's Association workers claim the port strike is over, Kenneth Riley with Local 1422 said to News 4. Riley, the international vice president of the ILA and ILA Local 1422 member, claimed the dockworkers got the automation language and significant pay raises included in the contract. However, the deal is far from over. The union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, is to resume working immediately at least until January while contract negotiations continue. “Now that the parties have agreed to resume their roles in our supply chain success, South Carolina’s maritime community stands prepared to deliver for shippers, including manufacturers, farmers and retailers, who utilize our port facilities to access global markets," said South Carolina Port Authority Chief Executive Office Barbara Melvin.

Nearly 50,000 US Dockworkers Strike And Flex Collective Power

October 2, 2024 People's Dispatch. Resist! Boston, Dockworkers, Florida, Houston, International Longshoremen's Association’s (ILA), Maersk, Massachusetts, Miami, New York (NY), Strikes, Texas, Worker Rights and Jobs

At midnight on October 1, nearly 50,000 dockworkers across the US’s East Coast walked off the job, shutting down ports across the coastline across cities including Boston, New York, Miami, and Houston. This is the International Longshoremen’s Association’s (ILA) first strike since 1977. ILA dockworkers are a lynchpin of the US economy. Ports affected by the strike include the Port of New York and New Jersey, the nation’s third largest port in terms of the volume of cargo. “When my men hit the streets from Maine to Texas, every single port will lockdown,” said ILA President Harold Daggett. “Everything in the United States comes on a ship.”

A Port Strike Has Already Hit Canada As US Prepares For Walkouts

September 30, 2024 William Gavin, Yahoo News. Resist! Canada, Dockworkers, Ports, Strikes, Supply Chain, Unions

As the U.S. economy prepares for a potentially devastating strike across its East Coast ports, Canada is already dealing with its own. About 320 longshoreman represented by a local affiliated with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, began a 72-hour strike on Monday morning, freezing work at two terminals at the Port of Montreal. Those terminals, which are operated by Termont, represent about 40% of the containers that move through the port. The Port of Montreal impacts 37,774 jobs and contributes $2.7 billion to Canada’s economy every year, according to a 2023 study. It also provides more than 2,000 jobs to the U.S. and $145 million in economic benefits.

Don’t Like War? Then Don’t Work!

May 4, 2024 Peter Cole, In These Times. Strategize! Antiwar Movement, Dockworkers, May Day, Ports, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

May Day — a legal holiday for workers in most countries — was born in Chicago. On May 1, 1886, workers shut down America’s greatest industry city, and other cities too, to demand the 8-hour workday. In 1894, the U.S. Congress intentionally created a Labor Day at another time of the year, but some Americans continue celebrating the original, real Labor Day. On May 1, 2008, 10,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), one of the strongest and most militant unions in the United States, walked in those Chicagoans’ footsteps. They did so by walking off the docks at all 29 West Coast ports, completely shutting down America’s Pacific trading network.

Dockworkers To Refuse Canadian-Bound Cargo In Solidarity With Strike

July 12, 2023 Mike Schuler, gCaptain. Resist! Canada, Dockworkers, ILWU, Solidarity, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

Dockworkers on the U.S. West Coast will refuse to unload cargo destined for Canada in a display of solidarity with striking port workers in British Columbia. The move was announced by ILWU International president Willie Adams on Monday, stating “The ILWU will not be unloading Canadian bound cargo in solidarity with our Brothers and Sisters in ILWU Canada.” ILWU Canada and the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) have been unable to reach a new collective bargaining agreement covering some 7,400 longshore workers and foremen at Canada’s West Coast ports since the previous agreements expired on March 31, 2023.

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