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Dockerworker Strikes In Solidarity With Gaza Have A Long Legacy

In the weeks leading up to the latest ceasefire, protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza widened and deepened across the world. In early October, in some of the largest demonstrations in the two years since the war began, millions took to the streets in Amsterdam, Istanbul, Rome, Jakarta, Tokyo, London, Athens, Melbourne, Los Angeles, Paris, Chicago, Berlin, Stockholm and Santiago. The Global Sumud Flotilla, an attempt to break Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza, particularly captivated global attention. In September, roughly 500 people from 47 countries set sail from Barcelona on 50 vessels carrying humanitarian aid. Flotilla participants included humanitarian aid workers, clergy, elected officials, veterans, doctors, lawyers and artists — Greta Thunberg among them.

Workers In Europe Refuse Cargo To Israel

A growing number of logistics and transport workers, along with trade unions across Europe, are taking action against military shipments to Israel as it continues its genocide in the Gaza Strip. One of the most recent examples is the refusal by airport workers in Paris, primarily organized by the trade unions SUD Aérien and CGT Roissy, to deal with military cargo destined for Israel. “As workers in the aviation sector, we categorically refuse to participate, directly or indirectly, in logistical operations that could contribute to the crimes currently being committed in Gaza,” SUD Aérien stated. French workers have also called for similar blockades in other locations, expressing their solidarity with Palestinians.

European Dockworkers Refuse To Load Weapons Aimed At Palestine

On June 4, in response to the unfolding genocide in Gaza, France’s CGT dockworkers refused to load arms components bound for Israel at the country’s largest port in Fos-Marseille. Their action forced the ship to leave port without its deadly cargo. Across Europe, dockers carried on the fight. In Genoa, Italian dockworkers pledged to inspect the same vessel and block it if weapons were found. At the Italian ports of Salerno and Scilla, the ship sparked protests. Sophie Binet, the CGT’s national secretary-general, called on the French government to immediately halt arms deliveries to Israel.

In Uncertain Times, The Port Of Oakland Goes Electric

The Port of Oakland’s surrounding Black communities have fought for decades for their right to cleaner air. Now that dream is within reach. In October 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the port a $322 million grant to transition its cargo handling operations to zero emissions. Matched by the port and local partners, the total investment will be close to half a billion dollars, all flowing into green, sustainable energy. This effort will reduce the more than 69,000 tons of yearly greenhouse gas — the equivalent of burning more than 160 Statues of Liberty’s weight in coal — emitted by drayage trucks, cranes, forklifts, and tractors.

Moroccan Dockworkers Call Boycott Of Maersk’s Arms Shipment To Israel

Morocco’s Port Workers’ Union, affiliated with the Moroccan Labor Union, has called on workers, users, and operative companies at the port of Casablanca to boycott the Nexoe Maersk ship, which will arrive to the port on Friday, April 18, due to its planned shipment of military equipment to Israel between April 20 and 22. The union made the call in order to protest Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. The union urged dockworkers to abstain from unloading or servicing operations for the ship, warning that facilitating its passage would make all involved “direct accomplices in the genocidal war against the Palestinian people.”

Swedish Dockworkers Vote To Block Military Shipments For Israel

In a resounding display of international solidarity, members of the Swedish Dockworkers Union (SDU) voted by 68 percent in December to block the handling of military shipments to and from Israel. The Swedish government continues to trade arms with Israel. Exports are relatively small, totaling $4.5 million in 2023, but imports are much more significant: the Swedish defence forces have signed contracts to import more than $200 million in arms from Israel, including from two of Israel’s largest arms companies, Elbit and Rafael—both implicated in supplying weaponry used in Gaza.

Longshore Deal Secures New Automation Language

The International Longshoremen’s Association has settled its East and Gulf Coast contract shortly before a January 15 strike deadline. The deal locks in a 62 percent wage increase over six years and expands existing automation protections. Workers will also see larger “container royalty” payouts. The agreement will go first to a body of ILA delegates, and then members will vote. The full agreement is not yet public. ILA members won the big wage promise after striking for three days in October, shutting down container shipping on the East and Gulf Coasts in their first coastwide strike since 1977.

Montreal Port Workers Have One Last Chance To Reach A Deal

At the Port of Montréal, nearly 1,200 longshore workers have been ordered into binding arbitration by the Canadian government following a 10-day lockout. There’s still one final chance to reach a consensual agreement. The Syndicat des Débardeurs (Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 375) and the Maritime Employers Association have entered a 90-day period of mediation. During this period, they are to refrain from making any public statements. If the mediated negotiations fail, a new contract will be imposed by the federal government. Longshore workers at the port have been working without a contract since December 31, 2023. Their biggest concerns are scheduling, workplace rules, and forced overtime.

Strikes Shut Down Canada’s Container Ports From East To West Coast

Key ports on Canada’s West Coast, including its largest container port in Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert, were shut down by a labor strike on Monday. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship & Dock Foreman Local 514 began striking on Monday morning, stopping containers and cargo immediately. According to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, $800 million in trade flows through West Coast ports every day. Approximately 20% of U.S. trade arrives in the Canadian ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert, where strikes broke out after union leadership and industry representatives failed to reach a deal before a cooling-off period expired.

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

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.

No Harbour For Genocide: Activists Prepare For Arrival Of ‘Ship Of Death’

The Overseas Santorini, which is slated to reach the Strait of Gibraltar on Tuesday, July 30, is one of two tanker vessels that have shipped millions of barrels of military grade jet fuel from Valero Energy, through a U.S. government contract to Israel, from 2014 to the present. It departed from Valero’s Corpus Christi refinery in Texas on July 15, following its standard route for transporting JP-8 fuel from there to Israel’s port of Ashkelon, generally docking in Algeciras, Spain on the way there, and Limassol, Cyprus, on the way back, and sometimes calling at other Atlantic and Mediterranean ports. Independent researchers have been tracking these shipments, which have been leaving approximately every two months.

US Navy Falters; Yemen’s Blockade Bankrupts Israel’s Eilat Port

Despite the formation of a multinational naval coalition led by the United States, the Israeli-controlled Port of Eilat has reportedly gone bankrupt and is seeking a government bailout. The situation underscores the failure of U.S.-led efforts against Yemen’s Ansar Allah–known pejoratively as the Houthis–blockade in the Red Sea, enforced until Israel ends its war on Gaza. “It must be acknowledged that the port is in a state of bankruptcy,” said Gideon Golber, CEO of the Port of Eilat, who has been vocal about the port’s dire economic condition for months and is now appealing for financial support from the Israeli government.

Action At The Port Of Genoa Against Rearmament And Genocide

[There were] a paralyzed port, traffic jams, enormous damage and delays for shipowners and terminal operators — a day of struggle that points the way for class opposition to rearmament and a war economy.  On June 25, the port gates San Benigno, Albertazzi, Etiopia and Lungomare Canepa in Genoa — Italy’s most important port — were simultaneously blocked for almost 10 hours with endless queues of lorries. Meanwhile hundreds of other people headed towards Terminal Messina (de facto blocked by the anti-riot police trucks), completely paralyzing the already jammed traffic.  

Don’t Like War? Then Don’t Work!

​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.

Indian Port Workers Refuse To Handle Military Cargo Bound For Israel

The Water Transport Workers Federation of India, which represents 3,500 workers in 11 major ports across the country, has declared its refusal to load or unload any “weaponized cargoes” intended for use in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. This includes any cargo coming from Israel “or any other country which could handle military equipment and its allied cargo for war in Palestine”. “The recent attack of Israel on Gaza plunging thousands of Palestinians into immense suffering and loss. Women and children have been blown to pieces in the war. Parents were unable to recognize their children killed in bombings which were exploding everywhere,” the union said in a statement dated February 14.
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