Ports

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

April 18, 2025 Aseel Saleh, People's Dispatch. Resist! Dockworkers, Israel, Mask Off Maersk, Morocco, Ports, Unions, weapons

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

January 16, 2025 Katy Fox-Hodess and Rafeef Ziadah, Labor Notes. Resist! Dock Workers, Israel, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Ports, Victory, weapons, Worker Rights and Jobs

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

January 11, 2025 Joe DeManuelle-Hall, Labor Notes. Resist! Contract Negotiations, Ports, Unions, Worker Rights

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

December 21, 2024 Liam O'Toole, Labor Notes. Resist! Canada, Ports, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights

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

November 6, 2024 Lori Ann LaRocco, CNBC. Resist! Canada, Ports, Trade, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

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

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.

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

July 29, 2024 Adrienne Pine, Popular Resistance. Resist! Energy Blockade, Genocide, Israel, Palestine, Ports

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

July 19, 2024 Robert Inlakesh, MintPress News. Resist! Economic crisis, Israel, Naval Blockade, Palestine, Ports, Yemen

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

July 6, 2024 Workers.org. Resist! Direct Action, Israel, Italy, Palestine, Ports, weapons

[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 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.

Indian Port Workers Refuse To Handle Military Cargo Bound For Israel

February 19, 2024 Tanupriya Singh, People's Dispatch. Resist! Ceasefire, Elbit, Gaza, Genocide, India, Israel, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Ports, Unions

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.

Pro-Palestine Protesters Block Israeli Ship From Port Of Melbourne

January 23, 2024 Nadda Osman, Middle East Eye. Resist! Anti-War, Australia, Blockade, Israel, Melbourne, Palestine, Ports, Zim

Around 4,000 pro-Palestine protesters in Australia's Melbourne rallied on Saturday and Sunday for the 15th week in a row, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and blocking a major freight terminal. The protest came amid an ongoing blockade of an Israeli ship at the city dock. The blockade at the Port of Melbourne has been ongoing for over two days, starting on Friday, and has prevented an Israeli-owned ship from being unloaded. It resulted in four cargo ships being stranded along with 30,000 containers. Mohammed Helmy, one of the protest organisers, told Middle East Eye that the protest and blockade has been effective so far and is intended to pressure the government to take action on the atrocities unfolding in Gaza as a result of Israeli aggression.

Hundreds Protest Gaza War At Oakland Port

January 16, 2024 Staff, KTVU FOX 2. Resist! Anti-War, California, Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Ports

A large crowd of protesters who denounced Israel's military actions in Gaza were trying to shut down the Port of Oakland on Saturday morning. Hundreds of people blocked the entrance to the port, which they say is used to ship military equipment to Israel. The crowd gathered before dawn, trying to prevent port workers from getting to their jobs. "We need to stop U.S. aid to Israel," said Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center. "We absolutely will not allow our own port to be complicit in this genocide by allowing the transport of arms and military equipment to Israel." Protesters expect a ship carrying military technology to arrive at the port after delivering resources to Israel.

Australian Trade Unionists For Palestine Are Blocking Israeli Ships

November 30, 2023 Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network. Resist! Anti-War, Australia, Israel, Melbourne, Palestine, Ports, Sydney, weapons

Over the past month and a half, with each passing day, more Israeli bombs have fallen on Gaza. More bodies have been blown apart and buried under the rubble. Close to 2 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes. The world has borne witness to a genocidal military campaign to clear out Gaza once and for all. And every day, every hour, it feels like the chance to stop one of humanity’s most inhumane crimes is slipping through our fingers. And, even with this week’s temporary “humanitarian pause” and exchange of prisoners and hostages, the powers that be have shown no interest whatsoever in listening to the thundering calls for a permanent ceasefire that are coming from governments and mass demonstrations around the world, particularly the Biden administration here in the United States, the increasingly fascistic Netanyahu government in Israel, and the arms manufacturers and war profiteers who are raking in billions from manufacturing mass death.

Dockworkers And Labor Activists Can Block The Transport Of Arms To Israel

November 28, 2023 Peter Cole, Jacobin. Strategize! Anti-War, Block the Boat, Israel, Palestine, Ports, Wars and Militarism, weapons

As a humanitarian disaster ravages Gaza, activists around the world have taken a wide range of actions aimed at pressuring Israel, from mass marches and “die-ins” to blockades and sit-ins. Unions have also ramped up solidarity actions in a range of sectors. While the scale of these actions is unprecedented, they follow on the heels of years of organizing and education campaigns by rank-and-file labor activists. Among the most celebrated labor actions have been those launched by dockworkers in a number of countries — including the United States, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Italy, South Africa, Belgium, and Tunisia — who have refused to load Israeli ships and cargo and transport arms to Israel.

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