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Union Plans to Close Ports To Protest Iraq War

09:59 H | Topics: Activism - Iraq War - Labor - San Francisco

May Day has it's roots in the labor movement so it is fitting that labor activists on the West Coast are flexing their muscle today to make a statement about the Iraq War.

On May 1, all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast are to be shut down by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in protest against the U.S. war on Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bay Area ILWU local was the first American union to condemn the war. In April 2003, as invading U.S. troops reached Baghdad, six longshoremen were injured and a union official was arrested as police fired on hundreds of antiwar protesters in the port of Oakland. The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) notified the union on April 3 that it “doesn’t consent to a stop-work meeting or any other effort to disrupt port operations.” Subsequently the PMA threatened union leaders with court action under Taft-Hartley if they don’t call it all off. Supporters of the ILWU will meet in San Francisco at Mason and Beach (in Fishersmans' Wharf) at 10:30 am on May Day. There will then be a march to a 12 noon rally in Justin Herman Plaza.

Via / IMC

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