Protesters in the “Occupy Wall Street” movement have begun a long-planned effort to blockade West Coast ports Monday.
Reports were trickling in that protests had begun actions in various ports, but it was not clear demonstrators would actually succeed at their goal of shutting ports down.
“All port shipping terminals are open as the Long Beach Police Department responds to demonstrations at the south gate at Pier J,” said the Port of Long Beach. Beginning at about 6 a.m. Monday, several hundred demonstrators marched from Harry Bridges Park near the Queen Mary, south to Pier J, near the public fishing area. It said as of 7 a.m., all freeways, bridges and other Port access routes are open and all shipping terminals remain operational.
The Port of Oakland said it had activated its emergency operations center (EOC) and has integrated its work with the city’s EOC.
“We are in close contact with our terminal operators, shipping companies, labor partners, and community. At this point, maritime operations continue at the Port with sporadic disruptions for truckers trying to enter and exit marine terminal gates. We will be providing updates throughout the day,” the port said.
“West Coast Port Shut Down specifically aims to disrupt business-as-usual for Wall Street on the Waterfront,” said a press release from Occupy Portland.
But it appears demonstrators will not get support from members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the primary union for dockworkers on the West Coast.
An ILWU memo to 15,000 members on November 22 said third-party calls for job actions have not been sanctioned by its officers or voted on by member representatives.
“The ILWU shares the Occupy Wall Street movement’s concerns about corporate abuses and the future of the middle class, but we must be clear that any actions organized by outside groups, including the proposed December 12 shutdown of various terminals on the West Coast, have not been vetted by our union’s democratically led process,” said Robert McEllrath, ILWU International President. “Only ILWU members or their elected representatives can authorize job actions on behalf of the union, and any decisions made by groups outside of the union’s democratic process do not hold water, regardless of the intent.
Occupy Portland specifically pointed to the stevedoring company Stevedore Services of America (SSA), which is partly owned by Goldman Sachs, saying “LA port truck drivers are in a labor struggle with SSA for what the drivers term a ‘sweatshop on wheels’.”
It also mentioned the EGT grain terminal in Longview, Washington terminal where the ILWU claims its workers should be employed. But McEllrath said “there is a real danger that forces outside of the ILWU will attempt to adopt our struggle as their own. Support is one thing, organization from outside groups attempting to co-opt our struggle in order to advance a broader agenda is quite another and one that is destructive to our democratic process and jeopardizes our over two year struggle in Longview.” – Chris Dupin
Occupy Wall Street on West Coast
