Truckers Update for Tuesday

Everyone:

It is past 10:30 PM on June 28, 2004 as I write this. It is hard for me to give a complete and clear picture of what is happening with the truckers strike, because (as usual) there are no authoritative reports or sources of information. Even a web search reveals very little, except that truckers in several east coast and gulf coast ports went on strike, but results on the Pacific coast were mixed.

The two best sources for news (other than boss oriented trucking sites which are not that useful) are:

http://haywood.iww.org/pipermail/iu530-news/

and

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/truckersunite/

This morning at 6:00 AM, about twelve of us showed up in the port of Oakland at the APL gate near the Adeline Street bridge. It was obvious that none of the truckers that we spoke to or saw had heard anything about a strike for the week of June 28 - July 4. Most were sympathetic to calling another strike, and most agreed that they were disorganized and that unionizing was a good idea, but most did not trust the Teamsters.

One trucker described his working conditions and the working conditions of his fellow truckers, namely that what the truckers had been saying during the last port wildcat actions were true and that the situation was very cut-throat. Not only do these shipping firms undercut the truckers by contracting out to the lowest bidder, but truckers often cut each others' throats in order to get the low bid to the point were the losing bidders simply cannot bid any lower.

As for the idea of a strike, this trucker told us that it does no good to call for a strike if there isn't clear communication and organization. "You cannot even make love to your wife if you're not organized," he said.

Since it appeared that there were no actions taking place, most of the small group that showed up in solidarity with the truckers left after 7:00 AM. Those of us that stuck around observed truckers coming and going from the APL terminal gate.

An official from the Teamsters showed up around 7:00 AM with leaflets (in English, Spanish, and Punjab) saying "free the Oakland 3" (truckers Rubin Lopez, Delph Jean, and Irvinder Dhanda) and calling for the Port of Oakland to treat these workers with the same respect that unionized truckers and ILWU members get (forgetting of course, that the PMA was very disrespectful to the ILWU during the last round of contract negotiations, locking them out and even showing up to the negotiating table with armed guards at one point).

After a call to Ernie Navarez, one of the supporters of the truckers in Los Angeles, he was sure that the East Coast ports had been shut down completely (reports from around the internet seemed to confirm this, with shutdowns experienced in Charleston, Miami, New Orleans, and Atlanta, at least) and that Los Angeles was 95% shut down.

With that in mind, those of us who were left hastily made signs about the east coast and LA shutdown. Truckers stopped and asked us about the shutdown and said they would support the strike on Tuesday. Those who came to the port on Monday agreed to return again on Tuesday at 6 AM.

However, a message from Ernie that I received by 6 PM suggests that the port of LA was working again by 10 AM and that it was only 20% shut down.

So what do we do?

I cannot be in the port of Oakland at 6:00 on Tuesday, because I have to work, and I have personal errands that I must run afterwards that are going to keep me occupied all afternoon and evening unfortunately.

Others will be back again tomorrow. I suggest that anyone who can go to the of Oakland port to show up again tomorrow. Ernie said that he and his comrades would try to picket the port of Los Angeles again Tuesday.

It is very difficult to organize spontaneous strikes and wildcat actions. The conditions have to be right, the workers have to be in tune with each other, and the workers often have to have an enormous amount of good luck on their side.

It is clear to me that these truckers need a stable organization that they can build a coherent union, including a functioning communications structure around. The IWW is potentially their best choice, in my opinion, as described in detail here:

http://www.iww.org/unions/iu530/truckers/

But I don't think the revolution is going to happen tomorrow (I always hope it does, but I am experienced enough to know that wishful thinking is never enough to organize a better world). Those of us that stuck around and talked to truckers and handed out contact information seemed to agree that a slow, careful, ongoing process of organizing by helping these truckers build a stable network with each other is the way to go.

At the very least we need to help them publish and distribute a newsletter that they can use to communicate accurate information to each other.

In the Bay Area, a small group of us are willing to star6t this process. We encourage others who are interested to get in contact with the IWW at (415) 863-9627 or respond to this email message.

And if you can be in the port of Oakland tomorrow, show up, even if just to make contact with the truckers. But be safe and be alert. The situation is disorganized and chaotic to say the least.