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Indybay Feature

ILWU solidarity

by Todd C (ChretienTodd [at] aol.com)
mtg to build solidarity with Oakland dockers
An Injury to the ILWU is an Injury to ALL! (Please post widely)
Corporate Greed v. Dock Workers
Which Side Are YOU On?

Come to a Public Meeting about the showdown on the Oakland Docks
Speakers Include:
Jack Heyman, Business Agent, ILWU Local 10*
Sue Sanldlin, Charleston 5 Defense Cmte.* & International Socialist Organization

Saturday, July 27
2pm at the Oakland YWCA
at the corner of 14th St. and Webster St. (three blocks from 12th Street BART)

Contract negotiations continue this week between 10,500 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the greedy port bosses who control the $260 BILLION worth of goods that flow through West Coast ports every year.
Now the bosses want to layoff 10% to 20% of the workers to get even richer!
They are getting a helping hand from the Bush Administration, which claims that the workers fighting for their rights are a threat to "Homeland Security."
As unemployment rises and the stock market falls, the poor and workers are really suffering while the criminal CEO's get a slap on the wrist and golden parachutes.
A victory for the dock workers will be a victory for defending good, high paying union jobs for Bay Area workers of all races.
On the other side, if the bosses can force the best organized, most mulit-racial & most progressive union in the country to take major concessions, it will signal open season on the rest of the labor movement and the working class and poor people in general.

Come to a Public Meeting about the showdown on the Oakland Docks
Speakers Include:
Jack Heyman, Business Agent, ILWU Local 10*
Sue Sanldlin, Charleston 5 Defense Cmte.* & International Socialist Organization
Saturday, July 27
2pm in at the Oakland YWCA
at the corner of 14th St. and Webster St. (three blocks from 12th Street BART)

Sponsored by the International Socialist Organization, publisher of Socialist Worker newspaper, http://www.socialistworker.org 510-333-4604 for more info. - labor donated - *for identification purposes only
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by Wolverine
The dock workers are very highly paid, and this entire industry is extremely environmentally and socially destructive. Remember Seattle? International trade is bad, period! Goods should be made, bought, and sold locally, so that locals benefit from the work and the environment does not have to suffer from the hideous monstrosities (cargo ships) that pollute the air and water, make so much noise the whales can't hear each other, and cause massive environmental destruction due to the dredging they require. The longshoremen should find less environmentally destructive work to do. Ever hear of "right livelihood"? It's far more important than how much one earns.
by Rightist
This sounds fishy!
Why is this a Socialist movement?
This isn't a Socialist country.
Socialists are a mere pittence of a minority in this country.
Why are all corporate CEO's described as Greedy?
Are you all bigots ?
If your a socialist, what do think about the Right To Fail in personal enterprise?
by aaron (aarons [at] usermail.com)
'Remember Seattle?' Yes! And one of the things I remember about Seattle was the participation of large numbers of ILWU members, many of whom broke from the bureaucratically-controlled labor march to stand with the young activists in the streets!

As for greed: a high-seniority longshoreman who works a lot of overtime will make over $100,000 per year before taxes. A CEO of one of the big shipping companies may make 1,000 times that, and won't pay as high a percentage in taxes as the worker! If the ILWU is broken, or sufficiently tamed, the CEOs will make more and the workers will make a lot less.
by ken morgan
See the above by "Wolverine". If you've ever wondered why so many working class people detest eco-freaks, now you know
by Adam
It is great that some working people have won decent wages under this miserable capitalist system! It plays into the bosses' plan to prattle on about the supposedly "high pay" some portworkers make.

They are still exploited economically and the bosses make the real cash. It is them, not the workers, who decide to import goods based on profit motive only.

When we have a socialist revolution and put workers in charge of the economy we'll probably all decide not promote seemingly "mindless" consumerism.

Then and only then will social concerns be securing and permantently addressed. To believe for a moment that the rotten capitalist system can be reformed for the sake of environmental objectives is to yearn for the impossible.


Adam

by Arakaki (aarakaki [at] hotmail.com)
I HATE Unions! Especially those GREEDY ILWU workers... THEY ARE PAID TOO MUCH driving up the cost of shipping!
by Al
The fact that a CEO makes "a thousand times" what a dock worker makes is IRRELEVENT, so please stop using that arguement to gain the sympathy from other shallow-minded people. Everybody in a company has his own responsibilities, and makes a certain salary that is related several factors: the amount of work done, the quality of work done, the degree of specialization of the work, the availability of other people qualified to do the work, etc. This is why heart surgeons make more than janitors. It so happens that a CEO's position is an extrememly specialized one, which requires an advanced degree and long hours, that none of you dock workers could perform. You must realize that without a qualified CEO to run the company, your company goes out of business, and you dock workers have NO JOBS at all!! I'm not saying that CEO's aren't greedy; I suspect they will take as much as they can get away with. But they have a perfect right to do this!!! And if the workers think the salary is too low, then they have a perfect right to quit and find a new job. That's how economics works!!!! The dock workers are so greedy, they think they should be able to demand raises by the simple fact that the CEO makes a lot of money. IT's nonsense!!
by ...........
CEO's make way too much, out of all proportion to their value. Get over it, Al. Quit justifying it with all these intellectual weaklings' rationalizations. Thugs are bad, nnnnnnkay?
by hehe
" It so happens that a CEO's position is an extremely specialized one, which requires an advanced degree and long hours, that none of you dock workers could perform"

I’ve worked at plenty of corporate HQs and that statement just cracks me up. CEOs don’t require any advanced degrees since they are figureheads. Their main jobs at most large firms seem to be to wander around saying folksy statements and maybe occasionally present Powerpoint presentations to other CEOs. Most don’t work long hours and seem to see making deals on golf courses as work. CEOs don’t even develop the strategy or vision for companies anymore since usually that’s done by a strategy department or outside consultants who are not paid nearly as much. The main job of a CEO is to look Presidential and not steal much money. CIOs, CTOs, COOs and CFOs (and all the other C level positions corporations have invented to waste money) don’t seem to do much work either since they also manage the people really making decisions who work for them. People in C level positions may have degrees but their jobs really don’t require much knowledge or skill since that is usually assigned to various underlings.

CEOs get paid alot for the same reason actors get paid alot, but now that scandals have started to destroy the PR image of the CEO, companies will start to realize that they are mainly a waste of money.
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