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What the A’s stadium plan will do to Oakland’s port, its workers and the CA supply chain
Farless Dailey, ILWU Local 10 President in an opinion contribution in the SF Chronicle talks about the privatization of he port of Oakland and it's connection to charters and the privatization of the schools by the billionaire A's and GAP owner John Fisher. He also controls the KIPP and Rocketship charter school chain
What the A’s stadium plan will do to Oakland’s port, its workers and the California supply chain
Farless Dailey
ILWU Local 10 President
March 7, 2022
California ports are by far the busiest of any state, handling about 40% of all containerized cargo that enters the U.S. The Port of Oakland, the sixth-largest U.S. container port, handled nearly 1.1 million 20-foot equivalent unit import containers in 2021, the most in its 94-year history. It exported another million containers.
The Port of Oakland is the economic engine that drives Northern California, exporting produce from the Central Valley, wine from Napa and Sonoma valleys, and computers and other electronic devices from Silicon Valley. On the import side, it receives cargo from Asia, mainly China. It provides 84,000 jobs in its logistic chain. At the nexus point of this global trade are port longshore workers who load and discharge the ships 24/7 throughout even the deadliest phases of the pandemic.
Despite doing that onerous, and often dangerous work, a worldwide supply chain backup has occurred, in part due to increased demand for imports. The supply chain has never been tasked with moving more cargo than now. Container-handling equipment is in short supply. Workers are pushed to the limit, and higher costs and delays are plaguing the system. Distribution between the docks and inland warehouses is problematic because of the lack of truck drivers and chassis to cover an around-the-clock operation. Added to this conundrum is a critical lack of marine terminal container space to stack containers.
Untangling this logistical knot will be a challenge. And yet Oakland appears ready to stick a new obstacle in the way of keeping the Port of Oakland’s status as a world-class facility that provides good union jobs for Bay Area workers.
Why? Because Oakland A’s billionaire owner John Fisher wants to build a new ballpark in the port on 55 acres of land at Howard Terminal. Fisher’s ballpark and entertainment center scheme includes 1.5 million square feet of office space, 3,000 luxury condos, 400 hotel rooms and 270,000 square feet of retail space.
Port of Oakland longshore workers rally at City Hall last month against the proposed A’s stadium at Howard Terminal. Port workers are angry and the public should be, too. The port is already facing a shortfall in cargo space, and if Fisher has his way, our supply chain crisis will only be exacerbated.
Some supporters of the stadium plan have characterized the Howard Terminal location for Fisher’s development as a parking lot. It’s not. It’s actually a key staging ground for loaded containers and chassis as well as the site where dockworkers are trained on cargo-handling equipment. Mainly it’s used for in-transit cargo. There were 400,000 truck moves at Howard Terminal last year.
Of the 50 major U.S. ports, not one has a sports stadium in the middle of its bustling work zone. Yet, while we’re caught in the twin crises — supply chain backlog and the pandemic — Oakland’s Port Commission and its City Council keep moving closer to approving Fisher’s land grab.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, an attorney who used to work for the Port Commission’s public affairs office, is one of the main advocates for the billionaire Fisher’s plan. But her arguments don’t hold water. She’s among those disingenuously saying Howard Terminal is only a parking lot. She also argues that it will create good-paying union jobs, but fails to mention that these jobs will only exist while the stadium is being built. Then it reverts to lower paying jobs like parking lot attendants and peanut sellers.
Developer schemes that transfer public property into private hands should always be carefully scrutinized. Yet one wonders if the fox is guarding the chicken coop.
This port stadium plan isn’t Fisher’s first foray into privatization. He has been active in privatizing public education through his KIPP and Rocketship charter school chains. Many Oaklanders see these schemes at the port and schools as a move to further gentrify the city by removing jobs and public schools for poorer Black and brown residents.
Unfortunately, construction trades union bureaucrats are lining up with the billionaire Fisher and appear willing to sacrifice the port’s status as an economic engine in the process.
There’s another path for construction unions. They can create new jobs for their members by renovating the Coliseum in East Oakland where there’s a parcel of 155 acres — three times the size of Howard Terminal — to build a ballpark, homes to mitigate the housing crisis, and plenty of space for offices and retail shops.
In February, the port was idled as longshore workers and teachers rallied in front of City Hall to fight these privatization schemes. The teachers’ union is opposed to the closure of public schools and increase of charter schools.
The union fight against the A’s stadium is being led by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 10, of which I am president. ILWU has a proud record of organizing solidarity actions for other unions, like the teachers’ Oakland Education Association. At the port, a broad rainbow coalition of workers can defeat Fisher’s scam. It’s high time for all unions to implement labor’s slogan, “An injury to one is an injury to all!”
A stadium can be built almost anywhere, but a port can only be built on tidelands. Once Howard Terminal is lost, it can’t be replaced.
Farless Dailey is president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 10.
Oakland ILWU & OEA, Students & Community Rally To Stop Privatization & Union Busting From The Port To The Schools!
https://youtu.be/-s2iGYDfUAs
Hundreds of ILWU longshore workers, Oakland teachers and labor and community activists rallied on 2/17/22 at Oakland City Hall Oscar Grant Plaza to oppose the privatization on of the Port and sale to the GAP & A's billionaire owner John Fisher for a stadium and the closure of public schools in Oakland.
Speakers talked about how the sale would wreck the port and also the role of the Democratic Party in doing the bidding of the billionaires. The Oakland City council members are supporting the massive gentrification project and the destruction of the working port for luxury condos, hotels and a privately owned stadium. The president of the Alameda Building Trades Andreas Cluver who is also the president of the Port Commission has supported privatization of the port and is trying to pit ILWU longshore workers against Teamsters. He has also gotten the leadership of the Alameda to support this multi-billion property development that will harm the 80,000 maritime workers and the working class Black and Brown West Oakland community.
Teachers and students joined the rally and connected the attack on the port workers with the shutdown of public schools in West Oakland at the same time. John Fisher and his family also run the KIPP and Rocketship charter school chain and A's president Dave Kaval is on the board of directors of Rocketship.
Workers talked about their lives in Oakland and the importance of the public education system and union jobs on the waterfront that are both threatened by the Fisher and his supporters on the Oakland school board and Oakland City Council.
Speakers also talked about the need for a workers party as a political alternative to the capitalist policies of the Democrats in Oakland, California and nationally. California has a $45.7 billion surplus but does not have money to keep the schools open during a pandemic and also provide housing for the people of Oakland and the state.
The rally was initiated by
United Front Committee For A Labor Party
Additional media:
NO Public Money To A's Billionaire Owner John Fisher For Stadium In Port Of Oakland
https://youtu.be/7L3detM583c
No Public Money For GAP/A's Billionaire Owner John Fisher' Stadium! ILWU Members & Community Rally & Speak Out
https://youtu.be/dKnpBab1kd0
IT'S WAR! The Fight To Stop School Closures In Oakland As Hundreds Rally and March
https://youtu.be/dV0bjNSSUbE
Build The A’s Stadium In Pacific Heights! Labor Day Rally At Billionaire GAP A's John Fisher's Mansion
https://youtu.be/VRBqGMgKnHM
Fisher, STOP THE GREED! ILWU 10 & Community Activists Speak Out To Protest Port Theft Privatization
https://youtu.be/a_Mp_b1pF_A
No Excuses Schools: Bad Theory Created KIPP by Amateurs & Backed By SF Billionaire GAP A’s Fisher Family
https://tultican.com/2021/09/04/no-excuses-schools-bad-theory-created-by-amateurs/?fbclid=IwAR01W8anaIt5Go8vCfu-Fas7H6JOq7xmfeLLRoDAf1vEqDyFZaO7AjWeBDg
Oakland Port Privatization Scam By Billionaire John Fisher, Demos & Union Bureaucrats
https://youtu.be/1hu_s7A4Yc8
Who's Selling Whom? The A's Stadium, The Destruction of Howard Terminal In The Port Of Oakland & The Battle In Labor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sgYOaGbB7U&t=19s
"It's Insane!" ILWU Longshore Workers & Truckers Challenge Oakland A's Billionaire Owner John Fisher’s Land Grab Of Howard Terminal
https://youtu.be/5A8uZpqSX_M
Oakland City Council Left In Dark In Coliseum Buy-out By Fisher
Kaplan to A’s: Are you ‘double-timing’ us with Portland?
https://ebcitizen.com/2019/06/14/kaplan-to-as-are-you-double-timing-us-with-portland/
Maritime, Labor & The A's Stadium At The Port Of Oakland Press Conference 5/13/19
https://youtu.be/ouL39ISDzBE
Alameda Labor Council, AFL-CIO Backs Howard Terminal Ballpark for Oakland A's
https://www.mlb.com/press-release/alameda-labor-council-afl-cio-backs-howard-terminal-ballpark-for-oakland-a-s
Andreas Cluver
https://www.portofoakland.com/people/andreas-cluver-commissioner/
Maritime, Labor & The A's Stadium At The Port Of Oakland Press Conference
https://youtu.be/ouL39ISDzBE
United Front Committee For A Labor Party
http://www.ufclp.org
Labor Video Project
http://www.labormedia.net
Farless Dailey
ILWU Local 10 President
March 7, 2022
California ports are by far the busiest of any state, handling about 40% of all containerized cargo that enters the U.S. The Port of Oakland, the sixth-largest U.S. container port, handled nearly 1.1 million 20-foot equivalent unit import containers in 2021, the most in its 94-year history. It exported another million containers.
The Port of Oakland is the economic engine that drives Northern California, exporting produce from the Central Valley, wine from Napa and Sonoma valleys, and computers and other electronic devices from Silicon Valley. On the import side, it receives cargo from Asia, mainly China. It provides 84,000 jobs in its logistic chain. At the nexus point of this global trade are port longshore workers who load and discharge the ships 24/7 throughout even the deadliest phases of the pandemic.
Despite doing that onerous, and often dangerous work, a worldwide supply chain backup has occurred, in part due to increased demand for imports. The supply chain has never been tasked with moving more cargo than now. Container-handling equipment is in short supply. Workers are pushed to the limit, and higher costs and delays are plaguing the system. Distribution between the docks and inland warehouses is problematic because of the lack of truck drivers and chassis to cover an around-the-clock operation. Added to this conundrum is a critical lack of marine terminal container space to stack containers.
Untangling this logistical knot will be a challenge. And yet Oakland appears ready to stick a new obstacle in the way of keeping the Port of Oakland’s status as a world-class facility that provides good union jobs for Bay Area workers.
Why? Because Oakland A’s billionaire owner John Fisher wants to build a new ballpark in the port on 55 acres of land at Howard Terminal. Fisher’s ballpark and entertainment center scheme includes 1.5 million square feet of office space, 3,000 luxury condos, 400 hotel rooms and 270,000 square feet of retail space.
Port of Oakland longshore workers rally at City Hall last month against the proposed A’s stadium at Howard Terminal. Port workers are angry and the public should be, too. The port is already facing a shortfall in cargo space, and if Fisher has his way, our supply chain crisis will only be exacerbated.
Some supporters of the stadium plan have characterized the Howard Terminal location for Fisher’s development as a parking lot. It’s not. It’s actually a key staging ground for loaded containers and chassis as well as the site where dockworkers are trained on cargo-handling equipment. Mainly it’s used for in-transit cargo. There were 400,000 truck moves at Howard Terminal last year.
Of the 50 major U.S. ports, not one has a sports stadium in the middle of its bustling work zone. Yet, while we’re caught in the twin crises — supply chain backlog and the pandemic — Oakland’s Port Commission and its City Council keep moving closer to approving Fisher’s land grab.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, an attorney who used to work for the Port Commission’s public affairs office, is one of the main advocates for the billionaire Fisher’s plan. But her arguments don’t hold water. She’s among those disingenuously saying Howard Terminal is only a parking lot. She also argues that it will create good-paying union jobs, but fails to mention that these jobs will only exist while the stadium is being built. Then it reverts to lower paying jobs like parking lot attendants and peanut sellers.
Developer schemes that transfer public property into private hands should always be carefully scrutinized. Yet one wonders if the fox is guarding the chicken coop.
This port stadium plan isn’t Fisher’s first foray into privatization. He has been active in privatizing public education through his KIPP and Rocketship charter school chains. Many Oaklanders see these schemes at the port and schools as a move to further gentrify the city by removing jobs and public schools for poorer Black and brown residents.
Unfortunately, construction trades union bureaucrats are lining up with the billionaire Fisher and appear willing to sacrifice the port’s status as an economic engine in the process.
There’s another path for construction unions. They can create new jobs for their members by renovating the Coliseum in East Oakland where there’s a parcel of 155 acres — three times the size of Howard Terminal — to build a ballpark, homes to mitigate the housing crisis, and plenty of space for offices and retail shops.
In February, the port was idled as longshore workers and teachers rallied in front of City Hall to fight these privatization schemes. The teachers’ union is opposed to the closure of public schools and increase of charter schools.
The union fight against the A’s stadium is being led by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 10, of which I am president. ILWU has a proud record of organizing solidarity actions for other unions, like the teachers’ Oakland Education Association. At the port, a broad rainbow coalition of workers can defeat Fisher’s scam. It’s high time for all unions to implement labor’s slogan, “An injury to one is an injury to all!”
A stadium can be built almost anywhere, but a port can only be built on tidelands. Once Howard Terminal is lost, it can’t be replaced.
Farless Dailey is president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 10.
Oakland ILWU & OEA, Students & Community Rally To Stop Privatization & Union Busting From The Port To The Schools!
https://youtu.be/-s2iGYDfUAs
Hundreds of ILWU longshore workers, Oakland teachers and labor and community activists rallied on 2/17/22 at Oakland City Hall Oscar Grant Plaza to oppose the privatization on of the Port and sale to the GAP & A's billionaire owner John Fisher for a stadium and the closure of public schools in Oakland.
Speakers talked about how the sale would wreck the port and also the role of the Democratic Party in doing the bidding of the billionaires. The Oakland City council members are supporting the massive gentrification project and the destruction of the working port for luxury condos, hotels and a privately owned stadium. The president of the Alameda Building Trades Andreas Cluver who is also the president of the Port Commission has supported privatization of the port and is trying to pit ILWU longshore workers against Teamsters. He has also gotten the leadership of the Alameda to support this multi-billion property development that will harm the 80,000 maritime workers and the working class Black and Brown West Oakland community.
Teachers and students joined the rally and connected the attack on the port workers with the shutdown of public schools in West Oakland at the same time. John Fisher and his family also run the KIPP and Rocketship charter school chain and A's president Dave Kaval is on the board of directors of Rocketship.
Workers talked about their lives in Oakland and the importance of the public education system and union jobs on the waterfront that are both threatened by the Fisher and his supporters on the Oakland school board and Oakland City Council.
Speakers also talked about the need for a workers party as a political alternative to the capitalist policies of the Democrats in Oakland, California and nationally. California has a $45.7 billion surplus but does not have money to keep the schools open during a pandemic and also provide housing for the people of Oakland and the state.
The rally was initiated by
United Front Committee For A Labor Party
Additional media:
NO Public Money To A's Billionaire Owner John Fisher For Stadium In Port Of Oakland
https://youtu.be/7L3detM583c
No Public Money For GAP/A's Billionaire Owner John Fisher' Stadium! ILWU Members & Community Rally & Speak Out
https://youtu.be/dKnpBab1kd0
IT'S WAR! The Fight To Stop School Closures In Oakland As Hundreds Rally and March
https://youtu.be/dV0bjNSSUbE
Build The A’s Stadium In Pacific Heights! Labor Day Rally At Billionaire GAP A's John Fisher's Mansion
https://youtu.be/VRBqGMgKnHM
Fisher, STOP THE GREED! ILWU 10 & Community Activists Speak Out To Protest Port Theft Privatization
https://youtu.be/a_Mp_b1pF_A
No Excuses Schools: Bad Theory Created KIPP by Amateurs & Backed By SF Billionaire GAP A’s Fisher Family
https://tultican.com/2021/09/04/no-excuses-schools-bad-theory-created-by-amateurs/?fbclid=IwAR01W8anaIt5Go8vCfu-Fas7H6JOq7xmfeLLRoDAf1vEqDyFZaO7AjWeBDg
Oakland Port Privatization Scam By Billionaire John Fisher, Demos & Union Bureaucrats
https://youtu.be/1hu_s7A4Yc8
Who's Selling Whom? The A's Stadium, The Destruction of Howard Terminal In The Port Of Oakland & The Battle In Labor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sgYOaGbB7U&t=19s
"It's Insane!" ILWU Longshore Workers & Truckers Challenge Oakland A's Billionaire Owner John Fisher’s Land Grab Of Howard Terminal
https://youtu.be/5A8uZpqSX_M
Oakland City Council Left In Dark In Coliseum Buy-out By Fisher
Kaplan to A’s: Are you ‘double-timing’ us with Portland?
https://ebcitizen.com/2019/06/14/kaplan-to-as-are-you-double-timing-us-with-portland/
Maritime, Labor & The A's Stadium At The Port Of Oakland Press Conference 5/13/19
https://youtu.be/ouL39ISDzBE
Alameda Labor Council, AFL-CIO Backs Howard Terminal Ballpark for Oakland A's
https://www.mlb.com/press-release/alameda-labor-council-afl-cio-backs-howard-terminal-ballpark-for-oakland-a-s
Andreas Cluver
https://www.portofoakland.com/people/andreas-cluver-commissioner/
Maritime, Labor & The A's Stadium At The Port Of Oakland Press Conference
https://youtu.be/ouL39ISDzBE
United Front Committee For A Labor Party
http://www.ufclp.org
Labor Video Project
http://www.labormedia.net
For more information:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openfo...
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