Lessons of the Neptune Jade

Both of the following pieces are courtesy of Waypoints, the newsletter of AMFA Local 9.

Lessons of the Neptune Jade

By Brian McKeever

I

have recently returned from a trip to England where labor representatives from around the world gathered to remember a loss—a loss of solidarity.

Five hundred Liverpool dockworkers lost their jobs to scabs in September 1995 while the established labor movement in England failed to support them until it was too late. Strikingly similar to the U.S. PATCO (Professional Air Traffic Controllers) strike in 1981, the dockworkers never returned to their jobs. Those who replaced them work to this day at dramatically reduced pay and benefits.

World-wide labor conference

Labor leaders from the United States, Canada, Spain, Portugal, England, Japan, Ireland, Italy, Australia and Denmark gathered in Liverpool to not only mark the anniversary of the strike but also to renew a commitment to never again let this happen. Labor leaders from around the world spoke and addressed the systematic destruction of peoples’ rights in their work place, homes, and lives.

The dockworkers’ slogan, “Dockers will never walk alone again” recognizes the failure of the labor community to support their strike

AMFA was invited as a guest of the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union). I addressed the gathering, spoke about the Northwest Airlines strike and solicited support from the delegates. We distributed literature, strike pins, and bumper stickers and gathered letters of support from union representatives.

NWA strike support lags

The Northwest Strike, now in its 40^th day, has been arduous and challenging—both in time and logistics. Despite this fact, more than 50% of the local NWA mechanics continue to picket without pay, back pay, vacation pay and an unemployment check.

We at UAL and our other represented members seem to lack the commitment to fight, a fight that is also rightly ours. We allow our brothers and sisters to suffer this indignity alone, save for a few of us.

There seems little risk on our part, so maybe there is little to gain.

But you would be wrong to believe this, as you will have this attack on your union brought to your family’s door in the not so distant future.

Workers at UAL and other carriers, who have joined NW mechanics on the picket line, understand the intense industry-wide campaign to destroy represented labor. Employees should know that the outcome of the Northwest strike will impact every worker in the industry, and beyond. There is too much at stake.

NWA and dockworkers strike similarity chilling

The similarity between the Liverpool dockworkers strike with the current Northwest Airlines strike is chilling. The leadership of the AFL-CIO, Teamsters, IAM, TWU, AFA, and ALPA has chosen not to support this strike. Corporate America and the federal government hoped for this division and while the rank-and-file members of these unions sympathize with the strike, their leaders do not. This is union busting, pure and simple.

Why? Forty percent of the airline industry in the United States is unionized, a strong-hold of labor. Corporate America and their political henchmen cannot tolerate this. How can we respond to this injustice? The answer is solidarity; solidarity among workers can change the world. We have strength in numbers, but our numbers are divided. Employers pit us against each other on many levels. Our lack of action in solidarity enables corporate America to destroy social values and the very fabric of our society.

Liverpool dockers lead the way

The people I met in Liverpool would only make you smile. They believe that an international work force bound by a common cause can stand up against any employer or corporation, no matter where in the world they claim their headquarters.

Corporate globalization, code-sharing, privatization of government agencies for profit, reduction of health care and pension destruction all undermine our way of life. Faced with this enormous challenge, we can take comfort that we are not alone in this attack on our jobs and families. Workers from all around the world are coming together to resolve serious problems and map out a strategy.

The story of the Liverpool Dockers strike provides an inspiring example of how solidarity by small groups, even widely separated by geography, can be very powerful force.

The Neptune Jade odyssey

In September 1997, two years into the strike, scabs in Liverpool loaded cargo onto a ship called the Neptune Jade. The ILWU in Oakland received communication that the Neptune Jade was headed to the port of Oakland. When the ship arrived in Oakland the ILWU set up a picket line. Workers refused to cross the picket line and the ship could not be unloaded. The port was shut down for four days.

After an unsuccessful attempt to secure a court order to stop the picketers, the ship owners sued the picketers. Undeterred, the picketers maintained the line. The ship owners then attempted to trick the picketers by giving the appearance of sailing the ship to the next port, but the picketers were not fooled, stood their ground and maintained the picket line. The ship eventually sailed to Vancouver, Canada only to find a picket line there too. No one crossed that picket line either.

After only a few hours the owners ordered the ship to Yokohama, Japan. Japanese dockworkers set up a picket line and prevented the cargo from landing on their docks. The ship moved on to Kobe, Japan only to be met once again by the resolve of the workers. It is not clear where the Neptune Jade finally unloaded, but you can bet it didn’t happen at an organized dock.

These workers adopted a new motto: “The world is our picket line”

The Mersey Company (the Liverpool dock employer that fired the union dockworkers) finally settled with the Liverpool 500 workers in 1998 after the company’s lawsuit against the workers failed. The settlement provided a severance package for a majority of the fired workers but allowed the scabs to continue in their jobs.

Lessons from Liverpool

The lessons learned by the Liverpool dockworkers are important for us to absorb. Those workers demonstrated the crucial importance of dependable alliances within the labor movement.

Their slogan, “Dockers will never walk alone again” recognizes the failure of the labor community to support their strike. They commit themselves to never again allow this to happen. This slogan recognizes that the heart of any effective labor movement must be a solid and strong trust forged between all members of all unions. To honor and join the picket line exhibits concrete proof of that trust. We either apply these lessons or face our corporate adversaries unprepared.

Brian McKeever, AMFA Local 9 Vice-President