ILWU Local 10 Brothers-Assaulted by Cops on the Sacramento Docks
Sep 2 2007 13:32
Defend the ILWU Local 10 Brothers ---
Assaulted by Cops on the Sacramento Docks!
Emergency Executive Board Meeting Tuesday September 4!
On August 23, West Sacramento police and private security guards viciously attacked, maced and arrested two Local 10 brothers, Jason Ruffin #101168 and Aaron Harrison #101167, coming back to work on the SSA terminal after lunch. When the guards insisted on searching their car, the longshoremen questioned their authority to do so and called the Local 10 business agent. While one was talking on the phone to the BA and without provocation, they were assaulted, dragged from the car, handcuffed, jailed and charged with "trespassing" and "obstructing a police officer". How the hell can longshoremen be "trespassing", returning to work after lunch, having already shown their PMA ID cards to guards at the terminal. Was it racial profiling because the two longshoremen were black? Authorities citing a new maritime security regulation that permits vehicle inspection doesn’t mean maritime workers can’t question it. It doesn’t take away a union member’s right to call his union business agent, And it certainly doesn’t give authorities, private or government, the right to assault and arrest you without provocation. This is the ugly face of the "war on terror" on the docks. And it’ll get worse unless we come together and take action to defend these brothers. Their court date is set for October 4 at 8:30AM in Yolo County Superior Court; 213 Third St.; Woodland, CA.
An injury to two is an injury to all!
We, Executive Board and Local 10 members, called for an Emergency Executive Board meeting Tuesday September 4 to resolve this urgent matter.
Melvin McKay #9268 Trent Willis #9182
Lonnie Francis #9274 Lawrence Thibeaux #7541
Jahn Overstreet #9189 Jack Heyman #8780
Erick Wright #8946
AUG. 31, 2007
Sep 3 2007 22:44
#2
Heyman was arrested back in 03 for warning longshore workers pulling up to the gates at the Oakland docks that the cops were attacking a anti-war picket line nearby. I forget what the specific charges were and what eventually happened about them. He has a reputation as a stand-up brother.
Sep 5 2007 03:12
#3
Jack was charged with failure to comply with a police order and resisting arrest during the anti-war action. His (and everyone else's) charges were dismissed.
I can post updates on this most current case concerning the brothers in Sacramento if folks here are interested. Local 10 had an emergency e-board meeting today. Hopefully we will know more soon and I can pass on info on how non bay area supporters can help.
This is a clear example of how "homeland security" initiatives are infringing on our rights on the docks. Jack alludes to this in the above announcement, but soon all transport workers (sailors, longshoremen, truckers etc...) will be required apply for a Transport Worker ID card (developed by the Department of Homeland Security). This card will store bio-metric data and personal information and allow anyone with access to the data (the government, law enforcement, employers) to track where each and every worker is at all times.
Unfortunately most of the maritime unions are going along with this nonsense.
http://hr.blr.com/news.aspx?id=75156
http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/twic/index.shtm
Also, just as an update on the ILWU in general...the longshore division's master contract with PMA (Pacific Maritime Association) expires in July of 2008. They are due to go into early negotiations sometime near the beginning of next year. I'm sure you all remember the ILWU lockout in 2002 when Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley act in an attempt to break the ILWU. We will see how the early negotiations go, but, longshore workers will almost assuredly need allot of public support leading up to July 2008.
Here is an interesting article about how several large contracts are due to expire in 2008: http://www.iww.org/en/node/2911
I'll post more about the brothers in Sac. as soon as I get it.
Sep 5 2007 05:54
#4
gurley wrote:
This is a clear example of how "homeland security" initiatives are infringing on our rights on the docks. Jack alludes to this in the above announcement, but soon all transport workers (sailors, longshoremen, truckers etc...) will be required apply for a Transport Worker ID card (developed by the Department of Homeland Security). This card will store bio-metric data and personal information and allow anyone with access to the data (the government, law enforcement, employers) to track where each and every worker is at all times.
no shit?
Sep 5 2007 07:32
#5
Yep. They will be using "smart card" technology to track you as you move throughout your jobsite. For maritime workers this means all ships, vessels and docks where the company decides to place scanners. The unions are fighting to prohibit employers from using the TWIC card or system for other than the positive identification of port workers and visitors. They are trying to prevent employers from using the system to track workers for disciplinary purposes. But many of us understand that this is a slippery slope. As mentioned above, back in 2002, during the ILWU lockout the union's actions were deemed as a threat to national security and the Bush administration was prepared to send in federal troops to force longshoremen back to work. It only a matter of time before the TWIC will be used in cases of "national security" to track our actions, members and organizers.
Most of the people I work with are wary of the program but don't have a ton of information on it. And the unions are afraid to come across as soft on national security issues.
Sep 5 2007 11:48
#6
Quote:
ILWU Local 10 Brothers
jargon buster anyone?
solidarity.
Sep 5 2007 13:47
#7
International Longshore and Warehouse Union, left-leaning dockers union on the west coast of the US and Canada. Local 10 represents workers in the San Francisco bay area and is probably the most radical local.
Sep 22 2007 01:10
#8
I'm going to see if there is any way for out of town folks to show support. I'll post if I hear back from local 10.
For now just forward this newsletter to supporters and if your in the Bay Area try to make it out to this demonstration.
-Sam-
All Out to Defend the 2 Local 10 Brothers
Assaulted by Cops in the Port of Sacramento!
Maritime Worker Monitor
20 Sep 2007
download PDF http://www.labournet.net/docks2/0709/mwm9.pdf
Sacramento cops assault dockers returning to work
http://www.labournet.net/docks2/0709/sacram1.htm
Maritime Worker Monitor
a rank and file newsletter for maritime workers
Issue No. 9 -- September 19, 2007
Mobilize Workers to
Stop Police Attacks
and the "War on Terror"
All Out for ILWU Protest
Rally at Yolo County Superior Court
213 Third St.; Woodland, CA
Thursday October 4, 2007
BUSES LEAVE FROM LOCAL 10 @ 6AM ╴ Oct. 4
ILWU contingent marches in antiwar protest in San Francisco
On August 23, West Sacramento cops and private SSA security guards
viciously attacked, two Local 10 brothers returning to work after
lunch on the SSA terminal. When the guards demanded to search the car,
the brothers asked to see the MARSEC (maritime security) reg and
called the Local 10 business agent. This enraged the guards who called
the cops. While talking by phone to BA MacKay and without provocation,
they were assaulted, dragged from the car, maced and jailed, charged
with "trespassing". How the hell can a longshoreman be "trespassing",
after returning to work at the terminal. They'd already shown PMA ID
and a driver's license. This is racial profiling and police brutality.
The longshoremen were black and the cops white. Such is the brutal
face of the "war on terror" on the docks. It'll get worse unless we
take united action to defend these brothers. An injury to two is an
injury to all!
Local 10 has called for a protest rally at the Woodland courthouse to
defend these brothers. Ship Clerks' Local 34 and the Portland
longshore Local 8, are joining in the protest. We need to have all the
locals on the Coast participating as we did for the successful
campaign in the Neptune Jade protest for the Liverpool dockers in
front of the Oakland courthouse. So far the ILWU International has
remained silent on this critical struggle, just as we go into contract
negotiations.
Remember longshoremen going to work in Oakland got shot by cops
attacking antiwar protesters in front of SSA and APL terminals at the
start of the war? Now this Sacramento attack! Even in our own union,
the Grievance Committee had to deal with one new member with a
personal grudge who snitched on an upstanding Local 10 brother to ICE
(Immigration and Customs) agents simply because he was of Arab
descent. Isn't that "conduct unbecoming a union brother"?
DUMP THE TWIC CARD -- THE FEDS' BRANDING IRON!
On another front of the government's phony "war on terror",
longshoremen and ship clerks are angry and rightfully so about TWIC
cards being forced on us. To add insult to injury they want us to pay
for it.
Reminds you of the racist South African government's "pass cards"
forced on workers under apartheid. A police state uses "biometric"
cards and spy cameras keep tabs on you 24/7. That's government
repression. It's another outrageous example of how the war abroad
means a war on our rights here as portworkers. Brothers and sisters,
we've got to stand together. Like the preamble to Local 10's
Constitution says "organization of the working class and unity of
action" are "imperative and essential" to defend "the fundamental
rights of labor". That's why Local 10 initiated the call for the Oct.
20 Labor Conference to Stop the War.
Why are maritime bosses and their government so hot for TWIC? By
invoking "port security" in the "war on terror," the feds want to
bypass the union hiring hall. They want to say who can and can't work
on the waterfront. Intrusive background checks are made by Bush's
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to see who's been
arrested before. You can be deemed a threat to port security and
denied access to marine terminals for many different kinds of past
arrests and "offenses" that have nothing to do with terrorism. Back in
the day, longshoremen stopped work if a union brother was denied work
because of government screening (ILWU Dispatcher Jan. 4, 1952 front
page). They even set up a legal defense fund for victimized workers.
How many longshoremen have been unfairly deregistered or deported
because of background checks since 9/11? And what is our union doing
to defend them? That's what a union is supposed to do.
For anyone denied waterfront employment, the appeals process is
blatantly biased. Coast Guard brass, who often retire to big money
jobs with oil and shipping companies, pick the judges. The Coast
Guard's administrative court system is stacked against maritime
workers, as shown by the Baltimore Sun (June 24), one of the most
respected maritime newspapers in the U. S. The Sun's in-depth report
was based on federal court records, internal memos and the testimony
of a former U. S. Coast Guard (USCG) judge who testified that Chief
Judge Joseph Ingolia directed judges to rule against maritime workers
and "assure rulings favorable to the USCG." The Coast Guard admitted
that maritime workers won only 14 of 6, 300 charges since 1999. A
blind crane operator has a better chance of landing a box in the hold
of a ship than a longshoreman does of winning a TWIC appeal!
The TWIC "Background Check" and More
Longshore workers already have PMA identification cards, seamen have
the merchant mariners document and truckers have drivers' licenses. So
why all the hype about TWIC, Transportation Worker Identification
Credential, or is it Transport Workers In Chains? If you think that
the Sacramento and Oakland attacks were bad, it'll only get worse╴..
unless we organize against it.
TWIC is a loaded gun pointed at our heads, as Bush's Transportation
Security Administration (TSA) runs background checks to see who's been
busted before. So, who hasn't? The criminal "justice" system makes
sure most working-class youth, especially minorities go through the
wringer. A huge number end up in jail at some point. Of course,
law-breakers like Bush and Cheney never go to jail. Unveiling "Phase
III" of the TWIC program in 2004, the TSA boasted that "communications
technologies tied to the program will allow TSA to interface with
other federal, state and local agencies.". TWIC will carry electronic
snoop data of every kind. It's another step towards the national ID
card they've been dreaming about for so long.
A journal devoted to the big business of "homeland security" (HSToday)
brags: "The TWIC card will have all the data and biometric information
necessary to reliably verify the holder's identity." Biometric
identity data -- like race, skin color, eye color, fingerprints, what
else? Credit history, phone calls, favorite web sites. How about the
books you take out of the library, or movies you see? This is no joke:
Section 802 of the USA Patriot Act is aimed straight at labor,
redefining "terrorism" to include actions that "appear to be intended"
to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population or influence the policy
of a government by intimidation or coercion." Job actions or strikes
at contract time could be deemed illegal.
"What's Goin' On"
For the big business government and both its parties, this can mean
any picket line or protest. Marvin Gaye in his song "What's Goin' On"
said it years ago during the Vietnam War: "Picket lines, picket signs,
don't punish me with brutality." The PMA's Miniace shortly after 9/11
started blaring propaganda about how maritime employers and
longshoremen together are the "first line of defense." A year later,
during the 2002 ILWU longshore contract negotiations, Bush threatened
a military takeover of the ports if there were any job actions by
longshore workers on the docks. But, of course, when employers locked
us out and shut down every port on the West Coast, Bush didn't call
that a "threat to port security." Then, to make sure we understood the
"war on terror," at Democratic Senator Feinstein's request, he invoked
the slave labor Taft- Hartley law, forcing us back to work under the
employers' conditions. A few months later, the war started. Cops on
the Oakland docks shot longshoremen and antiwar protesters with
"non-lethal" weapons and then- Democratic Mayor, now-Attorney General
Jerry Brown backed them.
Both Democrat and Republican parties keep shredding the Bill of Rights
and the Constitution, while voting to fund the war. And they want us
to go along with it. No way. We, longshoremen have a proud tradition
of standing up for our rights and the rights of others.
We Have Power -- Let's Use It
Local 10 has said loud and clear that we don't want federal security
agents in our union hall to process TWIC cards. And we're not going to
pay for the snitch cards. Maritime workers didn't vote for electronic
shackles and we won't pay for them either!
Our Canadian ILWU longshore brothers and sisters have vehemently
protested the background checks. When longshore workers and seamen
came down to the front for work, we didn't have to show a squeaky
clean record to get a job. Like our Canadian brothers and sisters, the
ILWU has in the past protested government screening. Past president
Jimmy Herman chaired the Committee Against Waterfront Screening,
during the McCarthy period when the government was trying to ban
militant maritime workers from the ships and docks. ILWU successfully
defended President Harry Bridges against four attempts to deport him
for being a communist and we offered refuge to militants who were
purged from other maritime unions. Nowadays, ILWU officers go along
with TWIC waterfront screening, while union members are targeted.
Today, Bush and his criminal cronies look like rats jumping off a
sinking ship. Rumsfeld is thrown over the side. Rove quits under the
pressure of being ordered to testify in court for illegally firing
attorney generals. Attorney General Gonzales dumped in disgrace. But
the Democratic Party, having swept Congressional elections in a
mandate to end the war, keep the war going and eagerly support the
"war on terror". The real criminals -- the "oil emperors" who torture,
terrorize, bomb, lie, steal and violate rights supposedly guaranteed
in the constitution -- get richer by the day. Labor strikes against
war has been used effectively by workers in other countries and could
succeed here too.
The LA County Federation of Labor passed a motion for workplace
actions to stop the war. Longshore workers along with other workers
have the power to stop the the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and turn
the tide on the "war on terror". A bold workers' protest action here
in the Bay Area could have a rebellious ripple effect across the
country.
The Labor Conference to Stop the War called by Locals 10 and 34 will
be held on October 20 at our union hall to discuss how to organize
actions. Union activists from around the country and from South
Africa, Britain and Japan have been responding enthusiastically to
this call. Longshoremen have made history before and we can do it
again -- and we need to, before all our rights are taken away.
All Out for ILWU Protest Rally at Yolo County Superior Court
213 Third St.; Woodland, CA
Thursday October 4, 2007
BUSES LEAVE FROM LOCAL 10 @ 6AM -- Oct. 4
Sep 22 2007 01:45
#9
solid
Oct 4 2007 01:55
#10
I'll post a report on this after the protest tomorrow.
-Sam-
DEFEND OUR UNION BROTHERS AGAINST POLICE ASSAULTS IN PORT OF SACRAMENTO!
ALL HANDS ON DECK!
Buses will leave from the Local 10 parking lot at 6 AM for a rally at the Yolo County
Superior Court; 213 Third St.; Woodland, CA. "B" members will get stamps.
The employers and the government are using "port security" to harass, intimidate
and brutally attack longshoremen. That's what happened to Brothers Aaron
Harrison and Jason Ruffin at the SSAter- minal in Sacramento on August 23. And
it'll get worse unless we stop these attacks. We've got the power.
On October 4, Local 10 is organizing a rally at the Woodland courthouse (near
Sacramento). The District Attorney has already dropped the ridiculous charge of
"trespassing." We demand that the bogus charge of "resisting arrest" be dropped
also and that the port security video tape of the police attack be released. That's
how we won the case against the Oakland police department for shooting long-
shoremen and antiwar protesters at the start of the Iraq war.
Ten years ago, the port was shut down when we marched on the Oakland court-
house for the Liverpool do workers. We can do no less for our own brothers.
Brother Ken Riley, president of the Charleston longshore union, understands
the importance of this solidarity protest and is flying out to speak at the rally. It's
a historic union action, the first against the use of new maritime security laws
directed against maritime workers.
This is our Jena. - Be there!
- Melvin MacKay #9268, Erick Wright #8946, Jack Heyman#8780, Russ Miyashiro
(Local 34), Jahn Overstreet# 9189, Wendy Hadden(Local 34), Leo Robinson#6461
(ret.), Bill Ross(Local 34), Howard Keylor #20447 (ret.), Theron Dyble#9074, Anthony
Leviege#9576, Clarence Thomas#8718, Lawrence Thibeaux#7541
An Injury to One, Is an Injury to All!
Ken Riley, President of the Charleston
(S.C.) Longshore Union, will be a
featured speaker at the Oct. 4 Rally
All Out for ILWU Protest Rally at Yolo
County Superior Court, Woodland, CA
Thursday October 4, 2007
Thanks for the news David, sounds like those fellows have had a history of getting fucked 'round by the police. I think I remember hearing about some trouble that Jack Heyman guy got involved in but can't remember what it was or how it turned out?