SoCal Port Strike Costing $1 Billion Per Day As Union Clerks Turn Down $190,000 Offer

By: LaborUnionReport (Diary)  |  December 4th at 10:00 AM  | 

Among the nation’s shrinking union population, the unionized office workers at Southern California’s ports make more than most actors in the Screen Actors Guild. They make more than union construction workers, truck drivers, school teachers, cops, fire fighters, and just about any other unionized profession you can think of (with the possible exception of sports players). In fact, other than union bosses themselves, it can | Read More »

Obama’s Reaganesque Choice? Strike Breaker or Economy Killer

By: LaborUnionReport (Diary)  |  September 4th at 05:30 PM  | 

Less than a month from now, on September 30th, a union contract covering about 14,500 workers at 14 ports up and down the U.S. East Coast expires. The union, the International Longshoreman’s Association* (of On the Waterfront fame and one-third of whose members reportedly make more than $200,ooo annually) has already authorized a strike that would begin on October 1st.

ILWU to #OccupyPortland Operatives & Other Useful Idiots: Please, just leave.

By: LaborUnionReport (Diary)  |  December 13th at 06:00 PM  | 

There’s been a bit of “Thanks, but no thanks!” going on between the #OWS movement and unions (primarily, the ILWU) over the last couple of weeks. The issue has been whether or not the port shut down that took place on Monday would be helpful or hurtful to “the 99%.” In a December 6, open letter, ILWU Robert McEllrath wrote that “there is a real | Read More »

ILWU backpeddling from job-killing Occupy attack on West Coast?

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  December 10th at 09:30 AM  | 

Background (H/T: Instapundit) next Monday there is supposed to be an organized shutdown of the West Coast’s port facilities by the Occupy movement – if you’re wondering why the heck they’re going after port facilities, it’s because the Occupy movement has a lot of anti-globalization sorts in it these days, and those people hate free trade with a passion that normal people reserve for rapists | Read More »

Tensions Escalate in Washington Port Union Battle Over Jobs

By: LaborUnionReport (Diary)  |  July 20th at 12:00 PM  | 

To say that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union is a militant union would be something of an understatement. Following the deadly 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike (of which the ILWU still commemorates ‘Bloody Thursday‘), the longshoremen’s union (originally part of the International Longshoremen’s Association) has controlled the West Coast ports for nearly 80 years and its militancy continues to this day. In Washington state the ILWU | Read More »