by Partisan staff; this article was originally published in Partisan issue no. 23, printed April 2007.
In honor of International Workers Day, work at West Coast ports will be shut down on May Day 2007 by workers in Local 10 and Local 19 of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union. These are the workers who load and unload containers and other cargo while ships are in port. The action is in solidarity with national May Day actions for immigrant and workers rights.
This solidarity action will shut down the ports of Oakland, San Francisco, Richmond, Benicia, and Redwood City in California, as well as Seattle and other ports in the Northwest. Preliminary reports from other areas indicate that many other West Coast ports will be affected as well.
The renowned ILWU Local 10 Drill Team will perform at local May Day protests to support the demonstrators.
Bay Area Update
Unfortunately, the shutdown of the San Francisco Bay Area ports of Oakland, San Francisco, Richmond, Benicia, and Redwood City did not happen. The Executive Board of ILWU Local 10 passed a resolution instructing the Local President to call a "stop work" meeting on May Day, but the Local's President refused to call the meeting. Thus, the ports operated more or less as usual on May 1st, and the Local 10 Drill Team did not perform at the protests.