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Source: AFL-CIO
Source: AFL-CIO
Source: Working In These Times
Source: ITF
Members of the ITF-affiliated International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 18 sprang into action when they learned that the ship lacked sufficient food provisions and that the crew members were desperately hungry. They raised US$800 to purchase groceries, which they delivered to the crew.
The predominantly Chinese-speaking crew also reported that their pay had been withheld; they had resorted to eating seaweed to avoid starvation.
Ray Familiathe, ILWU vice president, said: “The deplorable conditions on board the MV Sider Pink along with the seafarers’ cry for assistance allowed ILWU dockers to show their commitment to the ITF’s flags of convenience campaign. Seafarers arriving in US west coast ports can be assured that dockworkers are ready to provide solidarity assistance when ship owners don’t treat seafarers fairly.”
More at Maritime Executive
Excerpts from the Portland Business Journal:
Last Monday, the grain shippers presented what its calling its “last, best and final offer to the union,” said spokesman Pat McCormick. That offer expires at midnight Wednesday.
“The ILWU has bargained in good faith and offered several proposals designed to meet the employers’ needs,” Leal Sundet of the ILWU Coast Longshore Division said in the union’s statement. “We want to keep the grain moving as we have done nonstop since the 1930’s. It’s unfortunate that the multinational corporations that are profiting at our ports have failed to accept the workers’ reasonable proposals to reach a fair agreement.”
The ILWU’s membership hasn’t proposed a strike vote, though it remains possible that the impasse could result in a lockout of workers by terminal management.
McCormick on Monday said the grain shippers “have not speculated about what happens in the absence of an agreement.”
More in the Portland Business Journal
Source: Daily Kos
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