West Coast Longshoremen and shippers reach tentative 6 year agreement, full coverage continues with pact

Haven't written much about this, but I'm glad a tentative agreement has been reached

From Google News

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Labor Notes

West Coast dockworkers reach tentative 6-year deal with shippers International Herald Tribune, France - 16 hours ago The International Longshore and Warehouse Union announced a six-year agreement Monday after lengthy weekend negotiations with Pacific Maritime Association. ... Tentative Agreement Reached Covering 25000 Workers at 29 West ... FOXBusiness Union, shippers reach accord on contract San Francisco Chronicle Dockworkers Reach Tentative Deal Wall Street Journal Reuters - Los Angeles Business Journal (subscription) all 272 news articles »

West Coast dockworkers reach deal with shippers The Associated Press - 8 hours ago The union previously reached an agreement with shippers on a health care plan expected to cost about $500 million this year. The union had sought to retain ...

Wall Street Journal

US West Coast dockworkers talks go past deadline Reuters UK, UK - Jul 1, 2008 A six-year contract covering dockworkers up and down the West Coast expired at 5 pm (0000 GMT) on Tuesday but representatives for employers and for the ... Ports labor talks still amicable Long Beach Press-Telegram West Coast shippers, union still bargaining Philadelphia Inquirer Clock ticks down on US West Coast dockworkers contract Reuters UK all 129 news articles »

Here's an article that explains more, from Patrick Burnson, the Executive Editor of Logistics Managment, "Ocean cargo: ILWU and PMA reach tentative agreement on contract" (7/29/08):

SAN FRANCISCO—Following what has been described as “marathon weekend bargaining session,” leaders from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) announced a preliminary agreement on terms for a new six year contract covering more than 25,000 dockworkers at 29 West Coast ports. The leaders shook hands in San Francisco over the proposed agreement late yesterday.

Shippers, who had been hoping that a contract would be signed before the last one expired on July 1, welcomed the news nonetheless.

“We are just happy that this (bargaining session) is through,” said Joel Anderson, president of the International Warehouse and Logistics Association (IWLA).“Now we can get back to the business of moving freight.”

The agreement is subject to ratification by the ILWU and PMA membership. The ILWU and PMA have agreed to extend the previous agreement and resume normal port operations.

ILWU president Bob McEllrath and PMA president Jim McKenna said the proposed agreement meets the needs of both workers and the industry. It allows West Coast ports to be competitive and provides the good jobs that workers and communities need.

The parties have agreed not to discuss details of the agreement until the ILWU a nd PMA leadership teams have communicated with their respective membership.

The West Coast longshoremen are the highest-paid blue-collar workers in America. Average full-time wages for fully registered workers exceed $136,000. ILWU members also enjoy fully employer-paid health benefits, with no premiums or deductibles and 100 percent coverage for standard medical benefits. Based on a tentative agreement, those fully-paid benefits would continue.

At the same time, the PMA has reminded shippers that West Coast ports generate almost $1.3 trillion in domestic business impacts – representing 11 percent of total U.S. gross domestic product – and support more than 8 million direct and indirect U.S. jobs.

Hope it works out OK for all parties.

Building Bridges Radio: Colombian May Day brutality and West Coast dock shutdown

Colombian May Day Brutality and West Coast Docker workers shut down the ports

*Click above to listen to story

West Coast Ports

Tens of thousands of docks, members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union shut down the west coast ports in a protest against the war. While an arbitrators decision prevented the ILWU from officially sponsoring the strike, its members turned out en masse. The stand-down at ports including Los Angeles and Long Beach, which handle 40% of the imported goods arriving in the United States each year idled ships and halted movement of about 10,000 containers during the eight-hour stoppage.

Colombian Workers Brutalized at May Day Protests

The Bush Administration continues to push through a new free trade agreement with Colombia despite its history of assassinations and repression of trade unionists. The Colombian government claims its fighting that violence, which it says is perpetuated by paramilitary organizations. However, when Building Bridges reporters called Colombia on May 1, 2008 to speak with Javier Correa, Pres. of the Sinaltrainal union we learned that more than one hundred workers at their May Day demonstrations had been arrested, many were beaten and some had been disappeared .

See the full description of the stories and learn more about Building Bridges Radio at UnionReview or at the Building Bridges website

Building Bridges is regularly broadcast live over WBAI, 99.5 FM in the N.Y.C Metropolitan area on Mondays from 7-8pm EST and is streamed, archived and pod cast at www.wbai.org, it is also broadcast nationally in many locations. For more information contact Ken Nash - knash@igc.org

May 1st., 2003, mission accomplished, 5 years later West Coast dockworkers strike against war

Follow up to: West coast Longshoreman to strike against war as Iraq conflict costs hit 1/2 a trillion and more news you may have missed (3/08/08)

Five years ago this day, President Bush all dressed up for a party in his flight suit, landed in a jet onto the deck of an aircraft carrier, he then spoke before this very nation and the entire world under a banner that read "Mission Accomplished".

Today, 100% of people with a brain know that just isn't the case. on the west Coast the ILWU has struck the docks and paralyzed the coast, against arbitrator demands that they go to work. These fine men and women have had enough and proceeded with The West Coast dockworkers strike against the war.

the IRAQ WAR

500 Billion plus US dollars

4,000 plus Americans dead

Mission Accomplished, My ASS!

From ABC News

And for those who think it's quieted down, insurgents today dramatically reminded us that it is a long way from over. At least 35 people were killed, 76 wounded in a double suicide bombing north of Baghdad. It was a brutal assault - the first bomber, a woman, blew herself up in a crowded market in a Shiite town. Then, as security forces began dealing with the carnage, a second bomber blew himself up.

From LAList

All West Coast Ports Closed for May Day Strike

Security personnel place warning cones in front of the closed gates at the entrance to the Port of Los Angeles. West Coast cargo traffic has come to a halt as port workers stage anti-war protests to commemorate May Day. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

In the name of ending the war, all 29 ports along the West Coast, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, have halted operations for one shift. "We are supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it's time to end the war in Iraq," dockworkers' union president Bob McEllrath said in a press release.

Two years ago today, a similar protest happened when thousands of truck drivers stayed away to participate in "Day Without Immigrants." This year, the truckers are being turned away from the gates of ports until they can return later this evening when the 6:00 p.m. shift begins.

Today also "serves as a reminder of the 2002 dispute between the maritime association and the dockworkers that paralyzed West Coast ports for 10 days," noted the LA Times.

West coast Longshoreman to strike against war as Iraq conflict costs hit 1/2 a trillion and more news you may have missed

FIVE HUNDRED BILLION US DOLLARS!

In the week that the Iraq conflict's cost has reached $500,000,000,000, thats 500 Billion US dollars, the west coast Longshoreman Union has sent a letter to the AFL-CIO , which according to WIN Radio, President John Sweeney announc(ed) that West Coast port workers would be walking off the job on May 1 to demand a withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The letter from ILWU President Robert McEllrath says that during a two-week caucus members adopted a resolution that calls for “longshore workers to stop work during the day shift, on May 1, 2008, to express their opposition to the war in Iraq.”, he further inquired, if other AFL-CIO affiliates would be participating in similar events on May 1, also known worldwide as International Workers’ Day, to “honor labor history and express support for the troops by bringing them home safely.” The letter was sent on February 22.

US Labor Against War


More information on Labor unions against war can be found at the US Labor against War website, a list of their affiliate unions and organizations can be found here.

Cost of War


click here to learn more

By clicking the link above you can view a website which compares what the cost of the Iraq conflict could have been used towards and further breakdowns by area state, etc., Brooklyn is only $4.3 billion into costs for Iraq, guess that isn't too bad.

The Profiteers

While there are quite a few profiters of this conflict, none could be more brazen than our own Vice-President Dick Cheney, who after Desert Storm, the Kuwait conflict, The Gulf War of the 90's expressed his concerns in 1994 about Iraq, stating that it would be a quagmire, he also states that it was not a good idea to invade Iraq and "how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? And our judgment was not very many and I think we got it right."

Let's Go To The Videotape

Cheney is also the former CEO of Halliburton, who has gotten a large proportion of no-bid contracts in the Iraq conflict. As a matter of fact, when served with a lawsuit about his ties, the Bush-Cheney white house made history, as the first administration to refuse a process server and furthermore threatened to arrest the process server if he dropped off the lawsuit. This of course is a crime and would be grounds for impeachment in its own rights.

• White House Refuses to Allow Complaint to be Lawfully Served On Vice President Cheney

According to an affidavit of due diligence filed in the case, the process server attempted to serve the complaint on the Vice President at The White House and was told by a security officer that he would not accept the “papers” for the Vice President. According to the process server’s sworn statement, the security officer said that “if I dropped them [the federal court summons and complaint], he would arrest me.” The attempted service was made on July 22, 2002.

No lawyer for Vice President Cheney has contacted Judicial Watch to accept service on the Vice President’s behalf.

“We have served many a lawsuit on Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Hillary Clinton when they were in The White House. The Clinton White House accepted the papers. Never before have our process servers been threatened with arrest. If this Bush-Cheney White House is serious about corporate corruption and responsibility, it would not allow the Vice President to improperly hide behind White House security to evade service of process in the Halliburton securities fraud litigation, and it would not threaten the process server with arrest,” stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.

From President to Dictator at his own Discretion? You make the call

But theres a whole lot of things that have changed since 1994, job security, the right to get a fairs days wage for an honest days work, good American job.

Nothing could ever compare with the biggest news story you never read, On May 9th of 2007, the "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive" was signed by our beloved president. In this little not reported by the Main Stream Media document are the rights for Mr.Bush or any president thereafter to assail to the rank of Dictator under any "Catastrophic Emergency". The term Catastrophic Emergency is at the Presidents discretion and is loosely defined as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.". At the point in which said emergency occurs the President, according to Prison Planet, can take total control over the government and the country, bypassing all other levels of government at the state, federal, local, territorial and tribal levels, and thus ensuring total unprecedented dictatorial power. According to acclaimed author Jerome Corsi the new rule takes no account the previous way in which emergencies were dealt, stating "its language appears to negate any requirement that the president submit to Congress a determination that a national emergency exists.", that means that in the event of such a "Catastrophic Emergency" the appropriate authority of all Constitutional Government will end and will have to answer solely to the President.

Now, theres a news headline you didn't see, while I myself don't exactly know which way to interpret it, it would have been nice if it had been reported on in depth by the Main Stream Media.

BillyBob on YouTube gives his thoughts