Enemies & Allies

Keynote address by ILWU President Steve Stallone (abridged)

Our International Conventions are traditionally a time when we review and assess where we have been and what we have done in the last three years. What were the challenges posed to us? Who were the adversaries we faced? How did we do? What were our successes and what can we learn from them to continue to make accomplishments? Where did we fall short and how can we do better?

The Republicans are stronger than before, having seized both houses of Congress in the 2002 elections. The political climate had gotten worse with the war on Iraq and heightened security concerns being used more and more to restrict workers' rights.

Right now the employers and the Republicans are cynically using the terrorist threat and the need for security to weaken the ILWU. They are working overtime to see that legitimate port security legislation is twisted to harass individual longshore workers, to diminish our power on the docks and to chip away at our jurisdiction, reducing the jobs that should be ours. As the new security measures are put in place, we must make sure the inspection and scrutiny doesn't focus on the American workers.

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Our successes in the longshore fight proved again was how invaluable our international union relations are. When docker unions around the world broadcast their support for us, the employers took notice. They had to worry where in the world they might get hit and how often.

The employers do their intelligence gathering and they know the respect and solidarity the ILWU gets around the world. Our work with the ITF, for seafarers and dockers, is well known, like our help with the Australian dockworkers just a few years ago. When Paddy Crumlin sent letters to our employers saying the MUA was standing behind us, they never doubted it for a moment.