Shelving Workers' Rights in the War on Terror

Author: Cori Loew

In the early morning hours of July 28, a miracle occurred as rescuers pulled the "Quecreek Nine"— coal miners trapped in a flooded shaft 240 feet underground — to safety after their 77-hour ordeal.
Addressing the miners, their families and the rescue workers the following week, President Bush praised their teamwork and patriotism as an example for others in a time of crisis. "I believe that what took place here in Pennsylvania really represents the best of our country, what I call the spirit of America, the great strength of our nation," Bush proclaimed. Ironically, this comes from a president whose current policy and practice make Richard Nixon seem like a friend of the working class.
But this isn't an article about the Bush administration's proposed 6 percent cut in the regulation enforcement budget of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, nor is it about how he continues to cram mine safety boards with executives hand-picked from the coal industry itself.
No, I'm writing about terrorism. On Oct. 25, 2001, Congress passed the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, or U.S.A. Patriot Act. Seriously eroding civil liberties, the Patriot Act gives the president the right to intervene in labor disputes that "threaten national security."
Sounds crazy, doesn't it? It's not. Although they work at seacoast docking ports rather than 200 feet underground, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) service the regional distributions centers of Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Best Buy and Payless Shoes. However, the ILWU's contract with these corporations and their employer Pacific Maritime Authority (PMA) expired on July 1. While they continue to work the same long hours, dockworkers have been stranded without a contract and job security for the past two months, threatened by National Guard intervention.
Mr. President, what would you do if your employer wanted to cut your current health insurance and retirement pay or outsource your job to someone simply to avoid paying a higher wage and benefits?
The PMA and the retail mega-corporations that rely on the shipping industry are biding their time. They have no incentive to bargain with the ILWU and negotiate a fair contract, even though an ILWU strike would cost the industry one billion a day. Why not? If the ILWU decides to authorize a stoppage until workers' demands are met, President Bush has promised to intervene in the name of national security and break the strike himself, cuffing the union with injunctions under the Taft-Hartley Act, assigning the Navy to unload cargo and positioning the National Guard as port patrollers.
Apparently protecting a retail corporation's right to import cheap goods from Asian markets and sell them at incredible profit-making margins to U.S. consumers is a matter of national security.
Doesn't the president have better things to do like catch Osama bin Laden rather than interject himself into the historically protected space of negotiation between workers and employers?
Maybe if the Quecreek miners had a union behind them, they could've used their power to protect themselves from working in a "dog hole" with 21 "significant and substantial" safety violations last year.
Up against powerful employers, working people continue to achieve higher wages and benefits, workplace respect and safety standards through unions. However, thanks to current legislation and our president's anti-worker agenda (deftly packaged in a box of protecting national security and combating terrorism), workers are being slammed up against the wall once again, destroying what little bargaining power they have left.
I'm sorry, Mr. President, but since when did hard-working, blue-collar Americans like your friends in Quecreek become a threat to national security? When they assert their constitutional rights to greater pay, health care, workplace safety and job security — things you've never needed to worry about?
More information about the ILWU can be found in the Jobs with Justice Web site: www.jwj.org.