Longshoremen's Union Rejects Occupy Protestors' Call for Strike

Keep your stupid suggestions to yourselves, thanks.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is not exactly known for backing away from a fight. But the feisty workers apparently draw the line at calls for strikes coming from out-of-state Occupy protestors.

Last week we told you about how the protestors at Occupy Oakland had voted to call for a West Coast-wide shutdown of all U.S. ports, and had targeted port worker unions--particularly ILWU Local 19--as being the folks to make the shutdown happen.

As hinted at last week to me by union sources, that call has now been rejected by the ILWU as a whole.

Robert McEllrath, ILWU President, put out this statement:

"Only ILWU members or their elected representatives can authorize job actions on behalf of the union, and any decisions made by groups outside of the union's democratic process do not hold water, regardless of the intent."

In other words: Thanks for the suggestion, folks. Next time keep it to yourself.

Keep in mind that this is the same union with members who stormed the Port of Longview EGT terminal in a "Wildcat" action, threatened a news crew and--depending on whom you believe--held a security guard hostage. So drastic action is something these workers definitely have the stomach for.

But with mounting fines awaiting from the above-mentioned actions, and workers trying to make ends meet with whatever hours they can get, the idea of a West-Coast port shutdown apparently did not sound too appetizing. Plus, hearing such a call coming from a bunch of protestors in Oakland is not going to go anywhere in an exclusive club like a labor union.

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