A-Infos (en) US Dockers Could be Sued for Millions

[Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.apc.org>]

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     A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
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                     * GREEN LEFT WEEKLY *
                 E-mail: greenleft@peg.apc.org
             Web: http://www.peg.apc.org/~greenleft
                - Number 304, February 4, 1998 -
 
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             US DOCKERS COULD BE SUED FOR MILLIONS
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                    By James Vassilopoulos
 
     In a court case with big implications for democratic rights,
     organisations and individuals in the United States are being
     sued for a picket in solidarity with the Liverpool dockers.
 
                                *
 
     Last September, labour and community supporters of the
sacked Liverpool dockers picketed a scab ship, the Neptune Jade,
in the Port of Oakland in California.
     
     The ship was carrying cargo loaded at Thamesport in England
where the port authority is a subsidiary of the Mersey Dock and
Harbour Company. Two years ago, the company sacked 500 dockers in
Liverpool after they refused to cross a picket line established
to protest against poor working conditions.
     
     The Oakland picket prevented the cargo on Neptune Jade from
being loaded. In response, Yusen Terminals; the Pacific Maritime
Association, which is representing ship-owners; and Centennial
Stevedoring Services have taken the picketers to court.
     
     According to the Dispatcher, published by the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union, Robert Irminger, the picket
captain and a member of the ILWU, was charged with contempt of
court for continuing to picket after a court injunction limited
the number of picketers.
     
     The bosses' lawyers were demanding that Irminger serve a
jail sentence for five days and pay a $10,000 fine. On December
3, Judge Vernon Nakahara ruled that Irminger violated the court
order, but found that the violation was minimal and sentenced
Irminger to pay a fine of US$100.
     
     However, Irminger and ILWU local 10 executive board member
Jack Heyman are still being sued for monetary damages, possibly
millions of dollars.
     
     This second court case is potentially more serious. In
tactics reminiscent of a McCarthyite witch-hunt, the companies
are trying to make people name anyone who participated in the
picket.
     
     This tactic is designed to suffocate free speech and labour
rights, and scare people away from committing the "crime" of
being in solidarity with other workers.
     
     Management lawyers are attempting to organise a wide net of
defendants, including people and organisations which did not
participate in the picket line, such as the Laney College of
Labor Studies, the Golden Gate chapter of the Labor Party, and
the Peace and Freedom Party.
     
     Management is also using the "discovery" procedures in the
civil suit to force individuals and groups to give over enormous
amounts of information. This includes faxes, email messages,
knowledge of any person who participated in the action,
membership lists, meeting minutes, telephone records and diaries.
     
     The ILWU president, Brian McWilliams, has instructed the
union's lawyers to object to most of the discovery requests on
the grounds of the first amendment of the US Constitution, which
guarantees freedom of religion, speech, press and assembly.
     
     "We've been asked for information they are not entitled to.
We're not even going to look to see if we have it," said
McWilliams.
     
     Funds for the defence case and resolutions of support can be
sent to: 
 
          LIVERPOOL DOCKERS VICTORY DEFENSE COMMITTEE
                         PO Box 2574
                  Oakland, California, 94614
 
     All rights reserved, Green Left Weekly. Redistribution
     permitted with this notice attached. Redistribution for
     profit prohibited.
 
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        to subscribe e-mail Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.org>
 
          ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
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