About ILWU19Casuals.net

The ILWU is a fighting, democratic union. For 70 years, it has been unique among workers' organizations in the U.S.

Early on, the ILWU fought anti-labor policies: Cold War witchhunts against trade unionists, racist Jim Crow laws and lynch mobs in the South. It helped California's Mexican farmworkers when few other unions would. The ILWU always stood strong for civil liberties, economic justice and racial equality.

In the course of these historic struggles, it won massive gains for its members—workers who had always been mistreated and looked down on. Such achievements made West Coast longshoremen some of the most highly respected and best paid blue-collar workers in America.

Recently the ILWU has continued its long tradition of solidarity. Longshore workers have taken job actions to assist workers around the globe.... Boycotting ships over struggles in apartheid South Africa.... Honoring picket lines to support striking dockers in Liverpool, England.... Doing the same for locked out Kaiser Steelworkers here in Washington State.... Boycotting ships carrying dangerous toxic wastes to be dumped near our rivers, right here in Washington.... And shutting down the West Coast to all international trade during the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle.

A proud tradition, worth fighting to uphold and extend.

But today, all workers are under attack by the same corporate and political elites who tried to destroy the ILWU during the 2002 lockout. Employer/government attacks—policies aimed to take away the hard-won rights of the common people in favor of the rich—have made unions weaker than ever.

As a result of such attacks, casual longshore workers today face an uncertain future. The combination of several factors—a hostile federal administration, the introduction of new technologies on the docks (both for production and for "security"), and our own ignorance of the Contract and Safety Code rules that generations of longshoremen fought and died to give us—leave us in a pretty desperate situation, when you think about it.

We casuals are the next generation. If we're to inherit and maintain the great jobs and the powerful union the last generation of longshoremen enjoyed, we're going to have to fight for them with all our strength.

This is especially true now that so many longtime ILWU members are leaving the industry as a result of the retirement incentives brought in with the 2002 Contract; in 2008, the Longshore Division will find itself once again in a major fight for survival. The PMA is counting on the fact that the ILWU's most experienced trade unionists will be gone, enjoying their hard-earned pensions, and the union will be full of younger, less seasoned longshoremen.

To top it all off, George W. "Taft-Hartley" Bush just got re-elected! We have the fight of our lives in front of us, we'd better start getting prepared now!

We've got some big shoes to fill, so let's get started now developing ourselves into good trade unionists who can fight and stop the bosses' inevitable attack in 2008!

This website, launched on Black Wednesday 2004—November 3rd—is a place where we can put our heads together, discuss our concerns and figure out how to support each other, the ILWU and all workers. Can we find ways to:

That's what we're here to discuss....

Any Seattle longshore casual who supports the ILWU, agrees with the union's Ten Guiding Principles, and pledges never to cross a picket line, is invited to participate in this online community.