US Port Workers Strike in Anti-War Protest (25,000 workers stayed home updated by NYT)

Source: VOA News

Workers at ports on the west coast of the United States staged a one-day strike Thursday to call for an end to the war in Iraq, five years after President George Bush stood underneath a banner that declared "Mission Accomplished."

On May 1, 2003, the president visited a U.S. aircraft carriers the USS Abraham Lincoln to declare an end to major combat operations in Iraq and call it a victory in the war on terrorism.

West coast dockworkers marked the anniversary with a brief strike that halted loading and unloading of ships from southern California to Washington state. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said at least 10 thousand workers stayed home.


US President George W. Bush addressing the nation aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, 01 May 2003

The White House says the "Mission Accomplished" phrase referred to the aircraft carrier's completion of its 10-month mission at sea, not the military completing its mission in Iraq.

Read more: http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-05-01-voa73.cfm

---

No MSM coverage. Blog news is becoming the first place to look.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/us/01cnd-port.html?hp

By JOHN HOLUSHA
Published: May 2, 2008

Thousands of dockworkers at West Coast ports stayed off the job on Thursday in what their union said was a call for an end to the war in Iraq.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said more than 25,000 members in 29 ports stayed off the job. The action came despite an order issued Wednesday by an arbitrator directing the union to tell its members to report for work as usual in response to a request from employers.

“Longshore workers are standing down on the job and standing up for America,” Bob McEllrath, the union’s president, said in a statement. “We’re supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it’s time to end the war in Iraq.”

The scene at most West Coast ports was quiet, without any scuffles or confrontations. The cranes used to unload container ships stood idle and few trucks were lined up outside gates.

FULL story at link.

I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere except here.

God, the media in this country really sucks.

Mc Pravda,that makes me sick!

Thanks Omaha Steve for pointing that out.

Shut it down as long as you can because the criminal Fascist republicans are coming. They are planning to offload ships in mexico and truck all the Wall Mart China junk by truck into the states, completely doing an "end run" around the teamster dockworkers. They have been planning to crush the union for years now, that's why they will not end the experimental Mexican truck driver pilot program
even after congress told them to stop. The criminal Fascist republicans have to crush the opposition...

and Democracy Now! Honest

if Australian unionists did this they'd be whacked with individual $6000 fines and the union would be looking at a 30K hit, with possible imprisonment for officials.

Lucky country my arse.

Terrific!

Yes, bow down to these union workers that took money out of the pockets of Guillermo Castillo, Nelson Hernandez and probably hundreds of other working class individuals that lost money because of their walkout.

This kind of action has no strategic effect on national policy or on the bottom line of the corporations, but many people living paycheck to paycheck were disadvantaged because of it.



As I said, they'll just surge to offset the walkout. In the end, this is just a "feel good" action that did nothing except hurt the working class.

Does the MSM really think no one will notice? This is big news, and a lot of people are going to notice whether or not the news reports it.

pro-war. It's no wonder that the war profiteers and global corporate predators who are running our government have pulled out all the stops to suppress, propagandize, disempower and disenfranchise the American people. This is what they fear most--a united people against the mass slaughter and corporate boondoggle of an unjust, unnecessary war.

It's useless to descry the corporate news monopoly lies and black holes in the real news. What we need is to restore the people power to bust their monopolistic asses and break their power over our government, for which we need, a) transparent vote counting, and 2) grass roots organization, and union organization like this. We also need to think bigger, and not limit our ideas of what it is possible for a sovereign people to do, to what the fascists permit discussion of in their corporate media. We the People are the rulers here, at least in theory. We need to make democracy real again.