ILA

  • The Vision Thing: Keeping Union Reform on Track
    Jane Slaughter
    Apr 27 2012 - 4:17pm

    When reformers take over at the union hall, they can make remarkable changes, transforming dormant locals into ones with proud members who put management on notice. But some stumble. What happens?

  • Workerless Docks? Automation Threatens Union Power
    Mark Brenner
    Mar 9 2012 - 6:03pm

    Arrests and train blockades may have grabbed the headlines, but automation was at the heart of the year-long conflict between the West Coast Longshore Union (ILWU) and grain terminal operator EGT.

  • Longshore Union Protests ‘Police Brutality’ as President Surrenders
    Evan Rohar
    Sep 26 2011 - 3:58pm

    A grain exporter's attempt to operate a new facility without longshore labor has met stiff resistance in the Pacific Northwest. Police responded by breaking up protests and arresting about 135 unionists, prompting the union to sue to stop “ongoing police brutality."

  • Longshore Workers Thresh Grain Shipper, Block Train

    Longshore workers by the hundreds blocked a mile-long train July 14 to prevent an anti-union company from moving grain through the port of Longview, Washington. Earlier, members used a pickup truck to tear down a fence and then occupied the grain terminal, blocking employees from working. About 100 union members, including leaders, were arrested for criminal trespassing.

  • Secondary Strikes Are Primary to Labor’s Revival
    Joe Burns
    Nov 4 2010 - 8:32am

    To revive unionism, we must recover labor’s long-lost tools of workplace-based solidarity. That means hitting employers at multiple points in production and distribution chains with secondary and industry-wide strikes.

  • Wildcat Strikes Halt East Coast Shipping
    Mischa Gaus
    Sep 29 2010 - 1:30pm
    UPDATE!

    Wednesday afternoon, the major shipping carriers agreed to negotiate and the ILA announced a return to work. Longshore workers had shut the East Coast’s biggest port yesterday and today, honoring a picket line by Philadelphia ILA members.

  • Dumping Pineapples, Not Tea, Philly Longshore Workers Protest Del Monte Fruit’s Low-Balling

    Not a tea party but a pineapple party: Longshoremen’s (ILA) Local 1291 in Philadelphia dumped pineapples into the Delaware River on Labor Day to protest the Del Monte fruit company’s plans to go non-union.

  • Women at Houston Port Win a Round in Potty Wars

    The women at Houston's port have endured disgusting conditions in their bathrooms over three decades, constantly jousting with our ILA officials and management over them—until just this summer, an aggressive campaign was launched and women finally benefited from a little outside help, courtesy of Houston’s new mayor, Annise Parker.

  • Longshore Workers, Bidding to Protect New Hires, Are Locked Out in Montreal

    Dockers in Montreal were locked out Monday in a dispute over income security for new workers. Longshore workers with the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 375 have refused to work overtime since July 9, telling their employer to call in more help before assigning OT.

  • Longshore Contract: Peter Robbed, Paul Paid, Reformers Regroup
    by Mark Brenner
    Nov 19 2009 - 2:41pm

    Rank-and-file longshore workers pushed to reject a contract that top officials negotiated 10 months early, but longshore (ILA) members approved a two-year deal.