Longshore workers plan to shut down ports for May Day

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/8416

Lede: The May Day antiwar shutdown of west coast ports is shaping up to be a real bottom-up rank and file action. Doug Cunningham has more.

West coast long shore workers have voted to stop work for eight hours during the day shift on May 1st, shutting down west coast ports to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Clarence Thomas is with the Port Workers May Day Organizing Committee in San Francisco.

: “We believe that only in a peaceful world is it possible for there to be the kinds of gains that all working people need in order to have any kind of economic sustainability.”

ILWU Local 10’s Jack Heyman.

: “This is the first time in U.S. labor history that workers have actually stopped work in order to stop a war.”

Actor and activist Danny Glover, antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan and former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney will be among the featured speakers at the “No Peace, No Work” mobilization in San Francisco on May Day. The port workers are getting support from labor councils, local labor unions and antiwar and social justice organizations across the country.

: “We realize that millions of workers would like to be able to take the action that the ILWU is doing, and we’re taking that action in their name. All out for May Day.”

[msongs]

1. longshoremen/women have made lots of $ off of this war. they can afford 8 hours off nt