Solidarity versus Competition:
Fighting for good jobs in the global economy

The LWC proudly announces the release of “The Cargo Chain,” an essential tool for ILA members preparing for our contract negotiations in 2010. If we are going to end the wage, benefit and container royalty tiers, create a safe workplace and organize non-union work, we need to educate ourselves about our industry.

The pamphlet and map outlines the network of workers and machines that move goods across the globe. It discusses the potential power this system creates for longshore workers, and what companies are doing to undermine this power. See below for excerpts from the pamphlet.

To order a copy or if you would like to organize a local workshop on the 2010 deep-sea contract negotiations and fighting for good jobs in the global economy, send an email to marsha@lwcjustice.com or call the LWC at 718-865-8782.

The map project was a collaboration between the LWC, the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), and Labor Notes.

EXCERPTS AND BACKGROUND ON THE CARGO CHAIN PAMPHLET
Longshore workers must forge links with dockworkers in other ports, as well as with port truckers, rail workers, freight haulers and warehouse workers. These maps show the transportation network that corporations use to move goods to the United States from around the world. This network stretches into Canada and Mexico, connecting workers across national boundaries, industries and occupations.

(Click image to enlarge)

Workers in this system can build strong unions, create safe workplaces, and secure good jobs for themselves and their communities, if they find a way to act together. With solidarity and coordination, they could also use their position in the global economy to leverage good jobs for retail workers in the U.S. and manufacturing workers overseas.

(Click image to enlarge)

Corporations see the transportation network as an interlocking system, and it’s important for workers to see it that way too. The veins and arteries of this network reveal where workers have power, the shipping lanes, ports, highways, and rail lines that connect U.S. cities and towns to each other and to the rest of the world. These maps also show how corporations can short-circuit that power, playing workers in different parts of the system off of one another.

In this context workers can only build lasting power through organizing and solidarity, bringing union rights to nonunion workers and building ties between different workplaces and across different industries. The old saying is as true today as ever: “An injury to one is an injury to all.”