J.B. Powell at The Huffington Post described today the estimated effect on business.
"A spokesperson at the Port of Oakland citing John Martin and Associates economic analysis, said that $1.2 trillion in business activity flows from West Coast ports each year. She reported that it costs between $50,000 and $100,000 for each ship delayed for a day from docking. Officials, she said, planned for the strike and diverted ships, but the action kept at least one ship from docking in Oakland. There are 29 ports up and down the coast."
Acting on a motion from a a recent caucus of members, the workers defied the wishes of even their own International union's officials who argued against the strike, but said they supported the members' right to protest.
Jack Heyman, a local officer of the ILWU who wrote the resolution to strike, said in a Democracy Now broadcast Thursday the action of the ILWU members directly demonstrates the power of resistance workers possess.
"Well, what this action was was raising the level of struggle from protest to resistance, and we’re hoping that these kinds of actions will resonate to other unions and workers.It’s already catching on with some of the port truckers. Actually, they’ve been doing actions for quite awhile. While it’s not mainly based on the war—I think they’re very much affected by the high price of fuel—they’ve been shutting down ports over that issue, but also immigrant rights, because many of them are immigrant workers.
And I hope that this will be an example to other workers that we have the power, we’ve got to use it. And that’s how we can bring this war to a halt."
Telling of the committment to speak out, ILWU member Angela Benjamin, brought her 8 year old son, George, to the rally, missing a day's pay to show her support for the war opposition.
"My father was a Vietnam Vet and he died in 1969," Benjamin said. "So it's important for me to be here to protest this war. I have a personal idea about what's going on."
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