June 9, 2020
Contact: Clarence Thomas, former Secretary-Treasurer,
ILWU Local 10 — 510-333-4301
Labor Call to Down Tools to Honor All Victims of Police Murder
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Coast Longshore Division, representing locals at all 29 West Coast ports, will stop work and lay down their tools on Tuesday, June 9 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific for an 8 minute 46 second collective vigil of silence to honor the memory of George Floyd and all those murdered at the hands of the police. “We must continue the mission for the Disenfranchised, the victims of Systemic Racism and Police Terror,” stated Trent Willis, ILWU Local 10 president.
Operations at ports on the East and Gulf coasts also will be shut down (12 noon to 1 p.m.) as longshore labor from the 65,000-member International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), AFL-CIO, honor the lives of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Walter Scott, among others.
Throughout the United States, workers, organized and unorganized, are joining this historic moment of protest.
“The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC, AFL-CIO) has a long history of fighting police repression as early as the late 60’s,” explained FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez. “We withstood beatings, arrests, jails from local police departments and county sheriffs. FLOC members tilling the land at nearly 650 farms under union contract will join this act of solidarity.”
Simultaneously, in New York City, the Metro North and building service workers, members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 808, will stop work to join labor’s collective vigil.
”It is important that labor become what it is supposed to be — that is, the vanguard organization of the working class,” stated Chris Silvera, Secretary-Treasurer, Teamsters Local 808. “Labor must step to the forefront of the struggle for justice in America.”
With these actions and more on June 9, labor’s voice will be heard throughout the land!
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Personal tweet by Sara Nelson,President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (in a personal capacity):
ILWU announcing a call for all Labor to stop in a 8 min, 46 sec vigil of silence at Noon ET June 9, to honor George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, & victims of police brutality. They state, “all lives will matter when Black lives matter because an injury to one is an injury to all.”
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And on June 19, 2020 (Juneteenth):
ILWU will be having a coast wide Shutdown. Around both Opposition to Police Violence and other local working class issues). A Mass rally will begin at the Port of Oakland at 10 am (Middle Harbor park ) followed by a March and Motorcade to Oscar Grant Plaza 14th and Broadway in Oakland NOTE This won’t be a Bay Area event only. The Ports of Stockton , Eureka and Sacramento will be closed also and there is a strong possibility that ILWU’ers from those areas (as well as other Trade Unionists and other Supporters) will be attending the Oakland Rally/ March .
