The ILWU Can

Still Win!
AUGUST 1—Job losses, sub-contracting, below-
inflation wages: ILWU Canada members have
frenzy, right-wing politicians and business leaders
screaming against “overpaid” longshore workers
already said NO to one rotten contract and now face destroying the economy, etc. What stands behind this
anti-strike legislation if they don’t accept the new hysterical campaign are the raw class interests of the
deal worked out between the union leadership and the bosses, their drive for profits, and they will not relent
bosses and federal government. We don’t know unless they are faced with even bigger losses. So let’s
what’s in this new agreement. But one thing that is give it to them: countermobilize against this
clear is that ILWU members want to fight now against onslaught! Standing up for decent wages and against
job losses and plummeting living standards. And it’s job losses due to automation and sub-contracting, the
also clear that this is being undermined by the strategy ILWU’s battle is in the interest of the entire working
of the union leadership. What is required is a totally class—they need the ILWU to win and the ILWU
different strategy. Simply put, the extremely crucial needs to mobilize their power in order to win this
nature of the West Coast ports to the Canadian fight!
capitalist bosses means that nothing will be gained The potential allies are countless. Threats of back-
without a decisive, unrelenting battle against both the to-work legislation will be felt deeply throughout the
BCMEA and the government. labour movement: nurses, teachers and other public
ILWU Canada president Rob Ashton has talked sector workers, port workers in Montreal who faced
about the need for a “class war.” Fine words. But what the same thing three years ago, etc. All have a vested
have he and the rest of the executive done to actually interest in defending not just the ILWU but their own
win this war? After 13 days on the picket lines, they future negotiations. Obvious and immediate allies
sent everybody back to work as soon as a tentative include the B.C. port truckers, who have waged their
agreement was reached, without a vote by the own tough battles in recent years. This points to the
membership, going against one of the most crucial need for ILWU Canada to champion the
elementary principles of trade unionism: no contract, oppressed minorities in the Lower Mainland, notably
no work! The reality is that despite two weeks of solid the large South Asian community who form a
pickets, the bosses did not take the union seriously. growing percentage of the ILWU membership and
They expected the leadership to continue the same most of the port truckers. The union must stand for
dance: make noise, blow off steam at the base, feign full citizenship rights for all immigrants and demand
outrage, then come back and “be reasonable”—the an end to all forms of racial discrimination, open or
same old game of institutional play-fighting with the hidden.
BCMEA and the government which generated the To appeal to the workers of Quebec, it must make
current impasse in the first place. This cycle must be a clear statement in favour of that nation’s struggle
broken now! for independence. It must champion the cause of
Can the ILWU still win? Yes! But how? Of Indigenous peoples against racist degradation. Within
course, the pressures on the union are intense: media the ILWU itself, there must be an end to the tier


system that keeps 60 percent of the workforce in a independent of the capitalist politicians. The unions
precarious state. This could be implemented need a leadership that understands that the capitalists
immediately by shortening the workweek at no loss will always defend their class interests by squeezing
in pay. the maximum profits from the workers who make
But none of this is being done by the current their industries run. To win, workers must defend
leadership. The labour federations from the BC Fed their class interests, i.e., the right to a decent living,
to the CLC have issued calls of solidarity, but what safe work environment, shorter work hours, and
do they actually do about it? What has Rob Ashton, more.
president of ILWU Canada and VP of the BC Fed, Other socialist groups have intervened in the
done to mobilize the labour movement behind the strike, including the Fightback group. But far from
ILWU? Next to nothing, because they and other offering a path forward, Fightback builds illusions
labour leaders are limited to a strategy that accepts the that the pro-capitalist ILWU leadership only needs to
capitalist order. Union leaders appeal to the “moral” be pressured to fight in the workers’ interests, harking
fibre of the capitalist class by pointing to all the back to the “militant traditions of our movement”
sacrifices workers made during Covid and after. But while calling on the bureaucrats to “be prepared to
who enforced these sacrifices within the labour defy the law.” What they do not do is show how the
movement in the first place? The very same labour current leadership is an obstacle to victory, much less
tops who are today working to derail the ILWU fight for a new, revolutionary leadership of the
struggle. During Covid as during the current battle, unions.
the union bureaucracy has chained the workers to the Things must change, and they must change now!
interests of the bosses and their government. As an immediate program of action, we put forward
Relatedly, the labour tops push the idea that the the following points, which we encourage anyone to
Trudeau Liberals supported by the NDP are a “lesser fight for within the ILWU:
evil” to the openly anti-union Conservatives. This
simply means supporting the very government that is • Government out of union business, no imposed
today attacking longshore workers. Many ILWU contracts or forced arbitration—it’s up to the
leaders are NDP supporters, but this party claims to unions to fight freely and not under the grip of
defend the workers’ interests while propping up the the Canadian capitalist state. To hell with the
anti-worker Liberals! True enough, the NDP has government’s labour code!
refused to vote for back-to-work legislation and say • Abolish the tier system—all ILWU members
they will oppose the Liberals’ plan to impose a must be made permanent and paid at the same
contract on the ILWU. But if they are serious, they rate!
should end their coalition with the Liberals and pull • Automation should benefit the workers, not the
the plug on this anti-worker government! bosses! For a shorter workweek at no loss in
But don’t hold your breath: Jagmeet Singh and the pay!
NDP have been completely in line with the Liberals • All port workers must be in the union—
on every significant front: defense of U.S.-dominated organize the unorganized!
free trade; Covid lockdowns; the Ukraine war; • No illusions in any of the bosses’ parties—
indeed, the whole hypocritical construct of the Liberals or Conservatives. NDP MPs claim to
capitalist Liberals. And what does Canada look like oppose attacks on ILWU bargaining rights, but
under this Liberal-NDP regime (or B.C. under the if they are serious they should end their corridor
NDP, for that matter)? It is a country of inflation, coalition and let the Liberal government fall!
housing crises, crumbling health care, etc. In order to • Rally all of labour and the oppressed to back
mobilize and organize an effective onslaught against the ILWU!
all of the misery brought about by the capitalist
• For a genuine class-struggle leadership of the
system, we need a workers party that fights for a
unions!
workers government!
But even the union battles of today must be guided
by a totally new political program and leadership,
Trotskyist League in Quebec and Canada
icl-fi.org
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