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Tell Maersk to treat their security officers fairly!
Maersk, the largest shipper in the world, saw over 100 Jobs
with Justice (JwJ) picketers bring their Port of Tacoma terminal
to a grinding halt for 3 hours last Wednesday night.
Security guards exercising legal rights to organize at this
highly profitable Maersk operation have faced a management run
union-busting campaign and alleged unlawful threats of mass
firings. The guards are organizing with the Longshore
Union (ILWU) to improve on poverty wages, lack of affordable
family healthcare, and no respected voice on the job (see
"background" section below).
Click
here to see the exciting YouTube video reporting clip!
The JwJ community activists staged a loud and lively picket
line just as scores of port workers were dispatched to begin an
evening shift unloading a large Maersk container ship.
Concerned that crossing the line might be unsafe, port workers
exercised their union contract rights to work in safe conditions
and called for a neutral arbitration of the situation. An
arbitrator operating within the ILWU union contract later deemed
the picket line unsafe to cross. The arbitrator ruled that
management must pay the Longshore workers for the time waiting
for the picket to end.
Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
Maersk (APM Terminal) CEO Kim Fejfer
Below is the sample letter:
Subject: Do what's right for Securitas workers!
Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
Given your fair treatment of many port workers through out the world, I was surprised to learn how poorly you are treating the guards at the Maersk Terminal at the Port of Tacoma. I expect better from the largest container shipping company in the world and the largest Danish corporation, with 110,000 employees worldwide and $44b in revenues in 2006.
You have no excuse for imposing poverty wages and poor access to healthcare on guards that protect your expensive assets and our community's safety. It is hypocritical for you to have a "pro-union policy" but then engage in union-busting.
You can try to hide behind contractors like Securitas to handle your anti-worker practices, but I am not fooled. You have the power at the port to set all of this right but you have forced our community to shut down your terminal so you take these issues seriously. We respectfully ask you to do what is right. We will be back if you do not respect our community.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
cc:
Maersk North American Presdient Eric Sisco
Tacoma Terminal Manager Jack Craig
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What's At Stake:
Many security guards at the Maersk terminal earn about $10 per hour, do not have access to affordable family healthcare, and are not compensated with a plan to support retirement with dignity. For many years, Maersk has undercut security guards' rights to jobs with justice by using systems of sub-contracting and "company unions." It is a system of union-busting that that has spread like a virus through out the Port of Tacoma.
Craig Dameron, statewide Co-Chair of Jobs with Justice, explained that the group was sending a message to Maersk and other shipping companies that Tacoma will not tolerate companies, "that continually disrespect the rights of workers at Port of Tacoma terminals." Adam Hoyt, Co-Chair of the JwJ Pierce County Organizing Committee vowed to "work with other Jobs with Justice local coalitions and their allies nationwide to confront Maersk for violating worker rights. If management thought tonight was a headache, they don't know the migraine that's coming."
Hundreds of low-wage guards at the Port of Tacoma are watching this precedent-setting organizing drive waged by the Maersk terminal guards to see if jobs with justice can be won and is worth fighting for. Maersk is the largest Danish corporation and the largest container shipping company in the world, with 110,000 employees worldwide and $44b in revenues in 2006. Maersk and other extremely profitable global shipping corporations typically hire security contractors like Securitas to insulate themselves from the responsibility of providing union living wage jobs espoused by their own publicly promoted corporate policies.
Until recently, the Securitas workers were technically under the International Union of the Security, Police & Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA). When Congress enacted labor law 7 decades ago, it prevented security workers from joining the same union as other workers as well as have other important rights like to picket and strike over basic worker issues. Companies helped fake unions form like SPFPA to keep guards from joining stronger unions like the ILWU and from organizing for stronger rights.
Campaign Expiration Date:
December 14, 2007
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