PMA responded by suing the picketers and longshore unions whose members honored the picket line. Capital rules in today's global economy, suppressing workers' solidarity actions. This precedent-setting legal maneuver would replace the collectively bargained grievance procedures and threaten ILWU with fines. Helping build momentum for government intervention is the leading maritime industry newspaper, The Journal of Commerce, which many waterfront workers deem the voice of the shipowners. Before this industry-orchestrated clamor reaches a fever pitch to enlist government force on the side of employers in labor disputes, let's take a look from the pier level at some reasons for work stoppages.
Lives are on the line.
This fact goes unmentioned in management responses. Today, their legal ploy would ban it. That's why global shipowners have turned the Neptune Jade picketing into a witchhunt, seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and demanding that defendants name demonstrators and turn over union records, faxes, e-mail, computer hard drives, floppy disks, telephone bills and diaries. Yet Oakland Mayor-elect Jerry Brown, who has stated at public rallies that he picketed, hasn't been sued. PMA appealed the decision and is pursuing the case against Mr. Irminger.