International Longshore and Warehouse Union

If there is a strike, it could be disruptive because they provide services to a lot of the different terminals, even if they're not big in number themselves.

And there's also the possibility that the ILWU like the larger union and the workers there will not cross the picket lines might walk off as well or slow down as well kind of in support of this part of their union even though they have a separate contract so if there were to be a strike it would be disruptive it would slow things down and you know a lot of the arriving vessels were probably you know sorry a lot of the holiday volumes have probably already arrived but a lot of them are still in the port So in terms of getting goods in time, let's say for inventories for Black Friday, for over Thanksgiving, that could still be disruptive.

And also for the weeks after that, if there is really this slowdown at the port, even if a lot of those volumes have already arrived.

Okay, thanks.

And so one thing that I thought was really super cool, and I had no idea that this was going to be happening, there was also a significant strike action as far away as India where 5,000 dock workers gathered and struck in solidarity with the people of Gaza, which, hell yeah, that rules.

And here in the United States, ILWU locals 2, 10, and 34 rallied at the Port of Oakland in support of the effort.

Though, at least from the reporting I saw from Sarah Lazar, they didn't really hold like a major work stoppage.

And that's something that I did find a little bit surprising.

Cause like, it's, it's great.

Like, look, no, I don't want to be overly negative.

Cause like, it's good to see the ILWU at least rhetorically standing, you know, with their long history of solidarity.

And I think it's important to note that the most of the weapons sent to Israel from the U S leave on the other side of the country on the Atlantic, which are represented by the ILA, which is a much worse.

Strikes took place in at least 17 countries, from Marseille to Mumbai, from Montevideo to Melbourne.

In Oakland and San Francisco in the U.S., the ILWU Local 10 Union branch struck.

So there you go, Kurt.

It can happen in the United States.

It had lost 40.

50,000 members that have lost its base in the labor movement, except in a very few parts of the United Electrical Workers, parts of the Longshore Union that still had communists or communist sympathizers in power.

But it had really been beaten up badly.

And yet, 1956, McCarthy would die the next year.

I don't see any major things happening here, but I do want to bring them to your attention.

So contract negotiations involving approximately 250 watchmen represented by the ILWU Local 26.

Now, you might be wondering what exactly is a watchman.

Watchmen perform security-related functions at marine terminals, including monitoring access to terminal facilities, watching over cargo, and supporting terminal security operations.

We'll see what happens here.

Now, here's the thing that could make this go a little sideways is if they do go strike, it's a different category of maritime labor workers.

But what could happen is the ILWU workers could join them in saying, we will not cross your picket line if they do strike.

Now, that could have implications for terminal operations beyond just the watchman here.