Longshore Juneteenth movement to effectively shut down West Coast ports

Longshore workers are effectively shutting down operations in 29 ports along the West Coast on Friday.

From Bellingham to San Diego, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union will spend the day shift observing Juneteenth, the anniversary of the day the nation’s last slaves were freed in Galveston, Texas, in 1865.

“What’s happening on Friday is a historic movement — we are taking Juneteenth, which has never happened before, that any labor movement has ever taken any action on Juneteenth,” said Gabriel Prawl, the former president and first African-American president of ILWU Local 52 in Seattle.

Seattle longshore workers are holding what they’re calling a “Rally and March to Stop Police Brutality and Systemic Racism” Friday morning at 10 a.m. They plan to march from the ILWU Hall in the Industrial District, to Terminal 46, and then on to the Department of Corrections’ Day Reporting Center in SoDo. This last stop is to call attention to the state’s treatment of industrial laborers, an area in which Prawl believes criminal justice reform is needed.

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“We have no choice but to take the lead in eliminating the source of racism from our land, and I believe that’s the focus of why labor is stepping up,” he said.

While Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery, the union believes it also is a reminder that there is much more work to be done in the fight for equality and justice. Prawl said he has sons and grandsons for whom he worries for if changes are not brought about in policing.

“We don’t want to live the rest of our lives or even pass on and know that our children and grandkids are going to be dealing with the same systemic racism and police terror,” Prawl said. “We are fighting to make a change today to save the future of tomorrow.”

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