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Tuesday June 22, 2010 9:03 AM (EST+7)
American dock workers don't cross picket line to unload Israeli ship


Read more: activism, dock workers union, labor unions, boycott, flotilla, Israeli raid

RAMALLAH, June 22 (JMCC) - Dock workers at the Port of Oakland in California refused to cross a picket line on Monday to unload an Israeli cargo ship, citing safety reasons.

The picket line was made up of protesters against Israel's May 31st raid on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza that left nine Turkish activists dead.

Organizers said their goal was to delay the ship's unloading for 24 hours in protest of the Israeli military's May 31 open seas raid on a humanitarian aid flotilla that had been bringing goods to Gaza. The raid resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish citizens.

Several hundred people gathered around 5:30 a.m. at berths 57, 58 and 59, which is operated by SSA Terminals. An Israeli Zim Lines ship was expected to arrive in the morning, but though it didn't arrive until the afternoon, the crowd stayed, preventing workers from unloading a ship from China, according to SSA officials.

Free, free Palestine! Don't cross the picket line! the crowd's leaders and pickets shouted, blocking the berths' entrances and preventing about 100 longshoremen from walking past.

The longshoremen's union largely cooperated with the picket line. No workers tried to cross it and Clarence Thomas, an executive board member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 said, We don't want our members getting into fist fights or anything. We don't want police escorting us to work. That's unsafe.

Read more at Inside the Bay Area...
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