Editorial: Occupiers’ port protests affect those they represent

The occupy movement lends general support to what it calls the 99 percent – that is, the Americans who don’t occupy the top 1 percent on the wealth ladder.

The protests are marked by anti-globalism, anti-capitalism messages, but it looks as if some hard-working, blue-collar Americans aren’t all that receptive if it means they won’t get paid. Occupiers would’ve been wise to pass the bullhorn to maritime workers before presuming they’d be OK with shutting down West Coast ports on Monday.

Chris Eaton, an Occupy Seattle organizer, explained the attempted shutdown of the Port of Seattle and his request that union workers not cross their lines to the Seattle Times: “We’re striking back at the 1 percent, and the 1 percent owns the Port.”

Simplistic formulations come easy when it doesn’t affect your job, but union leaders were having none of it.

“Support is one thing, organization from outside groups attempting to co-opt our struggle in order to advance a broader agenda is quite another and one that is destructive to our democratic process,” said Robert McEllrath, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Said King County Labor Council Executive Secretary David Freiboth, “We’re not supporting the shutdown, and we’re not participating in it.”

This clumsy effort to “Shutdown Wall Street on the Waterfront!” – as the Occupy Seattle website proclaims – was aimed at Goldman Sachs, which partially owns the cargo business SSA Maritime. But it was dock workers and those trying to reach the ports who were the real victims.

Shutting down West Coast ports would be devastating to many states, but particularly Washington, which is the most trade-dependent in the nation. If you think the budget-cutting in Olympia is ugly now, imagine the bloodletting if the ports are subjected to shutdowns. It is society’s most vulnerable citizens who feel the impact when revenues decline.

Plus, blocking middle-class workers from their jobs is extremely misguided if the goal is to close the wage gap. It’s no wonder the maritime unions are rejecting this type of “help.” They must’ve thought those “Save the Middle Class” signs were a cruel joke.

Western seaports are the economic lifelines for agriculture, aerospace and myriad other industries. They sustain big corporations and small businesses alike. Each day, they generate more than $700 million in economic activity, which results in $9 million in wages, according to the (Portland) Oregonian.

Occupiers didn’t succeed in shutting down any Seattle port terminals, but they did in Portland, where workers missed a day’s work and a day’s pay. Hundreds of trucks that had hoped to pick up or drop off loads were idled. Matt Hodson, a trucking company executive, told the Oregonian: “This completely defeats the message occupiers are trying to get across. This obviously affected more than just corporations.”

The occupy movement purports to represent 99 percent of Americans, but that will never be true if it doesn’t pay attention to how its protests play out in Portland and Pomeroy.