https://iclfi.org/pubs/wv/1183/ilwu-turnbull
Emily Turnbull ran for president of ILWU Local 10 in its primary elections, held in early November. Her platform included some immediate steps to strengthen the local, expanding on the program of her successful run for executive board last year. She reports that a number of co-workers saw her candidacy as a way to turn the union around. She got nearly 20 percent of the 588 votes cast. Unfortunately, she did not make the runoff election. That was won by the current Business Agent, Demetrius “Sleep” Williams, who was running against the current Vice President, Vanetta Hamlin.
In a social media post written just after the first election round, Turnbull wrote:
“More than half of Local 10 members did not vote, evidence of deep dissatisfaction with the current leadership. Many despair that ‘nothing can change.’ Our leadership feeds into that despair by enforcing the tier system and clinging to the miserable status quo. In order to keep labor ‘peace’ for Biden, they kept us from striking when the contract was up. Then they threw the union’s support to Biden/Harris. By refusing to use our power to fight for what workers really need, the ILWU tops, along with the rest of the labor leadership, helped ensure Trump’s victory.”
Turnbull did not support either candidate in the final union election round, noting: “The status quo policies that both will pursue can only ensure Local 10 remains weak and divided.” Voter turnout remained weak.
Many socialist groups insist that workers “aren’t ready” to fight for a revolutionary alternative to the trade-union misleaders as an excuse to hail pro-capitalist union bureaucrats like UAW head Shawn Fain and the heirs of Harry Bridges in the ILWU. This simply puts workers deeper in the grip of leaders who promote an alliance with Democratic Party liberals, crippling union struggle. In contrast, Turnbull has spent the past year as a member of the Local 10 executive board fighting for measures to strengthen the union and in the process challenging the bureaucracy’s losing strategy, including its support to the Democrats. This is precisely how to ready union members so they can wage collective struggle for their interests. To that end, she has won others to the Committee to End Tier Segregation, which aims to eliminate the divisions in the workforce that cripple the union. Her work provides an example of how Marxists can win authority in the unions on the basis of a plan of action that points the way forward for the labor movement.
