The Port of Oakland once again finds itself once again under BDS assault, as protesters try to block the unloading of ZIM ship.
Unlike other ports, ILWU Local 10 (International Longshoremen and Warehousemen Union), doesn’t have a negotiated contract in place with the port, and the BDSers keep trying to take advantage of that. That is also why the BDS protests have failed at every other port, where contracts are in place.
According to some reports, the Union leaders are actually using the BDS protesters as unwitting tools to negotiate a better contract for their union.
At least one angry workers tried to drive his car through a side gate on Saturday and get past the protesters and to get to work. Other workers are cursing the protesters.
Last time ILWU 10 recognized the long-term damage it was potentially creating for itself, and found a way to safely get around the BDS protesters – after all, workers want to have work.
AnarchoZionist tweeted that the BDS Jihad protesters were told to leave their Hamas flags home this time, apparently as it made the protesters look bad.
As a result of the protests, the Port of Oakland is getting a bad name, potentially ZIM and other shippers could decide to skip that port entirely and move to friendlier ports, and the economic hit Oakland would take would be noticed.
But once the ILWU has a contract in place, the BDS protests will find themselves emasculated, such as what happened in Tampa, Florida last week, where BDS protesters couldn’t even get the ZIM unloading delayed.
Its only a matter of time, before this Oakland protest fails again – but at what damage to Oakland?