Longshoremen prosper by keeping up with technology - The Wall Street Journal
The longshoremen can count on the support of other unions in contract talks. During the contentious 2002 negotiations between the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association, representatives from other unions flew to California to sit in on meetings and attend rallies. At one meeting, James Hoffa Jr., general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said, 'If you pick a fight with the ILWU, you're picking a fight with the Teamsters. Just so you know.'
International connections also proved pivotal in a 1999 fight in Charleston between the union and Nordana, a Danish shipping line that sought to shift its work to cheaper, nonunion labor after 23 years of working with the ILA. South Carolina, a right-to-work state, also has nonunion ports.