Dock Crews to Halt Work in Support of Death Row Inmate

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union will halt work here and in all West Coast ports today in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a death row inmate whose murder conviction in the slaying of a Philadelphia police officer in 1981 has gained international attention.

The action is part of a national day of protest on behalf of Abu-Jamal, whose 17-year effort to win a new trial has become a cause among celebrities, writers, educators and human rights activists in the United States and Europe.

To participate in the demonstrations, dock workers in West Coast harbors rescheduled the one shift a month they get under their labor contracts to stop work and conduct union meetings. In the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, longshore workers normally stop work during the swing shift one Thursday of every month.

Abu-Jamal, 44, a former radio journalist, contends that he was framed by Philadelphia police because he was an outspoken advocate for that city’s black communities and black separatist groups. His requests for a new trial have been repeatedly denied.

Brian McWilliams, the union’s international president, said in a speech last week that the Abu-Jamal case is an “obvious miscarriage of justice” and that the ILWU is “particularly sensitive to this kind of vindictive frame-up.”

Although the union has a history of getting involved with social issues, some of its members question whether the ILWU should support Abu-Jamal because it is not clear whether he is innocent. They say there is substantial evidence that he killed Officer Daniel Faulkner as Faulkner was trying to arrest Abu-Jamal’s brother.