Dock workers as architects of foreign policy By Jim Creskey Published March 24, 2010

View story Email Comments To the Editor

Longshoremen’s Union Local 273 Photo

A foggy morning on the docks at St. John, New Brunswick, on July 3, 1979, when a Canadian longshoremen’s picket line saved lives in Argentina.

The Argentine ship Entre Rios II was at dock in St. John, New Brunswick, waiting for a cargo of heavy water bound from Chalk River to the newly installed CANDU nuclear reactor in Argentina. It was 1979 and although Pat Riley was only a year on the job in Longshoremen's Union Local 273, he remembers the scene vividly.

The dock workers were supposed to load that freighter just like any other on the St. John waterfront. Instead, they got a lesson in international politics that Mr. Riley, who is now the business agent for Local 273, still remembers today.

A campaign had begun in Canada against the shipping of nuclear supplies to the Argentine military dictatorship that had taken control of the government in Buenos Aires. It had started first with a group of Argentine exiles who were living in Toronto. They made their case to church groups, peace activists and trade unions. But the buck stopped with the little longshoremen's' union local in St. John when the men decided not to cross a dockside picket line and load the Canadian nuclear cargo.

It was a down-to-earth decision by the dockworkers, but it served notice on a military junta that was nearly 9,000 kilometres away. It also interrupted the Canadian government's plans to supply the reactor that had recently been built in Argentina.

"That event opened doors for us," says Mr. Riley. "It showed us that there is a global community that deserves our support."

Mr. Riley is sure there was never a chance the line would not be respected by his local. The junta was killing, imprisoning and "disappearing" thousands of Argentine dissidents and trade unionists.

"There was no chance a St. John longshoreman was going to cross that picket line," says Riley.

By their action, the little union local issued an ultimatum to the military junta that they would not get their nuclear supplies unless they released some of their political prisoners. As a result, at least 11 lives were saved and, last week, Argentine Ambassador Arturo Guillermo Bothamley travelled to St. John and presented Mr. Riley with the Orden de Mayo, one of the Argentine republic's highest honours for a foreigner.

It took more than 30 years for the recognition, but Mr. Riley says he is grateful and is still inspired by the brave acts of the Argentine people.

The dockworkers picket line was set up on July 3, 1979. It was the early days of the short-lived Progressive Conservative government of Joe Clark. Mr. Riley says he could hardly fault Mr. Clark for the nuclear deal with Argentina. It had been set up long before the prime minister came to power.

"Joe Clark's government had just been elected. He was not to blame. But it was a tough issue."

The government's minister of external affairs at the time was the principled Flora McDonald.

"Flora McDonald, unlike some of her Cabinet colleagues, was very sympathetic to this cause," says Mr. Riley.

The union action had many good results. One was that Canada changed its refugee laws to allow more Argentine dissidents into the country. But, says Mr. Riley, another lasting effect was on his own union local: he and the other men in his local learned a great deal from that event and they haven't lost it.

"[Even today] we shouldn't sell ourselves short. There is a conscience in each of us," he says.

The St. John longshoremen have kept their ears to the ground ever since over international issues of peace and justice, says Mr. Riley.

"In 2003, when the Iraq War was on the verge of breaking out, our local placed a 'Hot Cargo Edict' on all military cargo destined for the Iraq war." While he says he doesn't know if his local actually stopped any military shipments, they were at least able to take a stand.

Mr. Riley says he is still inspired by the people of Argentina and this week he is in Buenos Aires as a guest of Argentine trade unionists. Canada's Longshoremen's Union Local 273 will be honoured in the Argentine National Congress and at an event at the museum that commemorates the lives of the desaparecidos, those who vanished in the torture chambers of the junta's secret prisons.

Lives saved, refugee laws amended to save even more lives and Canadian trade policy reconsidered when it ran aground of human rights: not a bad day's work for a little New Brunswick union local.

jim@embassymag.ca