Government policy shuts out port workers

According to a report by the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for workers, as many as 23,000 port workers are out of jobs due to FBI and Transportation Security Administration errors.

Longshoremen march against Iraq war, 2008.

Using the September 11 attacks as an excuse, Congress passed a bill requiring background checks on 1.5 million port workers. This spring, the background checks became mandatory for all port workers.

The Transportation Security Administration, which is responsible for transportation worker identification credentials, has used inaccurate FBI criminal records to issue port worker credentials. According to a 2006 government report, over 50 percent of FBI records are wrong.

The study of port workers also details TSA’s racism: Black and Latino workers have had to wait longer than white workers for clearance.

The government has criminalized tens of thousands of workers all across the country who were mistakenly denied their credentials and have lost their jobs waiting for clearance or have gone without a paycheck for several months until their denials of credentials were reversed on appeal.

Disregarding an agreement with the International Longshoremen’s Association, the TSA has locked individual workers out of ports for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with so-called port “safety.” Workers have been denied credentials if there is any hint of a potentially disqualifying offense on their records.

Not only have inaccurate FBI reports been used by the TSA to deny credentials, any record of arrest has been used, whether or not the worker was actually charged with an offense. Moreover, minor drug offenses and juvenile arrests have been used against port workers. Decades-old arrests have been used to deny credentials.

In a society where Blacks, Latinos and immigrants are much more likely to be harassed and arrested by racist cops, the use of background checks on workers can only have a racist outcome.

September 11 has been used as a pretext for the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, for wider attacks on immigrants, and for illegal wiretapping and other attacks on civil liberties. The media has used September 11 to promote racism against Arabs, Muslims, immigrants and others. Congress, showing its true nature as an organ of ruling-class arrogance and oppression, has used the attacks to increase the hardship and suffering of workers.