Port Newark Protest Jams Traffic: Activists Slam Racial, Gender ‘Segregation’

Newark, NJ – Newark civil rights activists held the second major protest in a year at Port Newark, conducting a motorcade through one of the busiest ports in the nation on Monday.

Demanding “fair hiring practices and the employment of more ‪Newark residents,” activists held a news conference on the steps of City Hall at 11 a.m. where they accused two of the port’s labor unions of being “segregated.”

A Monday news release from the Mayor’s Office summarized the activists’ charges:

“International Longshoremen's Association Locals 1 and 1804-1 both have fewer than six percent black members and under 13 percent Hispanic members,” the statement read. “Local 1233 has close to 600 active registrants and less than one percent black. Local 1804-1 has more than 1,300 members and only 40 are black. None are women.”

In addition, activists cited a 2015 report that stated only 299 (6.3 percent) out of 3,299 registered longshore workers lived in Newark.

The protesters then commenced a 100-vehicle-strong motorcade into the port, which reportedly caused multiple disruptions in the area.

The protest was conducted under the recent auspices of a state judge, who gave the activists permission to continue in spite of a legal challenge from the Port Authority.

The agency had cited safety concerns in the wake of a wave of anti-police brutality actions across the nation and a tragic shooting in Dallas, Texas, as their impetus for trying to block the protest, NJ.com reported.

• See related article: Dallas Shootings: 5 Officers Shot Dead, 7 Wounded, During Protest Over Police Killings Of Black Men [UPDATED]

‘SEGREGATION’ AT PORT NEWARK

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said that the “deeply ingrained racism” at the port was exemplified in a Facebook message that an ILA employee allegedly sent to a Newark City administrative assistant after she posted a flyer about Monday’s protest on social media.

The poster – whose profile identified him as a Monroe resident and an employee at the ILA – read:

“You will never work here, mark my words… It’s a shame… Your mayor is a criminal and half the city is a disgrace full of crime and drugs and you want to bring that to the piers when my family has four generations here, and you want to come here and get a free ride… I promise that you mark this date, that your mayor will never win this battle.”

Screenshot via City of Newark Press Office

Monday’s protest comes just a few months after another large protest against alleged discrimination at the port.

In May, a coalition of Newark city leaders marched on the port to demand that the Waterfront Commission, the New York Shipping Association, and the International Longshoremen's Association “do more to remedy severe racial, gender and ethnic inequality in employment at the port, as well as an apparent bias against the hiring of local residents.”

The protest disrupted operations for about an hour, activists claimed.

Attendees and supporters of the May protest included: the Newark Municipal Council, Deputy Mayor of Workforce Development and Employment Rahaman Muhammad, Manager of Port Activities for the City of Newark Al Turrick Kenney, and several community partners including the clergy, the Newark Branch of the NAACP, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (NJISJ), the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition (NAVC), YDI Youth Build and the People's Organization for Progress.

• See related article: Newark Activists March On Port, Demand 'Desegregation': PHOTOS, VIDEO

‘A MORE DIVERSE WORKFORCE’

According to the New York Shipping Association (NYSA), which negotiates the collective bargaining agreement on behalf of ILA members and the port’s police and guard unions, activists’ accusations of segregation and racial discrimination are way off base.

“In recent years, the NYSA has made great strides in assembling a more diverse workforce, particularly with regards to veterans, minorities and women,” the group stated in a news release.

“The establishment of a new and innovative hiring plan, in collaboration with the ILA, has brought about a more diverse and skilled port workforce. Since 2014, over 60 percent of all newly hired workers have identified as minorities, with African-Americans and Hispanics making up 34 percent and 20.5 percent of new hires, respectively. In comparison, on January 1, 2012, the workforce diversity for these two minority groups were 21.2 percent and 13.1 percent, respectively.”

NYSA officials continued:

“Overall, we have seen promising increases in the Port of New York and New Jersey’s workforce diversity. As of April 2016, African-American and Hispanic workers now make up 24.6 percent and 14.2 percent of the workforce, respectively, with an increase of four and one percentage points compared to the port’s workforce in 2012. This increase has occurred after just two years of the implementation of the hiring plan.”

According to officials, the NYSA has hired 71 residents of the city of Newark since 2013, which makes up approximately 11 percent of all newly hired employees and is the “highest percentage of newly hired employees from any city in New Jersey and the second highest from all cities in the NJ/NY/PA metropolitan region.”

“Out of the wide range of different regions that the New York Shipping Association hires from, over one in 10 new workers are Newark residents,” NYSA officials asserted.

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Photo: Ken Lund, Flickr Commons