A rare event occurred last month when a dozen Filipino crewmen struck their tanker as it pulled into Stockton, Calif.'s, harbor. Why they went on strike and how their one-day work stoppage was able to bring the worldwide shipping business to its knees reveals a lot about the changes that have transformed the lives of the world's sailors. PNS associate editor David Bacon writes on labor and immigration.

STOCKTON, CA. -- The recent actions of 12 Filipino sailors aboard a high-tech chemical tanker in Stockton may soon reverberate on thousands of freighters criss-crossing the globe. In an era when only a handful of people operate giant ships with cargo valued in the millions, this small band of seamen has challenged the system of shipboard colonialism which has taken over the world's huge shipping lines.

On Sept. 21, as the Mundogas Europe pulled up to the dock in Stockton's harbor, a dozen Filipino deck officers and crewmen stood along the ship's railing holding hand-lettered signs: "Crew on Strike for a New Contract," "Improper Treatment of Crew by Master," and "Danger, Toxic Fumes in Tank #2."

On shore, the longshoremen of two locals of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union refused to hook up hoses to discharge the ship's dangerous cargo of anhydrous ammonia.

For 24 hours the huge tanker lay in port, paralyzed like a beached whale, as cables, phone calls and telexes flew back and forth between Stockton, Hong Kong, Manila and London. Finally, the London ship owners and their Manila labor contractor agreed to the simple demand: they paid the crewmen their wages for the last three months at sea.

This simple job action unmasked changes that have transformed the lives of the world's sailors and highlights the growing pressure to change conditions which have become almost as barbarous as those a century ago.

Over the last 30 years U.S. and European shipping companies have reflagged their huge, ocean-going vessels, registering them in countries like Panama and Liberia under "flags of convenience." Reflagging ships exempts them from regulations and union contracts in their original countries, which require high wages and good conditions.

Shipping companies have then dumped their high-wage U.S. and European crews on the beach, replacing them with seamen and deck officers from countries around the Pacific Rim, especially the Philippines. Over 25,000 Filipinos now sail the high seas, more than any other nationality.

High-paid European captains and a few officers still rule over these low-paid Asian crews. On the Mundogas, the Spanish captain earned $8,000 a month (as well as a cut of the food concession) while his Filipino deck officers earned $1,500 a month and able-bodied seamen earned $1,200.

Aris Shipping Ltd., which owns the Mundogas, and the vessel's operator, Arbross Ship Management of Hong Kong, used a labor contractor, BIS-Manila, to hire the crew, a common practice. BIS-Manila, in turn, used another practice which inspectors for the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) call a modern-day ocean-going epidemic. They failed to pay the crew for months at a time, and neglected to send the crewmen's families the full monthly allotment check they need to survive.

BIS-Manila did not respond to requests for an interview.

Faced with low pay, and often no pay, the Filipino deck officers began to talk to representatives of the Seafarer's Ministry in Stockton. Then they got in touch with the ITF inspector in San Francisco, Jack Heyman. Starting last May, they met every time the ship docked in northern California. In July, Heyman gave an official boycott notice to the ship's captain, warning him of possible industrial job action. The company had failed to renew its ITF agreement, which sets the crew's wages and conditions and guarantees they get paid properly. But the warning was ignored.

Meanwhile, Filipino deck officers held secret meetings while the ship was at sea to decide what action to take to get paid. "We had to talk in secret because we were all afraid of being fired," says the ship's electrician, Ferdinand Lamadrid.

An even worse threat was being blacklisted. When a crewman leaves the ship, its captain can write any comment he likes in the book all seamen must show to get a job. If he writes that a sailor is incompetent, the man will never work again. Backing up the captain is the Philippine Association of Maritime Agencies, which shares lists of troublemakers among its member ship owners and labor contractors.

A Philippine government agency, the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration, also maintains a blacklist of workers who organize strikes and labor unrest, according to Heyman. Finally, sailors say their own union, the Association of Maritime Officers and Seamen's Union of the Philippines, discourages job actions.

But the Mundogas sailors were able to count on support by U.S. longshoremen. Stockton ILWU Longshore Local 54 refused to work the ship. Local 6 members, pointing to the danger of a leak of toxic ammonia, stood by on a health and safety complaint.

The shipping agent in Stockton, Trans Navigation Co., advised Aris and BIS-Manila to settle with the seamen. After intense negotiations, crew members not only won back pay but forced BIS-Manila to sign a new ITF agreement.

Fearing the captain's blacklist, the Filipino crew members flew back to Manila after the strike to seek jobs with other shipping lines.

Lamadrid, however, believes the crew's action opens a door to improving conditions on other ships. "Other seamen can do what we did if they stick together. And if sailors and longshoremen in different countries can find ways to support each other, we can all win something better. That's what we did in Stockton."