"Ridge reportedly telephoned the ILWU's Spinosa and suggested that any job slow-down or strike would be viewed as a threat to national security." Bush threatens to use troops against West Coast dockworkers http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=02/09/01/6989033 The LA Times further reported that soon after negotiations began on the new West Coast longshore contract, "the White House convened a working group to monitor them, with representatives from the departments of Commerce, Labor and Transportation and the Office of Homeland Security." The use of national security and the "war on terrorism" as a pretext for stripping workers of their democratic and collective bargaining rights is already the policy adopted by the Bush administration in relation to the new Department of Homeland Security. Bush is demanding that the 170,000 federal employees being transferred into the new department lose both their civil service protection and union representation. International solidarity may be needed to nip this forth Reich in the bud,at least arbusto is no demagogue! http://www.thenation.com/special/20010726miller.mhtml