by Marcy Rein

Princess Cruise Lines tried hard to lose the ILWU on its move from Seward, Alaska to Whittier. Instead, its maneuvers hastened the birth of the first new Alaska Longshore Division (ALD) local in more than 20 years—and several branches of the union came together to help the young local hold its jurisdiction.

“The ILWU family stuck together and made it happen,” said ILWU International Organizer and ALD member Chuck Wendt. “It was really a combined effort from the International, the Coastwise Cruise Ship Jurisdiction Committee, the ALD and the IBU (Inlandboatmen’s Union, the ILWU’s marine division).”

Front row (L to R) Tim Footman, ILWU Canada, Ken Anderson, ALD Unit 60-W; Dennis Young, ALD Committeeman. Middle Row (L to R) Jamie Rose, ALD Unit 60; Joe Donato, Local 13; Larry Hansen, Local 19; Josh Covey, Ken Cox, Don Stevens, Bill Copeland, and Kirk Loefler of ALD Unit 60-W. Back Row (L to R) Chuck Wendt, Intl. Organizer; Ted Hermach, Ron Grahm, Scott Hutchinson, and Chris Haynes of ALD Unit 60-W.

The Longshore Division formed the Cruise Ship Jurisdiction Committee in 2003 to deal with the persistent anti-union behavior of this growing industry, said ILWU Canada Second Vice-President Tim Footman, who co-chairs the committee with longshore Local 13’s Joe Donato.

“The cruise ship industry is right behind the issue of employing non-union labor,” Footman said. “If we let that go in Whittier, it would have spread down the Coast. It was mandatory that we stop it.”

The ALD has a huge stake in holding this work, as the Alaska members depend on cruise ships for all or most of their yearly hours.

Princess announced about a year ago it would be leaving Seward for Whittier. In Seward ILWU members tied and untied the ships and loaded and unloaded baggage, but there were no ILWU members in Whittier at the time. Princess planned to call at Whittier’s new private dock, giving the company another excuse to evade the union. The major partner of the dock company, Jim Jensen, is the primary owner of Alaska Marine Lines (AML), the largest non-union barge line operating in Alaska from the Duamish River in Washington. The company is fiercely anti-union and when the Whittier dock was being built, it informed the community it would control who worked on it and that ILWU members would not be the ones.

Princess actually tried to negotiate contracts with the IBU and then with the Teamsters. The IBU declined and the potential dispute with the Teamsters was resolved at the International level. Still Princess kept playing coy about who would do the Whittier work.

The ILWU made it possible for the Whittier IBU members to get dual registration, so they would be available to do the cruise work. The union also addressed some concerns in the Whittier community and pressed Princess to continue their relationship.

Tiny, isolated Whittier feared all the new work would go to commuters from Seward. Built as a beachhead when the Japanese attacked Alaska during World War II, Whittier perches on the sea side of a mountain, reachable only by a one-way tunnel that changes direction every half-hour. Cruise lines docking there in the 1980s brought little benefit to the town’s 180 year-round residents, said Don Stevens, secretary-treasurer and dispatcher for the new local, Unit 60-W of the ALD. But once it was clear that local people would get work, there was no real issue.

“In fact, the ILWU jobs bring money into the community at a much greater rate than Princess,” Stevens said.

Princess required a harder sell on the benefits of working ILWU. Months of phone calls and visits from ILWU members at the cruise line’s ports of call from San Diego to Vancouver, British Columbia finally did the trick. All of Princess’ Alaska passengers pass through Vancouver at one end of their trip or the other, so Canada’s input carried particular weight.

“The ILWU Canada told Princess we would support the Alaska longshoremen on all accounts,” said Footman.

Princess ultimately decided to work with Southeast Stevedores, a subsidiary of PMA member SSA. Just hours before the Coral Princess made the first call on Whittier May 15, the town’s 10 IBU members were sworn in as members of ALD Local 60-W.

“I’ve been working with Jamie Rose from Seward for 10 years trying to get us in the Longshore Division,” said Unit 60-W President Ted Hermach. “I’m just thrilled to death to finally accomplish it.”

But getting the work was only half the battle. The new local also had to fight to keep it.

Four members of the Cruise Ship Jurisdiction Committee signed on to help: Joe Donato, Tony Winstead from longshore Local 10, Larry Hansen from longshore Local 19 and Tim Footman. They got to Whittier May 14, and Princess announced that no one who wasn’t directly involved with the operations would be allowed on the dock.

“That was BS,” Wendt said. “The mayor of Whittier and one of the owners of the dock were down there when the ship came in.”

Unit 60-W foiled Princess’ attempt to exclude the union by dispatching the Jurisdiction Committee members to work the first shift. They worked alongside the 60-W regulars, showing them how to work the ship and hold the line.

“Princess tried to have 30 crew members bring luggage off,” Hansen said. “We stopped them. All through the shift we continuously fought off crew members trying to help. We told them if our guys needed help, there are people in the community who need to be employed.”

For the second shift, the committee members stepped back and just talked the local guys through the process. Two stayed in Whittier for the next cruise ship call a couple of days later—and all four donated their wages from the shifts they worked to help build the new local’s treasury.

Princess backed off its refusal to let union reps on the docks, but two jurisdiction issues have already gone to arbitration. The cruise line insists that its crew should sort baggage in the warehouse after the ILWU unloads it, and that forklift operators can simply be shifted to baggage handling. Unit 60-W disagrees on both counts.

“If it’s a fight, we should fight,” Hermach said. “That’s what the guys from the Coast told us.”

Learning to work with the ILWU contract has challenged the new local.

“There’s no comparison in the amount of self-management in this contract compared to the IBU,” Stevens said. Under the longshore contract, the union rather than the employer does the dispatch, and worksite beefs get addressed on the spot instead of being sent down to the IBU office in Seattle.

“We’re only now grasping the ability we have to address things directly,” Stevens said.

Whittier has set a positive precedent in the ongoing fight with the cruise lines, Footman said. “It’s a claw-back situation right now trying to get jurisdiction,” he said. “Members have got to be aware these cruise companies are going after us.”