In ILWU tradition, the union’s delegation to the AFL-CIO convention shook up the leadership’s plans when International Vice President Bob McEllrath made a pitch for the ILWU—and other smaller unions—to have a voice on the federation’s Executive Council.

The delegates were considering an amendment to the AFL-CIO Constitution reconfiguring the Executive Council. Drafted after the Change to Win (CtW) unions announced their boycott of the convention, their disaffiliations and their refusal to serve in AFL-CIO elected positions, it reduced the number of seats on the council from 51 to 43. The proposal held the other eight seats open for the council to fill in case the CtW unions returned or "for reasons that promote solidarity."

The ILWU delegation–long wanting a voice at the big table—had a different idea.

McEllrath hit the mic first. He offered an amendment to the amendment that would turn it upside down. McEllrath proposed that rather than reduce the council from 51 to 43, the council should be expanded to 55, giving each union remaining in the federation a seat on it.

"This amendment hurts no one," McEllrath said. "This is the House of Labor of the AFL-CIO and everybody on this floor has a right to get up and speak and I say every union in this hall has a right to have their president sit on that council. I’ve heard statements that said, ‘Well you’re small.’ I know my union doesn’t have a million, but I will tell you this: you gotta start with one to get to a million, and an injury to one is an injury to all."

Coast Committeeman Joe Wenzl immediately backed up McEllrath.

"In these hard times and these crises that face the AFL-CIO, the one thing we have done all week, the one thing we do is inclusion," Wenzl said. "We all need to be represented on the Executive Council. It’s right, it’s fair, it’s democratic and it’s just. We have been told that we are small, but, brothers and sisters, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog."

Two speakers from small unions (the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the Boilermakers) spoke in favor of the ILWU amendment, and two speakers from big unions (International Association of Machinists and the American Federation of Teachers) spoke against it before the question was called. The amendment was defeated on a voice vote, but not before the ILWU had put the issue of representation for all unions on the table for now and the future.

—SS