Caucus chair Joe Cortez (left) confers with International President James Spinosa (center) and International Vice President Bob McEllrath (right).
Story by Steve Stallone
Photos by Lewis Wright
Continuing preparations for what promises to be another contentious round of negotiations in 2008, the Longshore Division Caucus reviewed and updated its plans to be in a position of strength.
They grappled with new government port security regulations that could screen members off the waterfront, plotted a legislative and electoral plan, strategized the continuing conflict with the employers over jurisdiction and technology, took the next steps to further the Coast public relations program, authorized the development of new member education materials, solidified its alliance with a growing international dockers organization and approved a budget for the next year to carry it all out.
PORT SECURITY
In a belated attempt to appear pro-active on port security, the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) has mandated that all longshore workers must be checked against the FBI’s terrorist watch list. To do so the government has required employers and unions to provide it with the names, dates of birth (DOB) and Social Security numbers of all workers having unescorted access to U.S. ports.
To prove there are no terrorists in the ILWU, the Caucus agreed to furnish the names and DOBs in compliance with current government regulations. But citing privacy and identity theft concerns, the Coast Committee does not keep nor would it give out members’ Social Security numbers, especially since recently the personal information of 26 million war veterans was stolen from government data bases. The Social Security numbers are not required, and since they show up in government data bases along with name and DOB, the government will likely only need them if there is more than one person with the same name and DOB.
If there is a match with the terrorist watch list, the government will notify the individual and the union and/or employer. The individual can file for an appeal within 30 days of notification, although DHS has not set a standard of review. The individual is responsible for filing the appeal, but the ILWU will assist any member or casual falsely snagged in the process.
Delegates line up for their turn to speak at the mic.
PENSION AND WELFARE
The Pension and Welfare Benefits Committee reported that health care costs continue to rise substantially, driven by administrative costs and the profits required by the American private health insurance system. Still, the maritime trade industry is booming and the Coast employers can afford the Longshore Division’s demand of Maintenance of Benefits (MOB).
The committee recommended that in the 2008 negotiations the union “remains committed not to accept any increases in co-pays of any type.” Once the union opens the door to co-pays, the committee contended, there’s no telling where it will stop or how high it might go. To keep the ranks solid in that position the committee also recommended preparing a member education program on health care and the need for MOB and that Area Benefits Directors, Locals and Pensioner Clubs continue to remind MediCare eligible actives, pensioners and surviving spouses that they receive their prescription drug coverage through the ILWU Welfare Plan and that Medicare eligible actives, pensioners and surviving spouses are not to sign up for the MediCare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit. The committee also stressed the importance of checking the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) that comes in the mail to verify all the services billed were received.
While keeping its maintenance of benefits the fundamental requirement, the union continues to pursue alternative approaches to quality health care and to work to pass universal single-payer legislation as the only real solution to the national health care crisis. The union will request the employers to join in this effort as agreed to in the 2002 contract.
The report also stressed the importance of the longshore Defined Benefit Pension plan. And the committee proposed discussing a study of the environmental health affects of longshore work on it members and port communities. The Caucus accepted all the committee’s recommendations.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
The PR Committee reviewed its work of the last year to improve the union’s image and train its rank and file to do the on-the-ground work to make it happen. This included the Coastwise media trainings for local officers, its week-long communications seminar for 61 rank and filers last January and the recent projects where the skills learned were put to use—unveiling the ILWU’s anti-air pollution “Savings Lives” campaign and staffing the ILWU exhibition booth at high profile events.
The committee recommended and the Caucus agreed, to continue its local officer and rank-and-file training program, build the union’s website and its e-activism capacity, support the Tacoma-based “Black History and labor” celebrations produced by International Secretary-Treasurer Willie Adams, sponsor the Local 10 Drill Team to travel to three port cities to perform at public events and begin interviewing national and local PR firms in preparation for 2008 and building more internal PR capacity.
The Caucus-funded documentary film on the 2002 contract struggle—“The Eye of the Storm”—was shown to delegates. They decided to send it to the Negotiating Committee to critique and send suggestions to the Coast Committee that will make final decisions on it.
SAFETY NOW
Safety Committee chair John Castanho introduced his group’s report and the importance of its work by reading the names and locals of the three ILWU longshore workers killed on the job since the last Caucus a year ago, and asking for a moment of silence in their memory.
The issue of Vertical Tandem Lifts (VTLs), the dangerous practice of lifting more than one container at a time, took an odd twist as the U.S. military proposed a Horizontal Tandem Lift (HTL), picking them up side-by-side instead of on top of each other. The Safety Committee contends there are no safe connectors for containers no matter the configuration. Similarly, the Safety Committee remains steadfastly against driving through the gamma ray-emitting Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System (VACIS), especially since at a recent Congressional hearing employers asked not to be made liable in future lawsuits by longshore workers over diseases caused by exposure from VACIS machines.
The committee’s continuing work on worker exposures from leaking hide loads finally got the U.S. Hide, Skin and Leather Association to institute measures to improve hide load safety. Currently the largest hide-handling company, Carghill, has started using 20 mm sleeve liners to limit exposures to the most virulent E-Coli virus strains. The committee will continue to pursue other safety technologies.
The committee reported that as a result of its pro-active work on federal occupational health regulations, one of its members, Safety Committee chair John Castanho, will have a seat on the Marine Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (MACOSH) once the Dept. of Labor re-charters the committee.
MEMBER EDUCATION
The Education Committee sponsored four area workshops on the Longshore Health and Welfare Benefits program last fall, explaining to active members and pensioners what they have, how to access it and the importance of demanding MOB in the 2008 negotiations. The committee is also working on a Longshore Education Class to be used as a template for local membership education programs and is reviewing and cataloging education materials for local use.
The committee is currently planning a series of workshops on International Relations and Solidarity focusing on how employers are trying to restrict or eliminate union dockers’ rights and jurisdiction worldwide, and how docker unions are organizing to protect each other; on the Pacific Coast Marine Safety Code and how it has developed as part of the Longshore contract over the decades; on contract administration, arbitrations and grievance procedures; and on preparing for the 2008 negotiations.
THE POLITICAL ARENA
The Legislative Committee reiterated its recommendations from last year to continue fundraising for both national and local Political Action Funds and educate members about its importance; build the area District Councils and coordinate strategies with all divisions of the ILWU; coordinate a political action, legislation and public relations strategy; and build coalitions with other progressive groups.
The committee further recommended designing a contract legislative strategy in preparation for 2008 and that funds be used to send members to key states in an attempt to take back the House of Representatives from the Republicans in the November 2006 mid-term elections.
Legislative Director Lindsay McLaughlin reported on his work in Washington, D.C., particularly on issues of port security. He stressed the importance of electing a Democratic majority in the House because then Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), a long-time friend of the ILWU, would be Speaker of the House and in a position to block any anti-ILWU legislation that might arise during the 2008 negotiations.
Northwest Coast Committeeman Joe Wenzl, who is not running for re-election, was honored at the end of the Caucus.
TECHNOLOGY AND JURISDICTION
The Clerks’ Technology Committee reported that the employers are using their new technologies differently than initially presented. For example, the PierPass program was supposed to be an appointment system for delivering and picking up containers. But now the employers are using the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags on containers for traffic tracking and control throughout the terminal. In numerous other ways they are using new technologies not just to eliminate clerks’ work, but outsource as much of the documentation and coordination of cargo as they can.
Their ultimate goal is to remove clerks from the docks and completely automate terminals, including longshore equipment.
But the Technology Committee is using the framework for new technology implementation in the 2002 contract to keep the jobs. The committee looks first at how a new technology modifies jobs—rather than replaces them—and sees what jobs remain and what new ones are created.
The employers’ tactic is to try to use procedural reasons to deny the union an opportunity to argue for jobs. They purposefully try to confuse the issues and hide information about the new technology they are contractually mandated to give the union. They have hired additional personnel dedicated to fighting the union over technology issues.
But the union’s technology committee has fought back and won about 75 percent of its arbitrations and procedural challenges. It has won additional job categories and paid trainings for new positions. But a lot of the new jobs are higher skilled, and the union needs to make sure its members are able to handle them or management will step into the void.
FINANCES
The Budget Committee reported that the Longshore Division’s finances have “improved substantially” over the last year even while funding its ambitious programs. This was accomplished in part by basing its budget on the dues of 11,000 members when new registration has increased the Division’s numbers to 14,000.
The committee projects that even with the expanded programs the Caucus approved, it will still remain within budget without increasing the members’ pro-rata payments.
CRUISE SHIP JURISDICTION
Cruise ship work has been expanding dramatically all along the Coast, but with that growth has come problems with jurisdiction and manning.
In June of 2005 Carnival Cruise Lines and SSA challenged ILWU jurisdiction in Alaska, moving its port-of-call from the union port of Steward to Whittier. Some 90 rank and filers from all over the Coast were sent to Whittier to convince the employers of the folly of their ways. A picket line, some arrests and some union-positive media soon did the trick.
Still, inconsistent manning at different ports has caused problems, but the committee is working to establish a standard.
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY
Director of International Affairs Ray Familathe reviewed the Division’s International solidarity work over the last year. The Longshore Division sponsored a four-day Pacific Rim Mining and Maritime gathering in Long Beach, Calif. in May 2005 with the help of Boron Local 30 and borax processing Local 20. The meeting brought together unions in the critical natural resources global supply chain to discuss ways to help each other with their mutual international employers.
The following September the Coast Committee and Familathe led a 15-member delegation to England for the 10-year commemoration of the Liverpool Dockers struggle, which initiated the modern international dockers movement. The Coast Committee and Familathe also represented the ILWU in Barcelona, Spain in March 2005 for the Second General Assembly of the International Dockworkers Council (IDC), an international dockers organization formed during the Liverpool Dockers dispute.
And in January 2006 International Secretary-Treasurer Willie Adams led an ILWU delegation to Strasbourg, France to protest a European Union plan to privatize docks throughout the continent. The European-wide demonstrations and port shutdowns organized by the IDC and the International Transport Workers’ Federation’s (ITF) European faction the European Transport Workers Federation (ETF), forced the European Parliament to vote down the plan.
IDC leader Julian Garcia from the Spanish docker union Coordinadora addressed the Caucus. He told the delegates about the recent growth in numbers and strength of the IDC and of the ILWU’s crucial role in the global dockers movement. (A longer interview with Garcia will be published in the next issue of The Dispatcher.)
Local 63 pensioner Lewis Wright reported on a May 2006 trip he made to Mexico for the Coast Committee to meet with Mexican longshore workers there who are beginning the rebuilding of port worker unions after the government smashed them and privatized the nation’s ports in 1995.
Two Mexican Pacific Coast ports, Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, are expanding their container capacity and Hutchison Ports of Hong Kong is building a new container port facility 150 miles south of Ensenada. Along with a rail line running across Mexico and through Texas to Kansas City, the idea is to bypass the ILWU Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.
Wright met with the Mexican longshore unionists together with the ITF’s Antonio Fritz Rodriguez and Frank Leys and Benjamin Davis of the AFL-CIO Mexico Solidarity Center to explore setting up relations and lines of communications between the ILWU and the Mexican dockers for mutual aid. Further discussions will continue.
COAST COMMITTEEMEN NOMINATIONS
As it does every three years, the Caucus nominated candidates for the Coast Committeemen positions. Incumbent California Coast Committeeman Ray Ortiz Jr. is running unopposed. Since current Northwest Coast Committeeman Joseph Wenzl is not seeking re-election, the Northwest Coast Committeeman race will be between Duane Johnson (Local 51, Port Gamble) and Leal Sundet (Local 8, Portland).
Coast Committeeman Ray Ortiz, Jr. addresses Longshore Caucus delegates.
