Front row, left to right--John M. Castanho (10), Pete Hendrickson (200), Jerry Ylonen (8), Al Le Monnier (Local 500 and Third Vice President, ILWU Canada), Dave Dosen (500); Middle Row--Chuck Zuckerman (500), John Collins (502), Pete Favazza (M&R), Richard Alvarez (13); Back Row--Mike Zuliani (63), Roger Boespflug (23), Dennis Brueckner (54), Nate Lum (142), Danny Miranda (94).
By John Castanho
History was made during the ILWU Convention in Vancouver, British Columbia. For the first time in anyone’s memory, the Longshore Safety Committees from the U.S. West Coast, Canada, Hawaii and Alaska all met for a meeting to discuss a variety of issues regarding the health and safety of all longshore workers.
The convention provided the extraordinary opportunity for longshore safety committee representatives, most of whom were delegates, to meet May 19, after the adjournment of the convention. The states of California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska, as well as the Canadian Province of British Columbia were all represented at this meeting. Numerous safety-related issues were discussed, including diesel and ship’s emissions, Automatic External Defibrillators, Vertical Tandem Lifts, Horizontal Tandem Lifts, Multiple Flatrack Lifts, safe methods of steel discharge and discussions regarding the recent accidents and fatalities that have occurred in different ports around the world.
The meeting turned out to be an excellent opportunity for committee members to exchange ideas promoting safer longshore work practices, discuss furthering the education of our membership regarding the importance of safety awareness and discuss the need to promote the “Greener Ports” initiative that has already been undertaken on the West Coast. All Safety Committee members took advantage of the opportunity to exchange phone numbers and e-mail addresses in order to improve our lines of communication. Through this, it is our intent to make all of our work-sites a safer place to work.
The following Coast Safety Committee members were present at the meeting: John M. Castanho (Local 10, Chairman), Danny Miranda (94), Jerry Ylonen (8), Mike Zuliani (63), Pete Favazza (M&R), Dennis Brueckner (54), Roger Boespflug (23), and Richard Alvarez (13). For the Hawaii longshore Safety Committee, Nate Lum (Chairman, Local 142), Ross Furoyama (142), Nathan Dudoit (142), David Jones (142), Kimo Brown (142), and Tyrone Tahara (142). For the Alaskan longshore Safety Committee, Pete Hendrickson (200) and Dennis Young (200) were present. And representing the Canadian longshore Safety Committee were Al Le Monnier (Chairman, Local 500), Bill Fraser (502), Chuck Zuckerman (500), John Collins ( 502), Dan Cook (505), Dave Dosen (500) and Dave Pritchett (500). Frank Leys, Secretary of the Dockers’ Section of the International Transport Workers’ Federation was also present.
The Canadian delegation wished to inform our membership that the meeting was very worthwhile, and the only disappointment was that we did not have more time to discuss additional safety-related issues. It is our hope that we can all meet again soon to continue exchanging ideas and share information.
