Consulting at the IDC meeting (left to right) ILWU Coast Committeeman Leal Sundet, ILWU International President Bob McEllrath, IDC General Coordinator Julian Garcia, IDC Staffer Teresa Alert, and Swedish Dockworkers' Union President. Photo by Bill Orton. ILWU officers met with their global docker counterparts of the International Dockworkers Council (IDC) for a meeting of the organization’s regional leaders in Long Beach on Oct. 24, 2006. These “zone coordinators” discussed each area’s activities and issues as well as the organization’s expansion and finances.
The IDC was founded as an organization of longshore unions in 2001 after the failed attempt to win back the jobs of the Liverpool Dockers who were fired for refusing to cross a picket line. Dockers around the world felt the need for an industry specific solidarity organization to deal with attacks from their common employers. The new coordinated strength of the international unions played a crucial role in the Charleston 5 victory, in the ILWU’s 2002 contract struggle and in the victory over attempts to privatize European ports.
The IDC’s international General Coordinator, Julian Garcia of the Spanish dockers union La Coordinadora, reported on his recent organizing travels. He successfully convinced the dockworkers in Brazil—some 12,000 to 15,000 of them—to join the IDC. Their representatives had planned to attend this meeting, but visa delays prevented their trip.
Garcia proposed establishing a zone office in the Brazilian city of Itahai, where the country’s second biggest port is, to solidify relations with the Brazilian dockworkers. ILWU International President Bob McEllrath (who also serves as Zone Coordinator for North America’s West Coast and the Pacific Rim), in light of the IDC’s current budgetary shortfall and to avoid further delays, announced that the ILWU Coast Committee would fund the opening of the IDC office in Brazil with a check of $5,000.
Bjorn Borg, the European Zone Coordinator and President of the Swedish Dockworkers’ Union, reported on the successful demonstration in Strasbourg, France against a second attempt at a European Port Directive, a plan in the European Commission that would have allowed sailors to do dockers’ cargo-handling work—a dangerous precedent—and would have deregulated various port services throughout the continent. Borg stated that based on their overwhelming success at raising attention to this issue, the consensus is that the European Parliament and the employer stakeholders are not likely to push for another port directive anytime soon.
ILWU President McEllrath reported on his recent trip to the Japanese dockworkers last May and to the Liverpool dockers in October. Highlighting the ILWU’s “Saving Lives” anti-air pollution campaign, he introduced Dr. Andrea Hricko of the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, who presented her research on the risks to dockworkers from diesel exhaust and ship emissions.
ILWU clerks’ Local 63 President Joe Gasperov informed the group about the union’s problems with the employers’ attempts to introduce new information technology. The technology itself still has many bugs, but the employers are still trying to use it to outsource clerks’ work.
McEllrath reported that the ILWU’s employers are still trying to eliminate or minimize the dispatch hall by assigning more steady workers to terminals. Garcia said the same thing is happening in Spain and reiterated the need to retain the dispatch halls as a place where co-workers meet and a place to train and educate new dockers to ensure they become good union workers.
Elias Costilla, the Latin American Zone Coordinator from Peru reported on his visits with dockworkers in various ports in Mexico to feel out possibilities for future affiliations with the IDC. He is planning further organizational trips to Venezuela and the Dominican Republic in the near future.
Pat Riley, President of ILA Local 273 in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, and the North American East Coast and Canada Zone Coordinator, reported how his ILA locals in Canada are now working with other Canadian maritime unions, including ILWU Canada on the country’s West Coast, to oppose the government’s draconian background checks of dockers as part of its port security program. He also noted that the Canadian unions are working on passing legislation that would outlaw scab replacement workers during a union strike.
Victor Morin from Spain’s La Coordinadora union reported that the IDC has been having difficulty collecting dues from its member unions and that the organization is currently in debt. The group agreed they would send one more invoice to the delinquent unions and that zone coordinators would follow up with phone calls.
The meeting ended with consensus that the next meeting of the full General Assembly of the IDC should be on the U.S. West Coast with the ILWU hosting, probably some time in October or November 2007. ILWU officers would review options and finalize a date and place later.
With this Zone Coordinators meeting being held in Long Beach, several other ILWU officials attended and contributed, including International Vice President Joe Radisich, International Secretary-Treasurer Willie Adams, Coast Committeemen Ray Ortiz Jr. and Leal Sundet, Director of International Affairs Ray Familathe, foremen’s Local 94 President Danny Miranda and Vice President Frank North and member Louis Hill. Also attending was ILA Charleston Local 1422 President Ken Riley.
—Dispatcher Staff reports
