By Robert McEllrath
ILWU International President

Today we are preparing to fight old battles in a new way. We are going to be more aggressive about moving the Union forward in a progressive direction. To do this takes all of the local officers, the International, and the support of the rank and file.

This means that putting out our message about the programs and principles of the ILWU is of the utmost importance. This requires public relations and education, and has to be done in a positive manner. What we need now is productive, proactive, constructive output, such as radio and television ads showing the positive side of the ILWU.  For example, International Vice President Wesley Furtado and Local 142 collaborated to make television spots on Hawaiian local stations to profile the ILWU, showing its contributions to the community; Longshore Local 10 put together spot ads on radio during broadcasts of Raiders and 49’ers football games that describe exactly what longshore workers do for their local economy. Good job!

The time to undertake these kinds of outreach campaigns is now. At the upcoming Longshore Caucus in April, I will propose that we budget $1,000,000 for a public relations campaign to get out our message through 2008. We cannot wait until 2008 to do this. This campaign will not just benefit Longshore for next year’s negotiations, it will build awareness and understanding of all sectors of our Union and the thousands of our members who will be under the gun in bargaining.

Next, we will help train local officers in a series of educational programs. As of this writing, local secretary-treasurers and trustees are being trained in union administration in San Francisco. Next up will be the Longshore Division’s Contract Administration Workshop. These workshops will train our local officers in grievance handling and arbitration procedures. Our Longshore ranks are growing rapidly and we need to be aggressive in teaching and supporting upcoming local leaders and new members.

Next, in September, we will hold another of our highly successful Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) programs, focusing on “What it will take in 2008.” This means learning the nuts and bolts of internal preparation and member participation in support of the union’s positions at both the bargaining table and in the political arena in this next critical chapter in the life of the ILWU.

In the Longshore Division, again on the idea of strength through unity, we will bring together the Clerks’ Technology and the Longshore Technology committees for a roundtable discussion about the implementation of new technology in our industry. We will also be visiting the new Maersk facility in Virginia to observe the automated container handling equipment.

As we get closer to Longshore bargaining we will also conduct media training for local officers, so that those who have the authority to speak for the ILWU at the local level will have the necessary communications tools and will know how to use them.

We will also set our sights on raising a million dollars for our Political Action Fund to increase our successes in 2008 beyond the extraordinary outcomes we helped achieve last fall. 

The global economic pressures we are facing, that have been putting pressure on our workers in Hawaii and warehouse workers everywhere, also requires us to take our historic principle of international solidarity to new heights. We will not only be talking the talk of mutual aid and support, and walking the walk when called upon, but we will be taking new steps and exploring new directions as necessary. We have stepped up our participation in the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), and we have been meeting and communicating with longshore workers in Mexico to discuss issues of mutual concern—including more formal ties between our organizations.

Anyone who reads the maritime industry press or business pages of the newspaper knows of the potential development of the Pacific ports in Mexico as an alternative to Los Angeles and Long Beach for inbound goods from Asia. I decided it was time to go down to Mexico and meet with our counterparts in the Mexican dockworkers’ union. On Dec. 4, 2006 I led a delegation to the largest Mexican container port, Manzanillo, in the State of Colima. I was joined by Leal Sundet from the Coast Committee, Ray Familathe, Director of International Affairs, and Peter Olney, Director of Organizing. Ben Davis from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center joined our delegation in Manzanillo. We held a daylong meeting with Cecilio “Lepe” Bautista, General Secretary of the Union de Estibadores Del Mar Pacifico (Pacific Ocean Dockworkers Union).

We discovered that we have strong mutual interests and share similar problems with common employers. SSA has a major presence in Manzanillo and we visited their terminal operations. We pledged to invite a delegation from the Mexican dockworkers to visit our ports and our members in the near future. Ties with Mexican dockworkers needs to be deepened and developed.

We will continue to work with the International Dockworkers Council and take concrete measures as needed, such as our recent decision to fund the new IDC office in Brazil. We will do what it takes to follow up on our commitments. We will be an active partner in each and every organization and coalition in which we have a seat at the table. We will, in other words, walk the walk.

My focus with this new administration is on quickly and effectively implementing the programs and policies established by the 2006 ILWU Convention and Longshore Caucus, and as decided by the rank and file delegates to those meetings—and by the thousands of rank and filers who cast their ballots in our election over the summer.

We may be talking about a New Direction, but what we are really talking about is going in the same proud and progressive direction taken by the ILWU for over 70 years—but going about it a new way, with some new tools. We, the Titled Officers at the International and the Coast Committee, know what we have to do—but we won’t get very far without your support and participation.

An Injury to One is an Injury to All!