IBU fights to protect jurisdiction, area wage standards on tugs and barges in LA/Long Beach
On May 6th, members of the ILWU’s marine division—the Inlandboatmen’s Union (IBU), and ILWU Locals 13, 63, 94, 63 OCU, the Pacific Coast Pensioners Association, Federated Auxiliary 8, and the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots (MM&P) rallied outside Westoil Marine Service on Terminal Island in San Pedro to protect IBU’s historic jurisdiction and the area wage standards they have created through their contracts.
Corporate shell games
A complicated shell game consisting of asset exchanges by two large national marine transportation corporations—Saltchuk Marine and Centerline Logistic—has upended the livelihood of scores of maritime workers represented by the IBU, MM&P, and the Sailors Union of the Pacific (SUP) and weakens the Southwest Marine Pension Trust. Saltchuk and Centerline have used the asset exchange as an opportunity to replace longstanding contracts with the IBU and the MM&P with a substandard agreement with company-friendly, Seafarers International Union (SIU) that undermines the standards for fair wages and benefits previously set by the IBU and MM&P collective bargaining agreements.
In December of last year, Saltchuk Marine announced that it acquired eight ship assist tugs owned by Centerline Logistics and operated in the Pacific Northwest and California. Centerline Logistics, in turn, purchased six bunker barges operated in California from Foss Maritime, a subsidiary of Saltchuk. A bunker barge is like a floating petrol station. The bunker barge pumps fuel oil, into the ship’s storage (bunker) tanks.
Workers impacted in LA & SF
The effect of this deal had an immediate impact on mariners from LA/Long Beach to San Francisco. In LA/Long Beach Foss Maritime terminated twenty-one employees who worked on its bunker barges. The collective bargaining agreement with MM&P who represented the mariners was voided as were contributions to the Southwest Marine Pension Trust. In San Francisco, roughly the same number of employees represented by the Sailors Union of the Pacific also lost their jobs when Foss Maritime stopped its operations.
“The day after Christmas I received a call from Foss Maritime stating that they had sold their bunker barge business and that the contract which had two-and-a-half years left on it and employed 21 of our members was gone,” said Sly Hunter, Regional Representative for MM&P. “They said the company was sold to Centerline Logistics, which then created a subsidiary, called Leo Marine. They claim that MM&P didn’t have jurisdiction. We tried to sit down with everyone to try to come to a resolution and work out a new contract. We hit dead ends everywhere. They refused to meet with us.”
The transaction also impacted 55 IBU members working for the Centerline-owned Westoil/Millennium when Centerline’s Millennium-branded tug operation was sold to Saltchuk operation.
Instead of folding the six bunker barges and the contracts it acquired from Foss into its existing marine fueling companies including Westoil, Centerline gave the contract and barges to its newly created subsidiary, Leo Marine Services, leaving many of the IBU mariners who manned both the Millennium tugs and the Westoil barges without work.
All that remains now for the 55 workers at Westoil are contracts from two smaller customers.
“I was laid off from my permanent position. Now I am on an on-call status and my hours have been cut by 50 percent,” said IBU member Michael Zuanich who has worked for Westoil for eight years. “In a couple of months, I will probably lose my medical benefits. No more overtime. No more regular schedule. It’s been a drastic change for me and my family. This has affected about 55 IBU members who have lost their jobs. I have a little more seniority, so I still get some work but other workers are getting nothing.”
“Some of these workers are struggling to pay rent right now,” said IBU Southern California Regional Director John Skow. “Some are at risk of losing their medical benefits. It’s challenging right now, especially during this pandemic. This company had made millions of dollars and even got a PPP loan,” Skow said noting that Centerline received a $10 million loan from the federal government that was given to businesses to keep their workforces employed during COVID.
Sweetheart deal with SIU
IBU President Jay Ubelhart explained that after Leo Marine was incorporated on February 2, the company recognized and signed an agreement with the Seafarers International Union (SIU) in record time. On February 19, 2021, after only two days of negotiating, Leo Marine recognized the SIU as the representative union of Leo Marine workers, Ubelhart said. The SIU petitioned the NLRB with recognition cards from only thirteen workers. Leo had not yet hired the 50 to 60 employees it would need. Within days of recognition Centerline/Leo entered a collective bargaining agreement with the SIU. SIU is known as a company-friendly union with sweetheart contracts that shortchange the workers they are supposed to be representing.
“I have never had a new contract negotiated in two days, signed, sealed, and delivered,” Ubelhart said. “The SIU is a predator union. We don’t believe that contract is even valid. They signed a contract when they only had a handful of workers out of a workforce of what is now 40 mariners.”
Built on the backs of workers
Zuanich noted that Westoil was successful because of the hard work of IBU members, only to have the company turn its backs on the very workers to whom they owe their success.
“Westoil started over 20 years ago,” Zuanich said. “They purchased a small tug and barge outfit. At that time, they had two boats and three barges. In 20 years, with IBU labor, they built a fleet of 11 barges and 4-6 tugboats from our sweat. We worked day and nights, holidays—while management was home on their three-day weekends, spending Christmas with their children. Now we are not good enough. They got about 80 percent of the contracts in the harbor because of our safety record and our work ethic. Centerline logistics—I think their slogan is ‘Lead with Integrity.’ This doesn’t look like integrity to me.”
Never giving up
The IBU and MM&P have both vowed to fight this attack on their jurisdiction and area standards for mariners in LA/Long Beach.
“This is a coordinated, organized attack against labor. We are never giving up,” Hunter vowed.
Ubelhart said both unions are pursuing all available legal challenges to Centerline. The recognition of the SIU and its low standard contract with Leo Marine is being contested by the IBU and MM&P. Leo Marine employees are also contesting representation of the SIU and the agreement that they did not bargain or ratify. They claim the company violated their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.
The IBU and MM&P have both filed Unfair Labor Practices against Centerline/Leo with the Labor Board. Campaigns seeking a fair and honest election for representation from other unions have begun in both LA/LB Harbors and San Francisco Bay.
“If we can’t win these contracts back, we are going to organize the people doing that work,” said Ubelhart. “They will become a part of the ILWU/IBU family and then they will know what a decent contract is. One of the backbones of the ILWU is to organize the unorganized. Those workers are not our enemy. They are just working people who were looking for a job when they signed on with Leo Marine. We want to protect our jobs and keep our hard-fought area standards. The LA/Long Beach tugboat contracts are the envy of everyone—the best on the West Coast without a doubt. We want to keep hostile unions from taking over our turf and we will fight them.”
You’ve got family
At the rally, ILWU International Vice President (Mainland) Bobby Olvera addressed the workers from Westoil and promised the full weight and support of the International to the ongoing struggle.
“You do not walk alone. Everybody is here for you,” Olvera said. “Centerline thought this was going to be a little fight. Now we are doing organizing drives in two different areas. IBU, Westoil workers—you’ve got family here. We are here for you 100 percent. This is the ILWU’s fight. This is the IBU’s fight. This the MMP’s fight. We will set the tone. We will set the narrative. And that is how we are going to win. The next time we meet in this parking lot, it may not be a victory celebration, but it will be the precursor to a victory celebration. At some point in the very near future, we are going to walk down this road, we are going to open the gate and we are going to take back the jobs that are rightfully ours.”