ILWU hosts first online Leadership Education webinar

Guiding principles: ILWU International Secretary-Treasurer Ed Ferris said that by utilizing available technologies, the union’s education program would continue despite the obstacles posed by the pandemic.

The ILWU hosted its first online leadership education webinar on September 22nd. The webinar focused on the ILWU’s 10 Guiding Principles. It was organized by the Education Department after the LEAD conference that had been scheduled for May of this year in Sacramento was canceled because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

ILWU International Secretary-Treasurer Ed Ferris introduced the event. He said that the union was committed to continuing its education program despite the obstacles posed by the pandemic.

“It’s important that we keep getting together and promoting education throughout our union,” Ferris said. “What a better way than to discuss our 10 Guiding Principles. They were created in 1953. They are the blueprint under which we operate.” Robin Walker, the ILWU’s Director of Educational Services and Librarian & Archivist, moderated the event, which featured six ILWU leaders each discussing one of the Guiding Principles and how it informs their union work and activism.

Local 63 member and Chair of the Coast Longshore Division Education Committee Patricia Aguirre spoke to the First Guiding Principle:

A Union is built on its members. The strength, understanding and unity of the membership can determine the union’s course and its advancements. The members who work, who make up the union and pay its dues can best determine their own destiny. If the facts are honestly presented to the members in the ranks, they will best judge what should be done and how it should be done. In brief, it is the membership of the union which is the best judge of its own welfare; not the officers, not the employers, not the politiciansand the fair weather friends of labor. Above all, this approach is based on the conviction that given the truth and an opportunity to determine their own course of action, the rank and file in 99 cases out of 100 will take the right path in their own interests and in the interests of all the people.

“I fell in love with the 10 Guiding Principles as a casual,” Aguirre said. “They are not religiously based or politically based. They are about us as workers and the power of the working class when we come together.” Aguirre stressed that the lesson she took from the First Guiding Principle was the importance of an informed and active rank-and-file membership.

“The key words are understanding and unity because, without these two, we do not have strength. It’s clear that this principle is about the rank-and-file. We are the ones who work and pay the dues and we are the ones who can best determine our own destiny,” Aguirre said. “Because of the sacrifices of workers who came before us, we sometimes think we can just come to work, do our jobs and then sit back and wait for the officers to protect our union and our work. Together we need to make sure that all members are active and involved. This is where our power comes from as a union.”

The Second Guiding Principle was discussed by Rhonda Morris, an International Executive Board Member from Local 142:

Labor unity is at all times the key for a successful economic advancement. Anything that detracts from labor unity hurts all labor. Any group of workers which decides to put itself above other workers through craft unionism or through cozy deals at the expense of others will in the long run gain but little and inevitably will lose both its substance and its friends. No matter how difficult the going, a union must fight in every possible way to advance the principle of labor unity.

Morris talked about the ILWU’s history of organizing in Hawaii. She explained that Local 142 represents a broad range of workers and industries and crafts including “longshore, tourism, pineapple, hotels and car dealership mechanics.” She said that Local’s history as well as their approach to organizing and bargaining in the hotel sector both embody the Second Guiding Principle of labor unity.

Morris said the in the 1950s the ILWU in Hawaii had several smaller locals but they merged together to form one large local to build strength.

“We needed this unity to survive against the employers,” she said. “The first sentence of the principle ‘Labor unity is at all times the key for a successful economic advancement,’ sums up exactly what the locals in Hawaii did.”

Morris then explained how the ILWU bargaining units at hotels in Hawaii also are organized across craft lines and how that works to benefit of all the workers.

“Our hotel workers include restaurant workers, banquet workers, valet, bells, reservationists, pool, recreation, coffee bar, housekeeping, and engineering. They are all a part of ILWU,” Morris said. “When we go into negotiations we have representation form everyone in the hotel.We are united. You should see the face of the employers when there are 13 to 15 of us walking into negotiations as a team to get our contracts.”

Local 500 Member Joulene Parent spoke to the Third GuidingPrinciple:

Workers are indivisible. There can be no discrimination because of race, color, creed, national origin, religious or political belief, sex, gender preference, or sexual orientation. Any division among the workers can help no one but the employers. Discrimination of worker against worker is suicide. Discrimination is a weapon of the boss. Its entire history is proof that it has served no other purpose than to pit worker against worker to their own destruction.

Parent talked about the importance of supporting allies and the importance of fighting for equity for all workers. “We can’t have slogans without putting action behind it,” she said. She also spoke about the need to elevate those that aren’t at the table through education, support and by amplifying the voices of people who have been marginalized. “We can only make changes when we bring people together.”

Local 5 International Executive Board member Myka Dubay spoke to the Fifth Guiding Principle:

Just as water flows to its lowest level, so do wages if the bulk of the workers are left unorganized. The day of craft unionism – the aristocracy of labor – was over when mass production methods were introduced. To organize the unorganized must be a cardinal principle of any union worth its salt; and to accomplish this is not merely in the interest of the unorganized, it is for the benefit of the organized as well.

Dubay spoke about the ways in which Local 5’s organizing program has embraced this principle. “Currently, Local 5 has active campaigns organizing veterinary workers and child care workers,” Dubay said.

“We are broadening who we are organizing and how we are organizing,” they said. “What these workers are discovering is that this is a way for them to address these issues of income inequality and to make the job more equitable.”

Workers at Columbia River Veterinary Specialists recently ratified the first ever private-sector union contract in the veterinary industry. “We are showing workers what is possible and that they can fight and do more. We are seeing workers win more and that is possible to get better wages and conditions and to demand better and that they deserve better and that there are people willing to go to bat for them,” they said.

Terri Mast Secretary-Treasurer of the Inlandboatmen’s Union, the maritime division of the ILWU, spoke on the Eighth Guiding Principle:

The basic aspiration and desires of the workers throughout the world are the same. Workers are workers the world over. International solidarity, particularly to maritime workers, is essential to their protection and a guarantee of reserve economic power in times of strife.

Mast talked about the ILWU’s long history of using their power on the docks to support struggles for social justice around the world and in the US.

“Because the ILWU’s international solidarity has been unwavering since the formation of our union we have built relationships with other maritime unions nationally and internationally knowing that this would give us more strength,” she said. “Our history is rich and we have the opportunity to build on it.”

Mast said that the ILWU has also formed bonds with other maritime unions through international labor organizations such as the International Transport Workers Federation. She noted that maritime unions share the employers and face many of the same issues and challenges.

“It’s important for us to be engaged in international solidarity. Just as capital and our employers are international, so must labor be,” Mast said.

“We have power when we all work together and the employers know it. They will fight back either with violence or to try and use the legal realm and try and break our banks. But we won’t stop. We will continue to fight.”

Local 10 and International Executive Board member Melvin Mackay spoke to the Ninth Guiding Principle:

A new type of unionism is called for which does not confine its ambitions and demands only to wages. Conditions of work, security of employment and adequate provisions for the workers and their families in times of need are of equal, if not greater importance, than the hourly wage.

Mackay spoke about the importance of educating members about their rights on the job. “It’s not about money, it’s about protecting this organization. It’s about protecting our jurisdiction,” he said. Mackay stressed the value of the Alcoholism/Drug Recovery Program for longshore workers who struggle with substance use problems. Mackay also said it is important for members to utilize the benefits and conditions won in contracts.

The webinar was the first in what we hope to be an ongoing series of such events. With the COVID-19 Pandemic making it impossible for us to come together for in-person events and difficult to meet face-to-face, education provides an important key to creating and maintaining the ILWU’s union culture and highlighting our union’s values and history. It is a positive way to offer connection as a union in times when we may feel isolated or anxious in these troubled times.