51st annual Pacific Coast Pensioners convenes in Portland

The Pacific Coast Pensioners Association (PCPA) held their 51st Annual Convention from September 16-19 in Portland, OR. A total of 154 people attended this year’s meeting including 88 PCPA delegates who tackled issues ranging from Long Term Health Care Insurance to the importance of getting out- the-vote for pro-union candidates in the November mid-term elections.

The convention was dedicated to the memory of pensioners who have passed since the last convention.

Elected officers from the International and local unions included ILWU Secretary-Treasurer Willie Adams, Local 13 President Mark Mendoza, Local 63 President Joe Gasperov, Local 10 President Melvin Mackay, Local 10 Secretary- Treasurer Farless Daily, and Local 8 President Bruce Holte. Also attending were Vanetta Hamlin and Trevor McCoy from the Bay Area Longshoremen’s Memorial Association (BALMA). Those unable to attend this year’s event due to the ILWU Hawaii Convention included International President Robert McEllrath, Vice President (Mainland) Ray Familathe, Vice President (Hawaii) Wesley Furtado and Coast Committeemen Frank Ponce De Leon and Cam Williams who all sent their regards.

Support for Dave Arian

PCPA President Greg Mitre began the proceedings with an announcement about Southern California Pensioner Dave Arian, who has been an active PCPA member since he retired from his waterfront career that included serving as ILWU International President and President of Local 13.

Mitre said Arian is fighting a rare form of thyroid cancer that prevented him from attending this year’s convention. “Dave has a love for the ILWU that runs deeper than I have ever known. It probably hurts Dave more to be missing the convention than we miss having him here,” Mitre said. On the convention’s last day, Mitre used his phone to place a video call that allowed Arian to see and hear the expressions of love and support coming to him from delegates and guests.

Guest speakers

Mitre then introduced Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith who is running for a seat on the Portland City Council. Commissioner Smith spoke about the important role of pensioners in our political system and praised the work by labor unions to protect wages and working conditions of all workers. “Without you, there would be no America,” Smith said.

ILWU Secretary-Treasurer Willie Adams was introduced and declared that he had attended each of the PCPA conventions during the past 14 years. “For me it all starts with the PCPA and I wanted to come and pay my respects for all that you have done for us,” Adams said.

Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley was unable to attend the convention in person, but sent a video message thanking the pensioners for their decades of work as active ILWU members, and congratulating them for securing good wages and pensions. “You recognize the critical role that labor plays in our society,” Merkley said, noting the role played by union members in passing social security, unemployment insurance, Medicare and Medicaid. He warned that “powerful and privileged forces are now trying to undermine workers’ rights and workers’ pay,” he said. Merkley expressed concern about Trump’s trade wars, saying it could slow down the economy by 3-4 percent and reduce work on the waterfront.

“Our country is at a crossroads,” he said. “Will we continue to provide a foundation built by workers and the labor movement, or do we allow the powerful and privileged to stack the deck and rig the system against working Americans?”

Local 13 President Mark Mendoza was asked to say a few words by Mitre. He spoke about the registration of new longshore workers in Southern California, criticizing employers for how long it takes “causals” to become registered longshore workers. “The average age of newly registered workers was 43 years old,” Mendoza said. He also spoke about Local 13’s political action efforts, explaining they have been very active and are trying to use the Local’s influence to help ILWU members and other workers. He closed by thanking pensioners for their work: “I appreciate what you have done to make my life better.”

PCPA President’s report

Mitre began his President’s report by recapping the ILWU General Convention held this past June, and noting the coming change in ILWU leadership.

“For the first time in many years, we will have three new Titled Officers,” said Mitre, highlighting a few of the important resolutions passed at the ILWU convention, including one allowing Panama Canal Division members to vote in the recent ILWU International elections. He also called attention to a resolution passed by ILWU’s Longshore Caucus which approved a $100,000 donation to create a fellowship at the University of Washington in honor of Local 19 member, Frank Jenkins Jr. (see September 2018 issue of the Dispatcher).

Mitre said the ILWU has been fortunate in recent years because cargo has been flowing freely and trade is booming. He reported that the ports of LA and Long Beach will move more containers this year than since 2007 on the eve of the Great Recession. One reason, he said, for today’s high cargo volumes is the effort to avoid the new trade tariffs being levied by the Trump Administration. “We’re at a crossroads in global trade,” Mitre said. “Right now the administration has put tariffs on about 25 percent of goods flowing through LA and Long Beach, but they’re proposing to hit 50 percent of goods in the next round.”

Mitre said that if these tariffs go into effect, it might impact cargo from Canada to San Diego. “I’m not just talking containers, I’m talking about apples, forestry products, automobiles, all break bulk, steel—everything that we touch, coming in and going out, will be effected.”

Mitre said pensioners should be helping active members by tackling the tariff issue – which is best done by voting themselves and getting other to vote in the midterms. “We need a Congress willing to be a check on Trump’s disastrous trade policies,” he said. Mitre also noted the unfortunate decline in the number of members who participate in union meetings. Like the tariff issue, he said pensioners can play a helpful role by educating active members and casuals about the need to participate in democratic union\ meeting – especially the need to reach members who don’t come from union backgrounds. “It’s a big problem, but we’re in a position to help with that problem,” he said.

Labor Day march

Mitre reported that this year’s Labor Day celebration in Wilmington, CA., was a huge success with over 6,000 people – making it the largest parade on the West Coast. The Southern California Pensioners Group sponsored a pre-parade breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausages and burritos at the Longshoremen’s Memorial Hall. They served 2,000 people, with Mitre making a point that “Some of the people we served were ILWU members, some were not. Some were union members, and some were not. But we opened our doors to the entire community.” He said everyone was also welcome at the huge picnic that followed the march.

Vice President’s Report

PCPA Vice President Lawrence Thibeaux spoke about this year’s Bloody Thursday celebration held at the Longshoremen’s Memorial Hall in San Francisco. His talk covered the history and meaning behind  Bloody Thursday – including the ultimate sacrifices made in 1934 by seven waterfront strikers killed in Wilmington, San Francisco, Seattle, and Hong Kong. “What makes our union strong is the strength of the rank-and-file,” Thibeaux said.

He went on to criticize what he sees as a growing problem of greed among some ILWU workers who are eroding union solidarity. Thibeaux singled-out the practice of “doubling” in which a worker takes two shifts instead of sharing the work with follow union sisters and brothers. “The hiring hall was created to equalize work and end abuse – and both were fundamental principles of the 1934 strike,” he said.

PCPA Poet Laureate Jerry Brady

The convention’s second day started with a poem from Southern California pensioner Jerry Brady, the official Poet Laureate of the PCPA. The poem, “Lest We Forget” was an homage to longshore workers and the hard work required of them on the waterfront.

ILWU Hawaii Pensioner Clayton Dela Cruz

The first speaker of the morning was ILWU Local 142 pensioner Clayton Dela Cruz who serves as Director of the ILWU Memorial Association in Hawaii and Secretary-Treasurer of the Kekaha Sugar Pensioners Club. Dela Cruz spoke about the history, structure and funding of the pensioner

clubs in Hawaii. He said the ILWU pensioner programs go back 60 years in Hawaii, with the ILWU Memorial Association helping to fund 20 pensioner clubs statewide. The groups gather every two years and have held 29 bi-annual conferences to date in Hawaii. “We rotate our meetings among the islands with funding help from the Memorial Association,” said Dela Cruz, who noted that some of the clubs are connected to county senior programs which allow the groups to use county resources for meeting sites and activities.

Like their counterparts on the mainland, club meetings in Hawaii feature topical speakers, social activities, excursions, participation in picket lines and political action including voter mobilization, education, phone banking and other “Get Out The Vote” efforts. Hawaii pensioners’ clubs are also affiliated with Hawaii’s Alliance of Retired Americans, a network of retired of union members that enables them to work together for a stronger political voice.

Benefits Specialist & ADRP reps
ILWU Coast Benefits Specialist John Castanho joined with Benefit Plan Area Directors and coordinators for the Alcohol and Drug Recovery Program (ADRP) to provide delegates with news from each program. Also present were representatives from the ILWU/ PMA Benefit Plans Office (BPO). These experts gave short presentations and made themselves available to answer questions and provide updates about health and pension plans.

Pensioners were reminded to update the Benefits Plan Office whenever they move or switch bank accounts to prevent any delays in getting checks or disrupting direct deposits. The Puget Sound Area Director Andrea Stevenson also encouraged pensioners to get their paperwork in order for illness and end of life concerns – including a will, power of attorney and advance care directive – and submit copies to the Benefits Plans Office so they can have those documents on file and easily accessible. She said having that paperwork at the BPO makes it much easier on family members in case someone becomes incapacitated.

The Convention bid farewell to Tyler Gorton, Area Welfare Director for the Columbia River and Oregon Coast Area, who is retiring in October. They welcomed Martha Hendricks who will serve as the new Area Welfare Director for that region.

ILWU Canada Report

Tom Dufresne, former President of ILWU Canada and current President of the Canadian Pensioners Club, gave a brief report about their activities during the past year. He said pensioners had successfully replaced a plaque commemorating the 1945 explosion aboard the S.S. Green Hill Park in Vancouver harbor that killed two seamen and six longshore workers. The original plaque had been removed and lost during a recent construction project.

Dufresne also spoke about their annual ceremony honoring the Battle of Ballantyne Pier, site of a famous dockworkers strike in Vancouver, BC, in June 1935. Dufresne said that shortly before this year’s ceremony, the monument commissioned by the ILWU to commemorate the strike was vandalized with a sledge hammer. He said the resulting publicity about the attack sparked interest from a local arts group to write a play about the Battle of Ballantyne that will be performed in 2019. “This act of vandalism has made a new generation aware of our history,” Dufresne said.

He closed by explaining that pensioners have been working with other retirees and community groups to tackle issues including homelessness and better access to healthcare and dental coverage for all Canadians.

Oral History Committee

The convention heard a report presented by Connor Casey, Director of the University of Washington’s Labor Archives, who was joined by and ILWU historians Harvey Schwartz and Ron Magden. The trio serve on the PCPA’s Oral History Committee. Casey spoke about the ongoing efforts to preserve records and provide access to the history of West Coast longshore workers and the ILWU. The effort is made possible with support from the University of Washington, the ILWU, the Coast Longshore Division and PCPA.

Magden and Schwartz spoke about the Oral History Committee’s work to record life and work histories of ILWU pensioners. The project began in 2013 and has collected over 40 videotaped interviews. The interviews cover a diverse range of locals, regions, and occupations from a racially diverse group made up of male and female ILWU members.

Casey said that 21 of the interviews have been transcribed and are currently available online, with an additional 13 available soon. These oral histories can be accessed at: tinyurl.com/law-pcpa.

Long Term Care Committee

The Tuesday afternoon session was devoted to extensive presentations on 401(k) management and retirement planning along with a report by the Long Term Care Committee. The Committee has been researching options for a Long Term Health Care Insurance benefit. Long term health care insurance would help cover the costs of care for chronic medical conditions or disabilities that many seniors face in their later years. The committee is chaired by Bay Area Pensioner George Romero and has been meeting weekly via conference calls. The group has researched options for a Long Term Health Care benefit and worked closely with insurance experts and consultants to address this difficult problem. The information will be shared with the Coast Pension and Welfare Committee.

Resolutions

The convention passed several resolutions including a proposal requesting a change to Article XXII of the ILWU Constitution that would require materials using the ILWU logo to be made or printed by union labor. Another resolution requested the ILWU International Executive Board to develop a policy based on the Election Rules of the ILWU Constitution to prohibit anyone from conducting union business on social media. This resolution, if acted on by the International Executive Board, could be considered by delegates to the 2021 Convention.

Another resolution recommended that the ILWU study ways to increase attendance at membership meetings and provide educational materials to implement the recommendations. Delegated also acted on a motion for the PCPA to fund a pensioner from Panama to attend next year’s PCPA Convention.

Finally, the convention adopted a proposal calling for the creation of a PCPA Education Committee to help bridge efforts by the International and local union to educate members about union history, parliamentary procedures, how to participate in union meetings.

“We feel a need to educate both members and the casual workforce,” said Mitre. “It’s difficult for locals to educate casuals because they are not registered workers or union members. It’s much easier for the pensioners because we are not part of the active workforce,” said Mitre.

Election of Officers

The PCPA held their election of officers for the coming year, choosing Greg Mitre to continue as PCPA President, Lawrence Thibeaux as Vice President and Christine Gordon as Treasurer. Yolanda Nuhi was elected as Recording Secretary. Nuhi replaced Kenzie Mullen, who announced she was stepping down – and being thanked by Convention delegates for her service.

Stranahan Award

This year’s awards banquet saw the Jesse and Lois Stranahan Award presented to Barbara Lewis who chaired this year’s Host Committee. The Stranahan Award is given to an individual who represents the values of the ILWU and goes beyond the call of duty. Lewis is the first woman to receive the award.

Next year’s PCPA Convention will be held in Vancouver, B.C. in September of 2019.