IBU members hold the line against Georgia Pacific
In our January issue, the Dispatcher reported on 80 Portland-area warehouse workers who were fighting for safe jobs, healthy
families and retirement security. At that time, they had been bargaining for a fair collective bargaining agreement with Georgia Pacific for over a year.
Georgia Pacific is one of the largest multi-national paper corporations in the world and is owned by the antiunion, billionaire Koch
brothers. Workers at two of the warehouses, Rivergate and Front Avenue, reached agreement with Georgia Pacific in 2011. Workers at GP’s warehouse in Kelley Point fought longer and settled their agreement after a “lightning strike” over
management’s refusal to bargain in good faith with union members.
Community allies: United Students Against Sweatshops
In early February, ILWU International Vice President Ray Familathe travelled to Columbus, Ohio to participate in the annual conference of the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). The campus-based organization has won campaigns against powerful companies like Nike and Russell Athletic that were accused of mistreating workers. The group provided critical support
for the struggle by Rite Aid warehouse workers in Lancaster, CA who won their fight for an ILWU contract in May, 2011. USAS has groups on 150 campuses in the US and Canada.
“I went to congratulate these student activists for all their previous efforts to help workers, and thank them for their solidarity
with Rite Aid workers,” said International Vice President Ray Familathe who spent two days meeting with the students.
Defending collective bargaining rights
In our March issue, we reported on a solidarity trip of ILWU members from Locals 13, 63, 26 and 94 who were part of a delegation of 161 workers from Southern California that traveled to Madison, Wisconsin to stand in solidarity with tens of thousands of students, parents, teachers, nurses and other community members fighting to protect union rights for workers.
Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker—and the state legislature dominated by anti-worker politicians – pushed and later passed legislation stripping public employees of their right to bargain for anything other than wages.
“ILWU members need to be in this for the long haul,” said Local 94’s Franchesta Grove, who made the trek to Wisconsin. “Each ILWU member needs to understand that it is very important to support our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin. It’s easier for us to go to the battle than wait for the battle to come to us. When we’re asked to step up to help these workers, we need to do so
graciously. Those men and women are standing out in the snow fighting for our rights.”
When the anti-union legislation was eventually passed, the public outrage led to a massive campaign that successfully recalled two of six anti-union Republican state Senators who were targeted because of their anti-worker views. The recall of two politicians was impressive, but it fell short of the 3 needed to break the anti-union majority in the State Senate.
But the recall effort did send a clear message to anti-union politicians throughout the country that attacking workers could be politically risky. A campaign to recall Gov. Walker is currently underway.
Tacoma Longshore turns 125
Our April issue covered the 125th anniversary of the Tacoma Longshore Local. On March 22, Local 23 active members, pensioners, the ILWU International officers and Coast Committeeman Leal Sundet, with Tacoma community members, and
representatives from ILWU locals along the coast gathered in the Old Tacoma Cemetery at the burial site for 23 of the original 47 workers who formed the Stevedores, Longshore and Riggers Union of Puget Sound. The gravesite commemoration was followed by a lunch featuring speakers and entertainment.
The union was formed on March 22, 1886 after a unanimous vote by the men working the lumber ship, Ivy. They struck for five days before winning their demands for union recognition, wage increases, and the right for a job dispatcher to be elected by union members. “Seven of the 23 founding members buried in Old Tacoma Cemetery were killed on the job,” said honorary
Local 23 member and historian Dr. Ron Magden, who quoted from an article that he wrote for the 125th anniversary celebration.
Rite Aid workers win a first contract
On May Day, the five-year organizing struggle by Rite Aid workers in Lancaster, CA ended in a major victory for ILWU members when a fair contract agreement was finally reached with the company. On May 12th, a strong majority of employees ratified their three-year agreement that provided guaranteed raises, fair health insurance rates, protection against subcontracting, and powerful new tools to control the pace of work and promote safer conditions inside their million-square-foot warehouse.
“Everyone on the team deserves credit for helping win this fight,” said ILWU International President Bob McEllrath, “beginning with the rank and file warehouse workers, our coalition allies around the country, and especially the ILWU members up and down the coast who pitched in to help us win.”
ILWU members turn up the heat on EGT
On June 3rd, 1200 ILWU members staged a powerful show of solidarity when members from locals up and down the West Coast rallied in Portland, OR to support efforts by ILWU Local 21 to win their fight against EGT, a wealthy multinational conglomerate seeking to undermine ILWU jurisdiction in Longview, WA.
Besides hundreds of ILWU members from locals 4, 5, 8, 10, 13, 19, 21, 23, 27, 40, 50, 52, 53, 54, 92, and 98, dozens of ILWU Pensioners and Auxiliary members attended. Members of the ILWU’s Marine Division – the Inlandboatmen’s Union –were also on hand. A wide range of other unions helped to swell the ranks, including members of the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union, Laborers, Teamsters, Painters, Roofers, Letter Carriers, AFSCME, SEIU, Carpenters, Masters, Mates & Pilots Union, and theater workers from IATSE. The International Transport Workers Federation sent representatives and the Oregon state AFL-CIO and Northwest Oregon Labor Council encouraged affiliated union members to attend.
Community groups including Jobs with Justice, the Working Families Party, and Cowlitz County Deserves Better also came to lend their support. Messages of encouragement and support came from as far away as Australia and New Zealand.
Seattle Longshore Turns 125
The July/Aug issue reported on Local 19’s 125th anniversary celebration of the Seattle Longshore Union that took place. Over 200 people turned out to the event on June 14th. Coast Committeeman Leal Sundet attended the event along with representatives from ILWU locals throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Like the Tacoma celebration, one of the highlights of the evening was a historical presentation on the Seattle longshore local by Dr. Ron Magden. The talk was illustrated by a slideshow of historical photos that chronicled the union’s defining moments and figures across its 125- year history. the remembrance of “Bloody Thursday” and the martyrs of the 1934 West Coast Waterfront strike by ILWU members and their families up and down the West Coast. That struggle gave birth to the ILWU and radically improved wages and working conditions for dock workers.
Panama Canal Pilots affiliate with ILWU
Our September issue announced that the Panama Canal Pilots Union voted to affiliate with the ILWU. The vote took place on September 7, the same date that an agreement was signed 32 years ago between the governments of Panama and the United States to return control of the Canal Zone to Panama.
“This is an historic agreement that unites workers in different countries with a critical link in the global supply chain,” said
International President Bob McEllrath upon hearing the decision by Pilots to affiliate with the ILWU. “We want to welcome these union brothers to the ILWU family and look forward to helping each other.”
Bayer pharmaceutical workers win contract
In the October Dispatcher, we reported that 420 Local 6 members at the Bayer HealthCare plant in Berkeley, California reached an agreement on a new contract. The contract was ratified by 70% of workers on October 12. The four-year contract includes better job security, annual raises of more than 3%, and a freeze on the workers currently pay. Bayer threatened job cuts Bayer had been seeking takeaways in this contract that included the outsourcing of janitorial jobs, boosting health care rates, arbitrary
scheduling changes, and more.
ILWU protects workers and public from exploding containers
Our November issue discussed the steps the ILWU took to safeguard dockworkers and the public from thousands of potentially explosive refrigerated shipping containers that have been arriving from overseas ports.
The ILWU first learned about the hazard on October 20. Officials at the world’s largest carrier, Maersk, notified an industry group earlier in October – but only after three dockworkers in foreign ports had been killed by explosions involving refrigerated shipping containers, known as “reefers.”
Experts in the shipping industry have apparently known since early 2011 that counterfeit or substandard refrigerant was being used by vendors in Vietnam who provided low-cost maintenance and servicing of reefers.
The Coast Arbitrator eventually issued a decision with a definition for at-risk reefers: “A reefer container which, in 2011 in Vietnam, at Cat Lai or elsewhere in that country, had maintenance and repair work to the mechanism of the reefer unit that involves refrigerant fluids is an at-risk container If that maintenance and repair work did not involve that mechanism,
but to other unit mechanisms such as electrical systems or, for example, repairs to exterior dents which do not implicate the refrigeration mechanism of the reefer unit, the container is not at-risk.”
Companies are now providing the union with transit information for all reefers and are providing maintenance and repair records for any that transited Vietnam in 2011. As a result, at risk containers are now being handled according to safety protocols.