Editor’s note: The Dispatcher will be profiling ILWU Locals and Affiliates in the coming months. This profile of the IBU’s Southern California Region was the first one in the series and was drawn at random.
Inlandboatmen’s Union, Southern California Region
The Southern California Region of the Inlandboatmen’s Union (IBU) represents approximately 200 members – plus an additional 80 “registrants” who are not yet union members but pay a fee to be eligible for work assignments dispatched from the hiring hall.
The Southern California region is extensive, covering 350 miles of coastline from the Mexican border to Morro Bay. San Diego was the IBU’s first Southern California local established in 1934, followed by the San Pedro local in 1935. Workers on water taxis, ferries, tugs, barges, and some kelp-cutters helped grow the union’s jurisdiction to include all unlicensed personnel, including deckhands, watchmen, bargemen, oilers, firemen, cooks and galley staff. The San Diego and San Pedro areas merged to become the Southern California Region in 1941-1946.
“These days, IBU members in Southern California do mostly tug work,” said Regional Director John Skow, explaining the tugs are involved with ship-assist work, marine construction, and fuel-barge transfer work. “We have a small unit on Catalina Island that works on the glass-bottom tour boats and also work on boats that deliver passengers to ships out in the anchorages.”
The work performed by IBU members is skilled and potentially hazardous. Workers are required to receive and maintain Coast Guard-certified training and credentials.
The process includes a mixture of “sea time” accumulated through on-the-job training, classroom instruction and passing rigorous exams. That wasn’t always the case, with requirements tightened after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill that devastated Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The Coast Guard now has license requirements for every maritime worker classification.
“The job classifications we have in the IBU include captains who drive the tug boats, deckhands on the fuel barges, tankermen who deliver the fuel with help from tankermen assistants – but it’s mainly tug captains and deckhands,” Skow said. “It’s the best-kept secret in the harbor because you make good money – but it’s not easy to get those credentials and maintain them, although once you get them, you can make a good living.”
In the past, workers had limited options for schooling needed to enter the maritime industry. The California State University system operates a full-time Maritime Academy in Vallejo, but tuition is $7,000 a year and enrollment is limited.
San Diego’s Training Resources Maritime Institute in San Diego is a private company that charges over $1000 for their 5-day courses. Those under the age of 25 may qualify for an excellent 18-month program at the Tongue Point Academy in Astoria, Oregon, with free tuition, funded by the federal Job Corps program, but enrollment is limited.
To provide more opportunities, the IBU recently opened its own apprenticeship program in San Pedro with Coast Guard-approved training. The IBU’s apprenticeship school is a two-year program that provides mariners with the skills and knowledge to safely enter a marine industry career. They also offer classes for experienced mariners who need to renew and expand their credentials. The basic program involves 3,000 hours of on-the-job training, plus 420 hours of supplemental instruction and training.
“We noticed there were a lot of people older than 25 who signed up on our list with no experience,” said Scow. “Those men and women have a hard time breaking into the industry without experience, so we got the idea to start an apprenticeship program to give them a chance.”
Raymond Quintana, IBU member
I’ve been working in the maritime industry for 4 ½ years. I started out by doing 2 ½ years of training at the Tongue Point Job Corps Center in Oregon. The first year-and-a-half was through the IBU, where I got my AB (Able Bodied Seaman) and QMED (Qualified Member of the Engine Department). I did an additional year of school at the Clatsup Community College maritime program in Astoria, where I received my Tankerman-PIC, my 100-Ton Masters license, my 200-Ton Mate, and my degree in vessel operations.
After graduating, I signed-up at multiple IBU halls and was hired right away at Crowley’s petroleum fleet. I worked there for approximately 3 years, starting as a Tankerman Assistant for about two years, then became a Tankerman for one year.
During that time, I was living on board a tug boat for three years. We were doing month-ling hitches, working one month, then having one month off—approximately 28 days each. I was trained to work with oil and pump machinery. We loaded oil in Seattle and would take that all along the West Coast. I worked all over the Coast—Vancouver, BC, Richmond, Oakland, San Francisco, Coos Bay, Los Angeles, Alaska and everywhere in-between. I left that job to get hired out of this hall in San Pedro where I’ve worked with Harley Marine and Foss Maritime.
I’m the first mariner in my immediate family. I have one great uncle who is an ILWU Local 13 crane operator. Prior to becoming an ILWU member, he was in the IBU for ten years and told me about the union, which was what got me into the industry. My dad’s side of the family are all longshore workers and this was a way for me to do a similar kind of work – but also allowed me to branch out and do my own thing. You face all of the same dangers on a ship that are on a construction site. On top of that, you’re in the ocean and face added dangers of drowning, hypothermia, and heatstroke.
We also face hazards from lines. The newer lines are made with synthetic fibers that store a lot of energy when they’re under pressure. You have to be aware and alert all the time. A lot of major injuries happen when people feel comfortable.
What the union represents to me is a safe opportunity. There are plenty of non-union jobs out there. I have cousins who work non-union jobs and they’re always telling me how unsafe their jobs are. Safety can come in many forms. The industry is evolving and unions are able to protect workers from long-term hazards, not just short-term ones like slipping, tripping, or falling by installing non-skid protections.
Chances are you won’t go your entire career without getting hurt. When it does happen, you want to make sure it is something you can bounce back from and not something that leaves you permanently scarred for the rest of your life. The difference between something you can bounce back from and permanent injury can be as simple as wearing a hardhat or steel-toed boots. Something like that has to be implemented through policies. Another safety issue is work hours in an industry that’s as dangerous as ours. If you are not well-rested, mistakes can happen. Ensuring that mariners get adequate rest was not something that was always implemented, but because of the union, now it is. The union is there to make sure that you leave work in the same condition that you started—with all your fingers and toes. I’m glad I have this job with my union backing me up.
John Skow IBU Southern California Regional Director
I got started in the industry a couple of years out of high school when I joined the Coast Guard. I was always really interested in working on boats. I joined the IBU after ten years in the military. My first job was running a boom boat that deployed oil booms around barges. I loved that job and did it for five years before getting my tankerman certs. I did that job for about 20 years and worked on tugs too.
One of the significant changes I’ve seen in the industry it the reduced manning. That doesn’t sit well with me because they expect you to do more with less. When I first came into the industry, I can recall we had five men to a tug. And now we are down to two-person tugs. Now they’re experimenting with automated tugs. With the reduced manning, you wonder about safety. If you’re working and fall in the water, who’s going to come pull you out – the Captain who’s running the boat?
I’m very proud to be a member of the ILWU family. I have a lot of pride being a union member and officer. There’s a lot of hard-working people in this industry. There’s a lot of people who don’t like us, but I’m very proud of being a part of this organization because we fight for workers. We care about all workers, not just those in the IBU. Negotiating our contracts even helps non-union workers because it maintains the area standards.
Eric Bland, Tug boat operator
I’m a tug boat operator with Foss Maritime in LA/Long Beach Harbor. I work primarily the at THUMS Oil Islands. We service those islands with crew boats and tugs. The THUMS Islands are man-made islands that sit in the LA/Long Beach harbor. They were designed by one of the architects that worked at Disneyland.
They are off-shore oil rigs that are camouflaged to look like islands. The ones closest to shore look like condominiums. We run the personnel out to the islands. We also run equipment out to islands, drilling equipment and other supplies that are put on a barge and pushed to the islands with a push tug. That’s a 24-hour a day, 7 days a week operation.
Being a tug boat operator means you are running the tug, maneuvering the tug—you are the Master of the vessel. You are designated by the Coast Guard as the Master of the Tow and you are in charge of the marine safety of that vessel and personnel onboard. Everything falls on your shoulders. I started in the merchant industry in 1987 after coming out of the navy. I started in the working maintenance in the Alaska oil trade for 4-5 years before I found my way to the inland waters and the IBU. My first job with the IBU was at Catalina Cruises.
I’ve seen some changes in the industry for good and bad. It has tried to be more safety-conscious in many ways. We all want go home safe at the end of the day. For the bad, the industry has reduced manning to a two-person vessel and a lot of companies have a live-aboard situation which is not conducive to a safe work environment. When a boat is constantly running and a guy is off-watch trying to get some sleep or they are called up while off watch it can cause a lot of accumulated fatigue.
That’s one of the situations that probably won’t change until something happens. Until then, we will probably continue to work under fatigue. There’s a fix. If the company wanted to do the right thing for the workers in the harbor, the companies
could easily have a facility in the company’s yard similar to what the fire department has—where they could get off the boat for six hours and walk into a trailer with places for workers to sleep. That would be a better situation for them.
The dangers of the industry are real. In 2007 an IBU member, Piper Cameron was killed in this harbor. Her life meant something and that was a very tragic moment for our industry. Foss named a vessel in her honor.
The union continues to play a vital part in making sure workers are safe. It plays a vital part in protecting wages and jobs. I’m thankful for everything the union has done. I have been able to raise a kid and maintain a household because of my union job.
Peter Korody, IBU pensioner and former Regional Director
My first dispatch was in 1974, working at Catalina Cruises in Long Beach as a deckhand. My first dispatch was in 1974, working at Catalina Cruises in Long Beach as a deckhand. We carried up to 700 passengers. It was a seasonal summer job. In 1976, I was dispatched to a dredging job in San Diego on a dredge tender. I worked there for over a year. It was hard work, 8 hours a day, 6 days a week.
We were making at least $12.00 an hour and that was big money in those days. In 1980, I was dispatched to Foss, which was a steady job for me. I stayed there for about 12 years. I was active in bargaining contracts and served on the Joint Labor Relations Committee.
We had a lot of fun working on the tugs, going out to sea and doing all sorts of tows and harbor-assist work. We also did a lot of military work which involved target tows and supply runs to San Nichols Island out of Port Hueneme.
There’s a restricted area past San Nicolas Island where they occasionally practiced shooting missiles. We’d drop these old battleships and leave them there. Then they would tell us to come back to pick them up after the target practices.
Around 1988, the IBU went out on a 139-day strike at Foss over the manning of oil barges. In 1990, the tugboat I crewed on crashed into the dock and I was injured. I was on off-duty for about 2-3 years. While I was recovering, I volunteered at the hall and got the opportunity to learn a lot. I got involved with some of the organizing efforts that were going on.
I also participated in opposing the bunker fuel tax. The State of California decided to put a sales tax on bunker fuel and our work collapsed in some of the larger California Ports.
I spent many months going to Sacramento to convince the legislature to pass an exemption for bunker fuel.
I was elected to the union executive board in 1991. In 1994 I served as Chairman of the Region through 2002. In 2002 I was elected Regional Director and served two terms until 2008. Organizing new companies is the union’s lifeline. Being out on the waterfront is dangerous work. We worked hard and watched out for each other. It was hard
always having the employer trying to down-size our crews. The IBU has always stood out as a union that is based on serving the membership. It was a way a life and I had a rewarding career. I was lucky to meet the right people and the right mentors. Even in retirement, I continue to maintain friendships and keep in contact with people from when I was an active member and officer.