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From the March/April issue of UDR, #146
ILA members: contact AUD to get the new Manual on Running for Delegate to the 2003 ILA convention.
Nine years
without a contract in Lake Charles longshore local
(In February,
Carl Biers was invited to Lake Charles, Louisiana by a group of rank and
file longshore workers to conduct an AUD workshop. Below is his report.)
Longshore workers in Lake Charles, LA, members of ILA Local 2047, have not seen a union contract since the last one expired in 1994. At the workshop they spoke of an invisible union leadership that works hand in hand with company officials to reduce the standard working conditions and maintains itself in office by doling out key jobs to favored members. In 1998, they reported, one of the main shipping companies received permission to eliminate time and a half for overtime. Since then, many longshore workers routinely put in 60 to 70 hour weeks, receiving only straight-time pay.
James Francis, a 17-year member of the local who organized the Lake Charles workshop with AUD, worries over the future of longshore unionism. Louisiana is a "right-to-work" state where no one is required to pay union dues. Discouraged by concessions, by favoritism in job referrals, and by a perception that the union is a vehicle only for advancing the interests of its top leaders, many workers, especially younger ones, do not join or drop out. According to its LM-2 report, the local claimed just 188 dues paying members of some 400 who are eligible.
Longshoring in Lake Charles is grueling, backbreaking work. The port is one of the few remaining that still deals primarily in old-fashioned bagged goods rather than containers. Here, most Lake Charles longshore workers spend their 8 to 12 hour shifts lugging and stacking 110 pound sacks of corn, wheat, and sugar. Back and wrist injuries are common. Yet, reformers say, the union has no health and safety officer, no workplace stewards, no ergonomics training. No one can remember the last time the union filed a grievance.
However, for one group of longshore workers, the heavy lifting is made a bit lighter by a few more dollars per hour, steadier work, and year-end bonuses: Gang foremen, who lead crews of 15 men or women (there are three women who work out of hall, none is a member); gear foremen, who set up all the cranes, booms, rigs, plastic, ramps, etc; and walking foremen who oversee several gangs all earn an additional $1-$3 per hour over base pay, which ranges from $12 to $15 depending on seniority. The positions are quasi-supervisory, but have always been included in the unit. None require engaging in punishing physical labor.
Many years ago, any experienced, qualified longshore worker could put in for these jobs and expect to get a call more or less in the order on the list. But now, according to workshop participants, all jobs now go to a group of about 30 cronies of the local president. According to Francis, the local claims management has complete control over the hiring, while management claims it abides by the union's recommendations.
The favoritism is so brazen, says Alvin Soileau, a longtime veteran of the local, that workers with only a few year's experience longshoring are picked for the foremen jobs ahead of veterans with 15 or 20 years on the docks. Soileau estimates that the 25 men who regularly rotate through the foremen jobs can earn more than twice the annual average wage of $30,000 for regular longshore workers.
A group of reformers has formed a committee to challenge the incumbents in local officer elections scheduled for March, 2004. But they face many obstacles: some of their supporters, having left the union in disgust, are hesitant to pay the $500 initiation fee to rejoin. That $500 fee, the maximum permitted under the Gulf District Bylaws, is $300 above what neighboring locals charge. It was raised from $200 around 1998, says Francis, precisely to keep out dockworkers who might oppose the administration. (Also around that time, many longshore workers were removed from the union's rolls for refusing to pay an $80 assessment that they claimed had been passed improperly.)
Within the dwindling membership, reformers can count on the surefire opposition of the 25-30 cronies who land the foremen jobs. Then there is an additional group in an oddly favored position: they hold dual membership in an ILA clerks local; they work rarely or never at actual longshoring jobs, the easy jobs, but they vote in Local 2047 elections.
Reformers hope to reactivate members and potential members with a new enthusiasm for the union by promoting a hiring system that would distribute the foremen jobs fairly and pledging to organize the members to resist employer demands for concessions. They also hope for a boost from legal proceedings that are underway:
The first is a claim for overtime backpay. Federal law prohibits a union from bargaining away workers' rights -- like overtime after 40 hours -- under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Claims are valid for two years, meaning that dozens of Lake Charles dockworkers are owed thousands of dollars. Seven have pending claims at the Department of Labor. The reformers are circulating claim forms to many others.
In another proceeding, member Michael Gonin is suing in federal court to have local president, Lash Cretien, and other top officers removed from office because they hold supervisory positions in violation of the ILA constitution. Cretien no longer works at loading cargo. Rather he is a supervisor in the clerk's and timekeeper's department, a separate division of the longshoring operation.
Gonin is also seeking access
to financial records and a copy of any contract or memorandum of understanding
that the union has signed with the shipping and stevedoring companies.
Most ILA locals have some protection by international and regional master
agreements as well as local contracts, but Local 2047, because it deals
in bagged goods, is covered - or, as is the case, not covered -- by local
agreement only. At a December hearing in federal court, Cretien said he
would produce minutes of a meeting held with employers that amounts to
a contract, but, says Gonin, two months later he has yet to come up with
it.
For a sample letter to get a copy of
your contract.
Other articles on
the ILA:
Reform movement spreads
in ILA (12/04-1/05)
Longshore
workers nearly reject master contract (9/04-10/04)
Question and Answer: RICO monitorship in ILA?
(9/04-10/04)
Who will police the Longshoremen's
ethics code? (1/04-3/04)
ILA Baltimore local threatened with
trusteeship (5/03-6/03)
Nine years without
a contract in ILA Lake Charles Local (3/03-4/03)
Reformers win majority in
harbor workers local 333, ILA (8/9 2002)
AUD at Charleston ILA
meeting (News 4/02)
Charleston Longshore unions win major victory 2/3 2002
"Charleston
Longshore workers lead battle for reform." 8/9 2001
Links to Longshore
worker websites
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