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Reform movement spreads in the ILA Longshore union

Here in the International Longshoremen's Association, a union with a long record of mobbed-up leadership, one on everyone's top list of problem unions, a reform movement of rank-and-filers and local leaders is now spreading across the East Coast. The movement was initiated about four years ago when leaders of Southern locals campaigned successfully to defend the Charleston Five, African-American strike activists indicted on felony charges. Strike leaders organized an independent caucus, the Workers Coalition, to campaign for democratic reforms in the ILA. Now the movement has reached the Port of New York/New Jersey, the union's largest base, where intense opposition to the terms of a six-year contract led to spontaneous rank-and-file slow-downs.

As a reminder of what any reform movement still faces in the ILA, three members of the union's ruling international executive board were indicted on racketeering charges in the last four months, adding to the long roster of former ILA officials indicted and convicted over the years.

The rise of an effectively organized reform movement in the ILA --- in the ILA! ---is a spectacular labor event. There has been nothing like it since the big East Coast rank and file longshore strikes of the mid-forties and the ILA's expulsion from the AFL in 1953.

The new spirit of independence, militancy, and reform, gestating for years, soared last spring when dissidents spearheaded a grassroots campaign against ratification of a six-year East Coast master contract which, they charged, was riddled with givebacks. It included reduced fringe benefits, drastically lower tiered wages for new workers, reduced manning schedules, fewer overtime opportunities; curbs on break-times, which given the dangerous conditions and long hours of longshore work, could lead to injuries and death. In 2003, five NY/NJ workers died in container accidents.

The reformers' anti-ratification campaign, which got 45% (4,000) of the recorded votes, came close to defeating the six-year deal. But there were widespread reports of major irregularities in the June referendum process. When a federal judge rejected a motion for an immediate impartial rerun, anger boiled over. In Locals 1233 and 1235, two large locals that represent the bulk of the NY/NJ workforce, members engaged in slowdowns and refused overtime for several weeks in protest; they even defied an arbitrator's order which threatened them with discharge. Local 1233 is overwhelmingly black; Local 1235 is almost entirely white. "It was beautiful," said one Local 1235 member, "Black and white, old and young, we all walked out at 5 PM together."

At this writing, seven locals in a joint council in the Wilmington and Philadelphia area are still battling over the terms of their local contract and have set November 20 as a strike deadline.

Meanwhile, the ILA officialdom faces other troubles, even the possibility of a federal RICO suit against the international. In October, Albert Cernadas, ILA international vice president and head of Newark Local 1235, and Harold Daggett, another top ILA official, were arrested and indicted on racketeering charges of funneling payments of $600,000 from contractors to the Genovese crime family. Arthur Coffey, a third international officer, was also named in the indictment.

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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