The townhall meeting was interesting. They politely described the future of the longshore industry as they see it, they being James Spinoza ILWU INT VP, Joe Miniace President CEO of PMA, Domenick Mirretti, Ph. D ILWU Senior Liaison, Ports Of LB/LA and local 63 member, John S. Helmick Ph. D Director Logistics and Intermodal Transportation Program, US Merchant Academy, Kings Point New York, John Vickerman, Principal, Senior Vice President, Board Member, TranSystem Corp and others.
At the question and answer segment some local 13 members asked a poignant question at the microphone as to Miniace’s stance on taking contractual issues such as section 11 of the contract and section 17 to the United States District Court and getting a Primary Restraining order against a Local in the ILWU in bad faith. Miniace admitted that he did go outside the agreement. And as it is apparent he will use the courts to get his way which of course is not how he put it. He claims the grievance procedure broke down when in fact the PMA did not correctly follow the Contract as even the newest member of local 13 understands.
The talk is the cargo volume is supposed to increase four fold in the next few years and honest Joe Miniace says he wants to bring the ILWU along but we the ILWU will have to embrace technology.
I’m sure you’ll be able to read Maniac’s townhall speech at the PMA’s web site, as he is in the habit of letting every one know how brilliant he is.
As far as boycotting the meeting, it was a good learning tool to see where the principal players are trying to take the ILWU in the future, as if we didn’t already know!
It’s interesting to note that spell check on my computer, for “Miniace” spell check came up with Maniac.
Frats,
Scotty
