Danny wrote:
I often wonder why he (McWilliams) is still in office?. . . . . .
The simplistic answer, Danny, is “He cheats.” However, he does get help in doing this, and the cast of characters and their methodology are a matter of record.
In the last (disputed) International Election, he got enough votes from ILWU Canada and the IBU (two organizations that don’t have to put up with his shit) to win narrowly while the Longshore Division, then saddled with his chairmanship of the Coast Committee threw him out by a 2 to 1 margin.
Prior to that, when it looked like he was losing the election, he had written a letter to the International Election Committee saying that he “KNEW” of several violations of the International Election Rules and of the Constitution regarding that election.
In that letter he listed several locals and individuals as violators and went to lengths to describe the effects of these violations. He went on and on about how such a dirty election ruined our reputation in the community, hurt our capabilities to bargain with our employers etc. etc. (Of course, among these violations he DID NOT mention that the, at the Convention, International Officers proposed a committee to oversee the election that DID NOT meet the Constitutional requirements for such a committee – this couldn’t have been because that would have meant including a McWilliams enemy on that committee, could it?)
At the bottom of that letter he went to great lengths to explain that he did NOT want the Committee to do anything about these violations – that his letter was not a challenge to the election he “knew” violated our election procedures in so many ways.
It seemed obvious to anybody there at the time that he was hedging his bet and intended to go to the government with these dirty election allegations had he lost. Sure as hell – when it came out that he won, he made a speech to the pensioners’ convention (later reprinted in THE DISPATCHER) saying that the democratic process (International Election) had come off “without a hitch”.
What was said in that speech/Dispatcher propaganda and what was said in that letter to the committee are two different things that could never come out of one honest mouth. To the great misfortune of the ILWU, dishonesty is often the cleverest tool McWilliams can manage to use.
Listing other assorted lies by McWilliams regarding this subject would take up too much band width. But, since you “wonder why he (McWilliams) is still in office”, there is one other aspect of that sordid period in our history that bears mentioning.
Shortly after the election, the majority of the International Executive Board wrote him to call for a special IEB meeting. Despite the fact that the International Constitution states that under those circumstances he HAS to call a meeting, McWilliams “interpreted” that he did not have to call a special meeting of the IEB. He did this to insure that the next IEB meeting would convene with the newly elected board, instead of the board that was in office at the time he refused to do his constitutional duty.
When the board finally met, it was decided that there would be a re-election in Local 13 (a Local that McWilliams had especially targeted in his allegations)
The IEB,“the highest governing body of the Union between its Conventions”, by a majority vote, ordered such an election (motion by John, Local 63 – clarified, at McWilliams’s request, to mean reballoting only the office of International President – another obvious attempt to trump up election improprieties to bring to the government if he failed, since there were offices won by a narrower margin than the presidency)
Then McWilliams decided he was higher than the “highest” body. He appointed a patently illegal committee consisting of four IEB member friends to sit in judgment of the IEB’s MAJORITY decision. (This is not only contrary to any established rules of order-but distinctly prohibited by the International Constitution)
Only one of his selected friends had the morals to refuse to serve on such an illegal committee – Tom from Canada. McWilliams promptly replaced him with Frank from Local 34 and the minority committee to overrule the majority was up and running!
Perhaps because he had been advised about the legal trouble such actions could bring, McWilliams began hedging his bet again. At the following IEB meeting, instead of taking the International Officers to task for not doing what had been ordered by the “highest governing body”, an amazing thing happened.
The IEB reconsidered the original motion. (motion to reconsider-John of Local 63, the maker of the original motion) By a narrow margin the IEB decided not to have the re-election for the president that they had previously ordered.
Not having either set of IEB minutes in hand, I cannot tell you the man-for-man votes but the IEB member votes on the matter that stick out in my memory may be of some interest to you.
John, Local 63 – not to hold the re-election
Spinner, International VP, Local 63 – not to hold the re-election
Norm, Local 8 – abstained
(These stick out because I had previously been in contact with many members and officers of the locals these IEB members came from and with many more members and officers from the other locals in the areas they represented. Since all of them came from the Longshore Division, which had voted 2 to 1 to get rid of the crook, their votes certainly surprised a lot more people than just me!)
frats,
ole
