Brothers and Sisters,
Lately brother Spinosa has been taking shots at Brian McWilliams over the ILWU organizing program. This is the same program brother Spinosa signed off in support of in the Officer’s Report presented at the Convention in Portland. This is the same program that was adopted and ratified by Convention and IEB actions since 1992. It’s funny brother Spinosa didn’t have any questions or concerns about this program during his entire 3 year term as International Vice-President.
He had every opportunity had he made himself available. Organizing was regularly discussed in meetings of the titled officers and the National Organizing Committee. But brother Spinosa chose to absent himself from these meetings. Addittionally he has not attended one single regional workshop, nor has he attended a meeting of the local and area volunteer organizing committees in the Northwest or Northern Califoria. But now that he’s running for President he is going around saying things like,“Brian’s organizing program is all fucked up.” If he were to attend a meeting once in a while he would see it’s not “Brian’s Program”. It’s “The Union’s Program!”
Brother Spinosa has also criticized the union’s organizing efforts with the claim that money is being wasted and the number of new members organized is lower than has been reported. Well here’s some numbers for you. As president of Local 63 brother Spinosa headed up an organizing effort in L. A. This is the famed vessel planners drive you hear him talking so much about. What you don’t hear him mentioning is the cost. At one point it cost over $100,000 to bring in 4 members, not to mention a fat RICO violation which the employer has subsequently dropped.
The ILWU’s program is a good program. In fact it’s one of the best in the country. The average cost per member organized is around $800. This is $200 less than the national average. It has also been highly successful, increasing our membership by 10%. One of the biggest criticisms is our reluctance to organize in “key” industries. This is a legitimate concern. The strategy of the historic “March Inland” was to follow the cargo inland and build the warehouse division with the muscle and support of longshore. The reason we haven’t been able to do this is simple. There hasn’t been any co-ordination or participation between longshore and the rest of the ILWU in regards to organizing since Spinosa took control of the longshore division 3 years ago. And the sad fact is nobody needs the organizing program more than the longshore division. Off dock and near dock facilities along with technology is eating us up alive.
In his “President’s Reports” in The Dispatcher, and his key note address to the Convention McWilliams has consistently advocated for a thorough review of our organizing efforts to improve and build on what’s been done. This is a genuine effort to make organizing, which is arguably the most important endeavor this union undertakes, better. On the other hand we have Spinosa who has sat on his hands during his entire term as Vice-President come along and take pot shots at something that has been painstakenly built over the past 8 years. He is tearing down the union in order to get himself elected. This is politics at its dirtiest and has no place in an organization with the history and tradition of the ILWU.
West Coast Longshore Men and Women For the Re-election of Brian McWilliams
