James “Spinner” Spinosa has been elected president of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, ousting incumbent President Brian McWilliams by an overwhelming margin.
Spinosa,59, who has been ILWU’s mainland vice president for the past three years, defeated McWilliams by 7,564 votes to 4,812, or 61.1 percent to 38.9 percent. The results were announced late Friday.
Spinosa is just the fifth president in the history of the union, which represents about 44,000 workers in California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska.
ILWU founder Harry Bridges served for 42 years, until 1977. He was succeeded by the popular Jimmy Herman, who headed the union until 1991, when David Arian was elected for a single term,1991-94. McWilliams has completed his second term.
Elected with Spinosa were Hawaii international Vice President Leonard Hoshijo, mainland international Vice President Bob McElrath and incumbent international Secretary Treasurer Joe Ibarra.
Spinosa’s union base was Clerks Local 63 of Wilmington, Los Angeles County, where he was president for four terms. He has been an ILWU member since 1969, when he started his career as a terminal warehouseman in Southern California.
McWilliams had been criticized by rank-and-file members for making decisions without adequately consulting the membership, and his defeat was not unexpected, according to union sources.
Spinosa said in a prepared statement that his goal was “to continue with our organizing and international education programs, to retool the union’s infrastructure and to continue to build the union in its great historic tradition.”
