Charleston 5 and Lack of ILA Democracy
Jack Heyman
26 Aug 2001
Mr. Signorino:
Well, there have been several rounds of discourse on the Biers’ article on the Charleston longshore struggle and the lack of democracy in the ILA. What have we in the ILWU discussion group learned from your contributions?
You persistently claimed “inaccuracies” in Biers’ reporting. I checked and rechecked the Dept. of Labor’s LM2 forms. Biers’ reported figures on ILA offficials’ wages and disbursements are right. I believe his solution: government intervention in the labor movement is not. You continued to beat a dead horse about his listing of a top-paid union official’s last name first and instead of substantiating your charges of “inaccuracies”, you used innuendos told us oceans about yourself.
Obviously, you were a very important government bureaucrat, then an important member of the Maesk management “team” and now you’ve got your own prestigious consulting firm, lobbying for companies and union alike on health and safety issues. Furthermore, you’ve been on both the ILA and ILWU payrolls and had extensive talks with Harry Bridges, whose picture hangs on your office wall.
Well, Mr. Signorino, I certainly can’t match those credentials. I’ve only spent my life working on the waterfront as a seaman and longshoreman. Although I was invited by Bridges a few times to his house on Kronquist Court to discuss the politics and direction of the ILWU.
If the point of blowing your own horn and name-dropping was to impress ILWU members, it didn’t work. An old Wobbly longshoreman, Shaun Maloney, used to say, “Keep your eye on the donut, not on the hole.” On the Charleston longshore struggle (i. e. the donut) you defended the role of your friend John Bowers, ILA president. You stated, “Sometimes, in serving the needs of the greater whole, it is necessary to transitionally compromise on the needs of a select few.” That is the kind of misguided thinking that leads to concessionary contracts, loss of jurisdiction and other betrayals. It runs counter to the ILWU’s slogan, “An injury to one is an injury to all.” Hopefully American longshoremen, along with dockworkers internationally, will implement that slogan on the first day of the trial and protest the anti-labor government/company attack in South Carolina by shutting down all ports. Ken Riley, president of the Charleston longshore union, has appealed for an international day of protest, but again Bowers has been totally silent on that.
After you send in your donation for the martyred strikers’ memorial in Harry Bridges Plaza, please consider a donation to the embattled Charleston longshoremen. One proviso: if you want to ensure that the Charleston longshore workers’ defense organization receives the money, send it directly to them in Charleston at: Dockworkers’ Defense Fund; 910 Morrison Drive; Charleston, S. C.29403 Attn: Robert J. Ford. Apparently, Ken Riley says they’ve had difficulty getting reimbursed from the fund ostensibly set up by President Bowers in New York for the Charleston Five defense campaign.
Victory to the Charleston Longshoremen!
Jack Heyman
P. S. I just finished working on a top pick machine at the Maersk Terminal in Oakland today. The yard is full of potholes and has an uneven asphault surface which has caused numerous injuries and accidents over the last few years. Our local union has demanded that Maersk resolve this matter, but they have adamantly refused. When it comes to a question of profits vs. workers safety, for the employers it’s always profits first.
Mr. Hymen,
You are persistent in deleting some very salient aspects of my previous postings, which may be either a convenience or an oversight. Happily, there are some participants in this ILWU discussion group who are reading and comprehending all I’ve said. To those of you who are in that number, thank you for expressing your independent sentiments to me privately.
Within these postings, it is a matter of record that I have scored and underscored the extremely germane (not “trivial” as you assert) fact that a journalist has not correctly identified by proper name an individual who is the subject of an expose’. Hell. . . why use any names at all? Why not just say,“. . several sleezebags are being paid a lot of money. . . .”? That’s what’s really meant, isn’t it?
To you, such an error may not mean much. But, I assure you, journalists agonize over getting such principal facts right: the first time; every time.
Further, I have cast significant doubt upon some remunerative figures advanced in Mr. Biers’ article. In reviewing my previous postings, I think you will find that I’m not throwing any sh_t at the accuracy of what figures the article reports are on one (1) LMS 2 form. You must understand, however, that not all such relevant facts for a given calendar year are obliged to be on a single form. . . . Get it?
As to other inaccuracies, I can only (but humbly) restate ethical encumbrances in my not being able to address the particularities of some of the passages you have excerpted from Mr. Biers’ piece. I’m sorry you can’t accept that, but I won’t lose any slep over your inability to do so. .
With regard to Mr. Bridges’ instruction to me, it happened not to be while with a group of “Maersk management”. Rather, it was while I was a 29 year old middle-ranking official of the U. S. Labor Department. At the time, I was a regulation writer. You are correct, however, that it was (in part) over a table. Specifically, over the conference table at your international headquarters on Franklin Street. Sadly, Jim Herman, who was also at the table, is not alive to bear me out (as he would surely do). But Rudy Rubio was there, too (as was a coast committeeman named Bill Ward, who used to manage ILWU’s alcohol conselling issues). If you sense I’m as in-credible as you’ve asserted give Rudy a call, he’d probably remember. I understand he’s still working.
In asnwering your remaining questions:
1. To my knowledge, Maersk has no financial interest in Nordana.
2. No, I personally haven’t contributed any funds to erect a statue in memory of the Bloody Thursday victims (I wasn’t aware that one was planned)and not being an employee of the Maersk organization any longer, I don’t know if they did either. If you would send me the name and address of the organization that accepts such contributions, I would be honored to send a personal check. Mr. Bridges and his union helped me out, personally, on more than one occassion. I will always be indebted to him and ILWU.
One of the things I have been able to do in my lifetime, was to honor those fallen gentlemen in the publication of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations dealing with working conditions at marine terminals in the United States and its possessions (29 CFR Part 1917). I have attached to this e-mail the head sheet from the FEDERAL REGISTER in which it was printed.
Please note the date.
A very entertaining story goes along with it. Remind me to tell it to you sometime.
Jack (if I may), We can’t go on meeting like this. You’ve apparently got an agenda that you will obviously continue to champion. Agendas are fine. I have one or two myself. In advocating my agendas, however, I try to do so only when armed with all the facts. If there’s a rumor or even if there’s widespread compelling talk of some nefarious dealings afoot, I check and recheck to confirm of refute before I take a strong position. Should it be the case wherein I cannot refute or confirm in an absolute sense, I dummy up. It saves a lot of potential embarrassment.
Hell, I don’t know if some of the allegations that you (and Mr. Biers) have thrown out lately are true or not. But I can tell you this: If I don’t know for sure, believe me brother, you guys don’t either.
In any event, not wanting to make any more of this issue than it really deserves. And not wanting to bore the rest of the discussion group to tears, I’ll permanently conclude my attention to this topic; in these pages. In doing so, I give you the last word.
It’s been interesting debating with you.
R. L. Signorino
President
The Blueoceana Company, Inc.
8 Homestead Road
Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
Tel: 908 766 0560 Fax: 908 766 0534
blueoceana@msn.com
www.blueoceana.com
Jack we should check and see how close SSA & Winyah Stevedoring are.
Jerry, 60943
Tacoma
Mr. Signorino,
You still have not substantiated your accusations about the exposé on the ILA union bureaucracy by Carl Biers of the Association for Union Democracy. To say that he “misnamed” a top-paid ILA bureaucrat because he wrote the name as it was recorded in the Labor Dept. ‘s LM2 form, i. e. last name first, is absurd. Your veracity is called into question when in discussing a public document you maintain that you can’t say anything more without compromising a trust.
I think you get my point.
Instead of beating around the bush, offering platitudes and meaningless generalities, be precise. What quote/s from Biers’ article do you object to:
1). . . “while the leaders of Local 1422 must defend their members from repression by state officials, they are also forced to defend their rights within their international union.”
2) “ In 1986, one Senate Committee listed the ILA as one the four most racketeer infested unions. Over the years, there were indictments and convictions of union officials on corruption charges.”
3) “the ILA shows signs of a bloated bureaucracy. With fewer than 60,000 longshore members, several officers each make over $300,000 a year.”
4) “The Workers Coalition. . . . . . . . . charges that the ILA international lacks accountability to the membership, that it negotiates concessionary contracts, that its failure to organize has led to an ‘erosion of jurisdiction’ and a proliferation of shipping companies using nonunion labor.”
It’s hard to dispute that you may have sat across the table as part of Maersk management while Bridges lectured you on the ILWU’s history. No doubt you and Maersk have contributed generously to the monument to be built in San Francisco’s new Harry Bridges Plaza dedicated the fallen worker martyrs of the 1934 West Coast Maritime Strike.
By the way some of our ILWU members have asked whether Maersk has any links to Nordana Lines, that Danish shipowner whose use of a scab stevedoring out fit provoked the Charleston situation in the first place. Can you shed some light on that for us?
Victory to the Charleston 5!
Jack Heyman
Tim, not only is there no support from the ILA International, the ILA has money that was donated for the defense of these men that they won’t give to the Charleston Five. Also they refuse to help pay Ken Riley’s expenses for traveling around the world to get the word out and raise defense money. Email the ILA and ask them these questions. I’ll bet you get the same response I did. NOTHING.
Jerry, 60943
Tacoma
Dear R. L. :
There is always more then meets the eye in any situation. That does’t mean we sould go around blind. I think what you don’t appreciate in the context of this story and how it effects the workers that make up any Union is the idea that all is not right in respect with the conduct of officers, the power they hold, and their unwillingness to keep the rank and file abreast of the facts of any given situation. Those that come to power in any dynamic whether it be the boy scouts or the head officers of a large and diverse Union as the ILA (or the ILWU for that matter) is that information is power. Those with the information have the power. They stay in power by keeping control of the information. Anyone that wants that information is branded an enemy of the Union as they are viewed as a threat to the officers hold on their offices. Fortunately most who are officers in any Union are there to serve the Union, not themselves.
From appearances it would seem that the ILA International officers would like NOT to support the brothers in Charleston S. C. Mind you I said appearances. From my prospective I saw many others (Unions, citizens groups, civil rights groups and I am proud to say the ILWU was one of the first) come to the aid of Ken Riley and the Charleston Five long before I saw or read of any help from any official from the ILA. Long before.
Every informed longie on the west coast has heard for years of the corrupt practices in some locals/officers in some aspects of the ILA. Their loss of jurisdiction and an unwillingness (?) of the Officers of the ILA to fight for the rank and file. The disparity of wages, benefits, conditions from one ILA local to the next alone speaks volumes. To think that Union officials are making that kind of money, a quarter of a million dollars and more, while some Union brothers/sisters have no paid holidays is criminal to any person with Union principles. When those in power feel threatened, as it appears that some of the Officers in the ILA do they attack those in the rank and file they think could hurt their positions as Officers, NOT in the context of what is best for the Union as a whole.
We have had some of that in the ILWU but on a smaller scale as we believe (though sometimes need to be reminded from time to time) that the rank and file control the Union. A good case in point is what has been happening in Local 6 for well over a year. We in the ILWU have those in our ranks that feel they too are entitled to make 3/4 times what other Union brother/sisters make. That corrupts us.
I am looking forward to the upcoming trial of the Charleston Five NOT because I think or believe a trial is just or necessary but because the truth has a small chance of seeing the light of day. The truth of what the State of South Carolina is doing to its citizen. The exposing of the anti-Unionist element in the government and its collusion with the private sector. The exposing of the underlying racist tone to the whole affair. The blantant political ambitions of one man at the expence those fighting for their right to their long held jurisdiction(s) and jobs. The ability of these folks to have a decent wage and standard of living that is contary to those in government and those that fund these government leaders that wish a substandard lifestyle for those in the working class. The lesson that Labor needs to keep learning over and over again that it is ALWAYS us against capitol. The same fight is going on over control of public cranes in Seattle.
You on the other hand take the mistake in an article of a key players names as evidence that the article has no merit. You say there are other inaccuracies but will not divulged them. To say that something is false while not supporting your claim does not lend much credence to your claim nor the veracity with which you make it. If these inaccuracies can be found in public documents as you claim then why not bring them forth?? Nor your implying that one should not look into the inner workings of another at the risk of your own shortcomings being exposed. But isn’t that what it is all about in the long run?? The truth?? It seems very obvious that without truth you can not have a democracy. And without democracy you can not have a Union. That goes for the ILA and the ILWU equally. The truth is the last refuge of the working man or woman in this world. Is there any coincidence that the two biggest growth industries in this country are information and prisons?? The control of information is paramount in our society. It is the truth that will set the Charleston Five free. For truth is the lifeblood of any democracy. . . . . . . .
Tim 35181
Mr. Heyman:
Looking over your last note, I’d like to think that I’ve satisfactorily answered a lot of your concerns in my responses of 8/22 and 8/23; posted in these pages to Mr. Morgan and others. Realistically though, I sense that there is very little that can be said (if anything) that may persuade you that nothing short of insurrection and the offing of heads will suffice in curing all of the ills that may or may not be evident within ILA.
If I may, I’d like to request that you economize on your time when attempting to explain to me the history and ideals of ILWU. It was explained to me in far greater detail over a period of several days many years ago by the founder of your union, whose philosophies on many aspects of what our instant discussions have touched upon, you may be interested to know, aren’t anywhere near yours.
That there are differences between the the two labor organizations, is a fact that is abundantly evident. Their individual struggles, and the manner in which circumstances dictated the methodology with which to handle those struggles, is the principal factor causing disparity in the way they operate. Geography and historic benchmarks account for a great deal of the differences, as well.
There is nothing necessarily wrong with those differences. They are just. . . . . different and understandably so (I think I’ve said that in a previous posting). It’s so very elitist, though, to imply that all labor organizations (despite the history that led up to their formation; their constitutions; their by-laws and the unique struggles each have had to face to get where they are today) should transform themselves into a cookie cutter image of ILWU. You guys are good, but you’re not that good!
It’s no secret that I, like many other persons in our industry, have always revered ILWU’s constitution and by laws. The commitment and honesty of your founder, too, are a continuous reminder to me as to how to conduct oneself in society, generally. I have had a framed photograph of Harry Bridges hanging in all of my offices since his death (even when a member of Maersk management).
In closing, I, too, echo your sentiments about the fellows awaiting trail in Charleston. I earnestly hope that justice prevails and that they are set free. Any other outcome would be an insult to common sense and to human rights.
R. L. Signorino
President
The Blueoceana Company, Inc.
8 Homestead Road
Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
Tel: 908 766 0560 Fax: 908 766 0534
blueoceana@msn.com
www.blueoceana.com
