I don’t understand why the membership isn’t being given timely, specific, accurate information about what is in the proposed contract settlement. Are we children, to be spoon-fed with only what those “in the know” want to tell us? It was bad enough to have all this secrecy during negotiations, and to have a decision made to keep working after the expiration date without consulting the rank and file. But now there’s a tentative agreement in writing, and it affects all of us, not just to the chosen few. Let’s see it.
Friends and relatives of union officers and negotiators are already getting bits and pieces of information on the side, which is dribbling out in the form of rumors. The PMA members certainly know what is in the proposed agreement. It’s just the ILWU rank and file who are in the dark. In local 13, there are official union leaflets going out praising the negotiators for getting a great settlement. I hope they are right, but I’d like to decide that for myself, please....
First give us the facts and the actual language; I’ll be happy to celebrate later, if we decide there’s good reason to do so. And please, no more meetings where a “summarized” contract is passed out at a carefully-staged union meeting, with no time for ordinary members to even read it let alone think about it. Or is this too much to ask?
David Stock
36057
