I have caught a lot of flack from some of my brothers (those that say this is the best contract ever!!) because the part of the contract that scares me the most is our loss of an equal say so in our hiring halls. They tell me that I am full of shit, paranoid, reading it wrong, etc. So anyway last night I was working with this walkingboss out of Portland (he was a caucus delegate for years for his local (longshore) and is well respected for his past work as a delegate and negotiator) and I told him my opinion on this.
He too said I was nuts. That there was a paragraph in the LOU that said that although PMA will pay for 85% of all cost based on 1998 costs but all control of said halls would be equal. I said prove it so he went out to his car and after an half an hour or so he came back. He said he found it and showed it to me and lo and behold there it was a paragraph that states in essence that control will be 50/50!!
The only problem was that it was in the new foreman’s and walking bosses’ agreement!! Not ours!! In their agreemant there is an additional paragraph with that stipulation that is absent from ours...
Oversight perhaps, or did our negotiators in their effort to please Dan Imbagliazzo and his one track mind of releasing the steady crane drivers from bondage forget to protect us once again??
One more thing, since we’re on the subject of money it is my understanding that this contract is worth about 15-20 million LESS than the last one. I have heard this from three different sources and though I have not seen the actual figures (in asking for them I have been told that they don’t have them or they won’t release them) so don’t believe me find out for yourself. If this is the case though your international officers have been lying big time to you about this contract. And contary to recent practices that is NOT their job....
Tim
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