Tim wrote:
Ole, I tried but failed to get a copy of 1981 dispatch hall cost addendum. It worries me why the particular paragraph (which is on the addendums of recent contracts) is absent from this document.
It read as follows:
DISPATCH HALL COST
PMA shall be obligated to pay 85% of all jointly agreed-to dispatch hall expenses effective July 1, 1981.
(Notwithstanding the fact that the PMA’s contribution towards dispatch hall costs is by virtue of this Agreement Greater than the contribution of the ILWU, nothing herein contained or otherwise shall in any way change or modify the Basic principle and understanding of the parties as expressed in this agreement that the dispatch hall costs shall continue in the future, as they have in the past, to be maintained and operated jointly and equally by the ILWU and the PMA.)
The foreman obviously thought it was important enough to include it in theirs. I can’t get a straight answer and I called SF but no one was home. Or at least they wouldn’t talk to me. But I did get the figures from an informed source (note: I did not see these figures on any document) for the contract.......
1st year: 27 million
2nd year: 33 million
3rd year: 35 million
total: 95 million
Interesting figures, Tim. If verified they would support the hypothesis that this contract proposal reverses the history of each contract being worth more (in new money spent by employers) than the previous contract. They would also show that someone is changing the way we keep score on such things, and that this proposal indicates the smallest real gain in AGES.
note: At the last Caucus I attended, I asked questions of the Union attorneys which they could not answer but said they could look up and provide later. This was regarding the ramifications of the secret amendment McWilliams and co. illegally made to your Pension Plan.
After (repeatedly) asking the current Coast Committee to have the attorneys come up with that documentation and (repeatedly) hand delivering, in writing, the questions I (and presumably everyone else who gives a shit) need to know regarding this issue, and after what is going on two years, this humble soul simply cannot get his questions answered.
I mention this so that readers here will understand the importance of politics in these matters, and that because of those politics, it will certainly take someone other than me to get straight answers (or answers at all) to some of the questions that have come up in these discussions. From experience, offer the following observations as a guide to those who might venture to obtain such answers:
1. Responses WILL vary. (just see if you get an exact duplicate of the information provided by Tim’s informed (anonymous) source.) And by-the-way, the very concept that any information which should be available to all is surfacing (accurately or not) anonymously, speaks volumes as to the integrity (and balls) of those who do have access to it.
2. Watch, Listen and DON’T REMEMBER (take notes instead) Who says what? Who (of the folks you THINK are trustworthy) conveniently abstains from saying ANYTHING? And later on... who goes on the next junket to Europe or the Orient?
3. If it comes to your attention that there are others pursuing the same questions to which you seek answers, get together and compare notes with them.
4. Consider testing your sources independently, on the QT, BEFORE all the so-called informed sources can get together and produce what might aptly be called a ‘cover’ letter, which they will then all insist are the REAL facts, regardless of what they each may have told you previously.
5. DON’T get caught up in a situation where you have been convinced that you are enough of an ‘insider’ to be privy to anything with which the rank and file could not be trusted. The millisecond that you start to believe that, or have any part of keeping information about THEIR contract from the rank and filers, you become an elitist, anti-union cocksucker and deserve to die a miserable death on the spot – but will probably get a ticket to Europe, if you play your cards right.
Consider this a press release from the Been-There-Done-That department. Others from the department will back me up (unless, of course, they can’t be reached in Europe or Hong Kong).
If you don’t believe it, here’s an encouraging flash for you: Little Bo Peep only appears to have lost you! You WILL come home, wagging your tail behind you.
