Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
ILWU 9/30 Press Release:
ILWU Pres. James Spinosa Speaks
[Note: The following press release was issued late afternoon,
Monday, Sept. 30th on the letterhead of the International Longshore and
Warehouse Union. It contains the remarks to the national and international
media by ILWU President James Spinosa at a press conference held at 12
noon at the ILWU headquarters in San Francisco. At the
time this statement was made to the press, the Pacific Maritime
Association, the employers' group. was scheduled to meet two hours later
with the ILWU at the bargaining table. At the last moment, however, the
PMA broke off negotiations and refused to attend the bargaining session.
-- A.B./OWC]
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For Immediate Release: September 30, 2002
Contact: Steve Stallone 415-775-0533 x114 or 510-390-4748
or Jeremy Prillwitz 415-286-0555
ILWU President James Spinosa Speaks Out,
We Want to Go Back to Work, Back to the Table
JAMES SPINOSA: I want to thank you all for coming. I think it's
imperative that the ILWU gets a very clear and responsive response to
what's been happening on this West Coast and particularly in our ports. As
many of you know, and I think the world knows, that the ILWU has been
locked out by the Pacific Maritime Association. It has been locked out as
far as we are concerned, unjustly. This Union has been bargaining in good
faith since May 13th and has gone nowhere in this set of bargaining, due
to what we feel is an irresponsible approach to bargaining by the Pacific
Maritime Association. The Association and the Employers group have put
forward a proposal package early on in May that was designed to fail. It
was designed to fail for many reasons. As you all know, if you look back
at that time frame, PMA, going into bargaining was talking about lock-out,
the very thing we find ourselves in today, which is nothing more than
intimidation for all those out there. The ILWU will not be intimidated. We
will not move into a contract that is not desirable of our workforce and
their efforts. Saying that, the ILWU continues to put forward the best
effort and is willing to meet, as we have been meeting, even though we
find ourselves in an undesirable position, we will continue to make every
effort to get ourselves a contract in this set of bargaining, and we will
continue to do so.
We find ourselves locked out, fighting the PMA, who has talked so many
times about the controls that we both must have in this set of bargaining,
because of the economic situation that this country finds itself in, and
then turns around and does just the opposite, turns around and locks out
the West Coast and imperils the economy. The Union is very unhappy about
this set of circumstances, what it does is, it brings a position forward
throughout the world, that there could be some type of irresponsibility in
this set of negotiations on behalf of this Union. This Union has been a
responsible union; we have been responsible for over 30 years without
imperiling the economic situation in our country. We have been able to
obtain a contract for the past 30 years without any economic problem to
our country and we continue to try to do that in this bargaining.
Also, since 9/11, if you look at what's happened since 9/11 in this set of
bargaining, the Union has approached the Employers on many occasions,
putting forward demands and proposals that would ask them to participate
with this Union in securing the ports, making the ports, so that anybody
that enters the ports, or any type of cargo that enters the ports, would
be monitored to the point that we would try to do our best to be the first
line of defense for anything that may happen like 9/11 again. The
Employers refused to participate in any such activity with us. We have
asked that a dozen times now. We have gone to Washington, DC and we have
gone alone. It's time for the Employers to step up and understand that
national security is something far beyond this set of bargaining that this
country needs and something they should join with this Union in efforts to
try to achieve.
The bargaining itself centered around technology. The Employers have
opened up that technology was their No. One proposal. As it turns out to
be, the Employers themselves have moved away from technology, even though
they tried to hold this particular bargaining session hostage to a
technology package that they cannot deliver. They cannot deliver it for
many reasons. They are not prepared to deal with turning over the jobs
that remain in the industry and any new jobs that are created that will
take this industry forward to this Union; the jobs that are functionally
equivalent to our work and they are under obligation to this Union to do.
The Union has stepped up, the Union has told the Employers over and over
again, "we will meet you in the middle, we will allow for free flow
of information, we will allow for technology to move forward," so
that we would strengthen our position in the global market, on the West
Coast, in these ports, providing that you meet us halfway on the jobs that
are necessary to be done, that are left to be done in this industry. The
Employers cannot deliver that, they refuse to deliver that, their latest
proposal has been," we really didn't mean that we want to turn over
the jobs to your Union, what we really meant is that we want to buy your
workforce out". Totally unacceptable to the ILWU; we will not move
along those lines, not now, not ever in the future. What we are looking
for in this set of bargaining are jobs, jobs that remain in the industry,
jobs that are ours under the contract and the Employers have got to step
up to the table, if they want to see those West Coast ports resume their
activities like they have in the past.
Other than that, I let you know that we have contacted the military and we
have told the military that our obligation to this country and to our
military effort is one that we will not move away from, that we make
ourselves available, we will continue to make ourselves available,
anything our country needs in the interests of national defense, this
Union will provide. Whether they order manpower or not, we will work those
ships on behalf of our nation and especially in time of need. We have
endorsed that for a lifetime, being union members of this ILWU. It's up to
the Employers now to open up this set of talks and to open them up with a
program that says, "let's get a contract". Let's put a
legitimate contract forward, one that deals with jurisdiction, one that
deals with technology and the benefits that this union needs to move
forward. Until that happens, this Union will continue to resist any move
by the Employers that continues to erode our work or move work away from
us. So, that ball is in their park. We tell Mr. Miniace and the Pacific
Maritime Association, "it's time to put up or shut up". That's
where we're at.