International Longshoremen's Association Local 1588

ARTICLE I
OFFICERS

Section 2. The term of office for all officers of this Local shall be three (3) years. In the month of November October of the third year of the term, at least thirty (30) days prior to the regular fourth quarter meeting to be held in November December, the Recording-Secretary shall notify the membership by mail that nominations of the officers for the coming term will be taken at the regular quarterly meeting in December November. The election shall be held at a stated time at least (15) days after the nominations.

ARTICLE II
MEETINGS

Section 1. The regular meeting of this Local shall be held quarterly, in the months of March, June, September, and December, except that in the year in which the local must hold officer elections, the fourth quarter meeting shall be held in November. Special meetings may be called by the President, Secretary-Treasurer, or a majority of the Executive Board. The Secretary-Treasurer shall provide due notice to the membership of the meeting time and date.

February 12, Orlando

Local 1588 Wage Scale Delegates are meeting with other Local and International officers to begin planning a mobilization strategy after receiving employer counterproposals calling for steep givebacks on the last day of the opening round of negotiations in Orlando.

Earlier in the week, ILA delegates listened to an employer gloom and doom presentation about the state of the economy and submitted our bargaining proposals.

The USMX counteroffer, received today, calls for a three-year extension of the current contract and serious give backs, including a wage freeze, elimination of overtime on weekends and nights, shift work, and frozen container royalty payments. The employers rejected every single proposal submitted by the ILA

No further bargaining sessions have been scheduled yet.

Management Rejects ILA Proposals
Bargaining for the Longshore Master Contract began on Tuesday, February 10. ILA Wage Scale Delegates met to finalize contract proposals and then submitted them to the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), the employer's associations. USMX presented it's view of the state of the economy. On Wednesday, USMX rejected all ILA proposals and said it would offer counterproposals on Thursday, the final day of scheduled bargaining.

February 10, 2009

The Port Unity Tour returned today after seven days of visits, workshops, and meetings with Longshoremen in ports on the East Coast and Tampa. We were received enthusiastically by Local officers and rank-and-file Longshoremen who welcomed our call for unity and strength as the ILA heads into early master contract negotiations in a tough economy. Another group of ILA members drove across the Gulf Coast from Houston visiting ports along the way. Together, the two groups brought the call for solidarity to several thousand Longshoremen.

We explained our tour as an effort to strengthen ties between longshoremen, raise awareness about what's at stake in master contract negotiations and learn about the experiences and issues of dockworkers in other ports. We watched the hiring hall dispatch system in each port, gave out a flyer calling for unity behind the ILA bargaining proposals, listened as longshoremen described the differences and similarities of work on their docks, and gathered signatures on cards in support of the Employee Free Choice Act, which will remove obstacles to unionization.

Seventeen Longshoremen rolled out of Bayonne early Wednesday to kick off the 1588 Port Unity caravan, which aims to build unity and solidarity between Longshoremen in support of the ILA master contract proposals with the employers. Traveling by bus, the Tour will stop in major ports along the coast before arriving in Tampa where five 1588 Wage Scale Delegates will join join hundreds of delegates from othe ILA Locals to finalize Master Contract Demands and present them to USMX.