International Longshoremen's Association Local 1588

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.

On the first leg of the tour through Wilmington, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston and Savannah, we stuck to a grueling schedule stopping in two to three ports a day, getting on the bus as early as 3:30 am in order to reach our union brothers and sisters at morning shapes.

We arrived in Tampa Friday night where we joined 90 ILA members from more than a dozen East and Gulf Coast Locals for two days of meetings and workshops aimed at building unity and bargaining leverage. The meetings were hosted by the Longshore Workers Coalition, a movement of ILA members who are organizing to build a stronger and more democratic ILA.

We departed Tampa on Sunday evening for the trip back and returned to the hall mid-day Tuesday. Local 1588 Wage Scale Delegates are in Florida at Master Contract negotiations until Friday.

Aaron Brandstein, Kwan Bostic, Carl Biers, Willie Connors, Rob Dickey, Anthony Falcicchio, Manny Ferreras, Herman Garcia, Aaron Lalonde, Angelo Mack, David Maldonado, Roger Perez, Tony Perlstein, John Salemi, Guido Sanchez, Natasha Santos, Johnnie Taylor.

"I'm proud we made the decision to do the unity bus trip. Local 1588 is respected in every Local we visited and in many others that heard about the tour for making this bold move to promote solidarity in the ILA." --Guido Sanchez

"I have never before felt so proud to be a Longshoreman" -- Aaron Brandstein