International Longshoremen's Association Local 1588

The Deep Sea Division elected Virgil Maldonado, Johnnie "Black" Taylor, and Herman Garcia as Wage Scale Delegates on December 18. They will serve along with President Anthony Falcicchio and Secretary Treasurer Tony Perlstein (delegates by virtue of their positions) as representative of the Local in negotiations over the Master and Portwide Contracts. The first ILA National Wage Scale meeting is in Tampa, Jan 5-9(M-F) to finalize union side proposals. The first meeting with employers is February 9-13, 2009 in Orlando, FL.

More below...

Preamble to the ILA:

The Union must bargain for its future. After several concessionary contracts that have weakened the ILA’s unity as well as it’s treasury, we must look toward 2014 and the scheduled completion of the Panama Canal expansion. The expansion means East and Gulf Coast ports will take advantage of all water service from Asia. This is also the same year that our sisters and brothers in the ILWU will be negotiating their contract.

Our members have crafted important demands around ending the wage and royalty tiers, expanding our benefit plans, improving safety and protecting our members work against the impact of new technology and non-union work.
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Given the economic crisis, Local 1588 believes that if progress on the ILA’s key bargaining goals are not achieved quickly and/or the employers demand concessions, early negotiations should be canceled. The ILA should then mobilize its members for its demands prior to the 2010 expiration of the contract.

1588 members overwhelmingly passed an imperative motion to fight for a strong Deep Sea Master and Portwide contract at the largest membership meeting in recent history Sept. 22. The current six-year Deep Sea contract, set to expire in September 2010, contains deep wage divisions between top tier and bottom tier workforce. 1588 members rejected that contract in 2004 by a two-to-one margin and have now thrown their support behind a campaign to fight for a good contract. Below is the full text of the resolution

Funding our Future: Motion to Approve Funds for Deep-Sea Master Contract and Port-Wide Contract Campaign 2008-2009

Whereas, the next round of contract negotiations are the most critical in a generation since containerization.

Whereas, the ILA has called for early negotiations.

Whereas, at stake are the elimination of wage tiers, royalty tiers, non-union work, benefit plans, safety, and the implementation of labor saving technology.

The ILA has published the Portwide NYSA-ILA Collective Bargaining Agreement in user-friendly booklet now available at the Local.

The Portwide Agreement, in effect from October 1, 2004 through September 30, 2010, addresses many issues and working conditions not covered in the ILA-USMX Master Contract, including seniority, hiring procedures, minimums, start times, vacation and holidays, equipment differentials, as well as the grievance procedure for dealing with disputes under the agreement. Several appendices and other documents, like the NYSA-ILA Absentee Procedures, Drug and Alcohol Abuse Program, and the ILA-USMX Master Contract that affect the working conditions of Longshoremen are also included.

Copies of the bound booklet are available at the Local. You can also view or download the agreement from this website by clicking here.

The Local has received reports that some members have been denied TWIC cards because of their immigration status. We have consulted with the ILA and learned that legal assistance is available through the National Employment Law Project (NELP) which has been retained by the ILA to assist members who are appealing the denial of their TWIC cards. If you would like to be put in touch with attorneys from NELP, a well-regarded non-profit workers' rights centers, please contact Carl Biers at the Local.

According to the experts at NELP, often fully naturalized citizens are initially denied their TWIC if they didn't submit some of the proper documents, even though it was never made clear to them these were needed. Most of these cases are resolved with the submission of additional documentation. NELP says that anyone who is legally authorized to work in the U.S. should eventually be able to obtain their TWIC card.