International Longshoremen's Association (ILA)

UDR Story

• Longshore workers in novel contract referendum

  Members of the International Longshoremen's Association were set to vote in November on extending their contract covering the whole East Coast. The union administration urges ILA members to vote yes. An organized opposition campaigns hard for rejection. The issues in dispute, to an outside observer, are complex, even bewildering. All that would be normal and could hardly attract attention. But what is unusual and does command interest is the extent to which the opposition has won the ability to reach the membership with its message.

• A formidable force for reform in the ILA

  The International Longshoremen's Association is definitely evolving, but into what? This is one of the four unions that, over the years, had been cited in government investigatory reports as most heavily infiltrated by organized crime: the scene of payoffs and murder so graphically portrayed in On the Waterfront. It is still the object of a stalled federal RICO suit. But things are happening that could never have happened before.

• Steelworker battles for democracy in ILA L. 2038

  At 25, Kensey Alsman was a millwright at Bethlehem Steel serving as an observer to get a fair election for Ed Sadlowski in his 1976 insurgent run for international president of the Steelworkers union. Now at 59, having retired, only to see his health care and pension go down with the bankrupted company, Alsman is back in a mill, this time at Beta Steel in Indiana where he is a member of the International Longshoremen's Association, battling for fair elections and democracy in ILA Local 2038.

• “Clean up our union with democracy”

  Many unions, confronted by corruption, are talking about ethics. But what are they doing about it? The Operating Engineers union has just retained an ethical officer to implement an elaborate ethical practices code. The ILA has just doubled its ethical staff to two. The New York City AFL-CIO Central Trades Council, whose former president just went to jail for stealing piles of money, has amended its bylaws ethicswise. The AFL-CIO has had ethical practices codes in several versions for 50 years. Latest to mount the ethical bandwagon after some of its important officers stole over a million dollars, is the SEIU, whose ethical codes, among the most pretentious, are applied by an intricate combination of appeals and committees.

• Book review: Two contrasting views on union corruption

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  By William Kornblum

  Like deadly parasites, gangsters and labor racketeers feast on the finances and pensions of union members. This is an old and painful story for AUD members, but two new books take a hard look at the causes and consequences of union corruption. Unfortunately, only one of these books offers a detailed and critical analysis of what strategies work best to rid the house of labor of its pernicious pests.

• Danger of democracy on the internet? Kill it!

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• Feds file suit vs. rackets in ILA longshore union

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  On July 6, after years of investigation and long delay, the U. S. Department of Justice filed a civil suit in the Eastern District of New York against the International Longshoremen's Association and its top officers. The ILA represents some 45,000 workers on docks and in warehouses along the East Coast. (West Coast dock workers are represented by the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, Harry Bridges's old union, not involved in this suit.)

• Battling corruption in the ILA: a partial chronology

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  The federal government's RICO suit against the ILA comes after a long history of corruption on the East Coast waterfront and of resistance to it. What follows is a partial summary of that record. Some of the facts are based upon the text of the government's complaint.

  1940: Body of Peter Panto, murdered insurgent leader, found in New Jersey lime pit.

  1942: Joe Ryan elected lifetime ILA president

  1945-48: As the war ends, a series of rank and file "wildcat" strikes on NY-NJ waterfront reveal deep discontent among ILA members.

• Reform movement spreads in the ILA Longshore union

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• Longshore workers nearly defeat master contract; Federal suit filed to rerun election after widespread violations

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  An aggressive grassroots campaign by reformers in the International Longshoremen's Association nearly succeeded in defeating a master contract covering 15,000 East and Gulf Coast longshore workers. The ILA reported that the contract had passed by a margin of 55% to 45% with about 9,000 members voting in the June 8 referendum. But opponents allege serious misconduct and are calling for a revote on what they say is a concessionary agreement.