In the International Longshoremen's Association: rank-and-file action, government intervention, and a major legal victory

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In ILA Local 1694-1, Wilmington DE, a new administration was elected, January this year, in a clean sweep. Among the successful insurgents was Dave Clements, elected as business agent-organizer of this 300-member local. A rocky start! The former president charged Clements with slandering him, but the local threw out the charges. Upon appeal, says Clements, the ILA district council tried him in absentia, found him guilty, and suspended him for 60 days as of July 20, this year.

"Pier Pressure"

The Longshore Workers' Coalition, the nationwide ILA reform caucus, has just published the first issue of an attractive 4-page tabloid, Pier Pressure: Voice of the ILA Rank and File. As the objectives of the movement it lists: 1) Justice in the union, on the job, and in the community; 2) Democracy: direct election of international officers; 3) Safety and health protection; 4) Strong contracts; 5) End of discrimination and favoritism in hiring; 6) A fair grievance procedure; 7) End of race and gender discrimination in the union and on the job; 8) Organize the unorganized.

Meanwhile, the federal RICO suit against the union is pending. The government is asking the court to oust the union's top leaders and establish a monitorship over the union. Pier Pressure comments as follows:

"What could it mean for the ILA to be under monitorship by the federal government? Past cases in the Teamsters, the Laborers, and HERE did not completely clean up the union nor did they go after employers. However, they did give union members an opportunity to speak out... We do not want the government running our union. However, if ILA members organize for good contracts and to fight corruption, then the protection might help. But the government will not make change for the members -we must do it for ourselves."

Government intervention

In federal court in Brooklyn, three ILA-connected men, who had been on trial on corruption charges, were found not guilty by a jury. At first this outcome seemed like a discouraging setback for the government in its broader RICO case against the international. But, in an odd twist, the case may have strengthened the larger case. Now that he had been let off the hook, ILA vice president Arthur Coffey, one of the successful defendants, demanded that the ILA reimburse him for all his legal expenses. When the union refused to pay, he filed his own petition to the judge in which, according to the NY Times, he accused the incumbent ILA president of treating the union as his "personal piggy bank." (The dead body of one of the three exonerated defendants, not so lucky, was later found in a car trunk.)

Major Legal Victory:

Represented in federal court by AUD board member Michael Goldberg, four members of the Longshore Workers Coalition, the ILA reform group, have won a major victory in the federal appeals court for the Third District. The court made three important rulings.

• Eddie Knight had been removed as financial secretary of Local 1694 and fined $500; the court found that his right to due process had been violated because a member of the trial committee had been clearly biased and because Knight had been barred from taping the trial proceedings.
• The ILA constitution barred any member or union body from using the ILA name, initials, or logo for any advertising purpose without permission of the ILA executive officers. The court ruled that because the provision "can be construed and used to prohibit "innocuous references to the ILA, it is unreasonable on it face."
• LMRDA section 105 requires unions to inform their members of the provisions of the act. The ILA simply directed locals to post a summary of the law on union bulletin boards. The court held that its action was totally inadequate, noting testimony by Herman Benson that the ILA action was "preposterous," because "in a union which has long history of infiltration by organized crime... you are asking members in view of the officers of the local to stand there and read the provisions of the act thereby marking themselves as potential troublemakers." The court directed the ILA to "take steps to ensure to the extent possible that all new members of the ILA personally receive a copy of the DOL summary [of the act]."

Links to Longshore worker websites
Information and resources for ILA members on this website.