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From: Ernesto Nevarez
Category: Category 1
Date: 21 Aug 1999
Time: 12:24:04
Remote Name: 209.162.26.55
Organizing of the harbors is not a new concept. The teamster battles of the early 1980's and then both the TUTA and WRTU efforts until 1993. In Nov. 1993 you had the diesel rebellion in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Seattle. Totally unexpected and the biggest act of anarchism in post ww2 US history. There was no mechanism to harness the energy. In Los Angeles both the Waterfront Rail Truckers Union and Troqueros Unidos en el Transporte Associados united and formed LATA, Latino Americano Truckers Association. LATA got its first contract of over 200 truckers at Calko transport which pulls the Hyundai Landbridge. However, in early 1994 as LATA was meeting with president Carey of the IBT the CWA union snuck in with megabucks and temporarily derailed the trucker effort. LATA is on a current campaign to win recognition with the trucking companies and the terminal operators, both PMA members and non members.
In the course of our interactions with the ILWU in Los Angeles we have had nothing but negative experiences, such as;
1. Non-support during the 1987-1988 WRTU harbor strikes 2. Their "pilot" program in which local 13 drove trucks owned by SSA but leased to Pacific West 3. Their business agent ordering (we have pictures) ILWU members to cross our picket lines. About 20 of our lessor-drivers had not been paid for weeks by Pacific West, we put up a picket line. ILWU truckers stopped for an hour. They claimed that they were employees of SSA because SSA paid them. Yet they worked exactly under the same conditions under the same administration and dispatchers as us. The company changed its' name in a matter of hours to Desert Express, the ILWU members put new signs on their trucks and continued to work in spite of our just picket line. The true employer was the motor carrier, Pacific West aka as Desert Express, and not the lessor of the equipment, SSA. This was in late 1991. 4. 1992, the ICTF rail yard fiasco. Local 26 representatives went to the barrio in Huntington park to ask TUTA for their solidarity in the upcoming ICTF Carson rail yard strike. TUTA was very strong at the time just coming off the famous H&M-APL container strike. TUTA was passing the word that no one would would deliver to the carson yard. A few days later a local 26 leader brought his attorney, Steve Holguin, to my office. The man looked at me, recognized me, refused to shake my hand, turned around and rudely left. Needless to say we both were "comrades" in the MEChA movement in the mid and late 1970's and either remembered that I was a radical that carried out or felt unconfortable for his past to catch up to him. The TUTA directors were never contacted again and at the rally for the ICTF workers were snubbed TUTA informed the harbor truckers that it was not sanctioning the strike. Instead, the ILWU had local 692 teamsters hold up about a dozen signs as thousands of truckers worked. A few weeks into the strike, as the ILWU worked smoothly in the harbor, the workers had lost ICTF, they came back to the TUTA meeting. Our president, Stanley Paniagua, gave our deepest sympathy, sadly informed the sad workers that it was too late and that the strike was lost, but not to blame us but look at the hidden agenda of their union and their true intentions, that it would be an incident that would haunt us all in the future.
5. Early 1994. Local 13 office staff workers put up a picket line in Compton at the dept. of defense warehouse. Calko had the cartage contract but all 200 LATA truckers refused to cross the picket line 10 miles off harbor. Joe Joe Cortez of the ILWU arranged an immediate meeting between the directors of LATA and Herrera of he ILWU. LATA was very strong right after the diesel rebellion and was willing to stop ALL trucks from crossing the picket line. LATA only asked on concession in solidarity. There was a clerk at E20 that was using unkind language towards the truckers. LATA asked Herrera if he could at least move her to a different position to avoid future conflict. Herrera kicked LATA out of the office. LATA then went back to the strike line and informed the picketers that there union had just lost the strike for them and not to blame us. All truckers went back to work to honor the labor contract that we had with Calko.
6. Mid 1994. Stormin' Norman threatens a LATA trucker in the harbor as other longgies watched. Within minutes about 100 truckers working the Hyundai landbridge showed and the situation was very tense for the longgies. Only the intervention of the lane boss and a well-liked company dispatcher kept the situation from turning any more violent.
7. 1996 Local 13 shows a lot of support for the CWA well funded raid in the harbor. see http://www.ilwu13.org/news.htm very surprising. considering that CWA had filed an article 21 against the IBT when the IBT and LATA were beginning to work together.
8. ILWU contract Proposal, 1999 ILWU attempts to get a contract which would give it jurisdiction to 80% of the trucking coming out of the harbor. http://pub.anonymizer.com/~ilwu_pma/ this was an attempt to date rape the IBT out of their jurisdiction. However, LATA, an independent union filed unfair labor charges against both the ILWU and PMA for negotiating for a worker unit represented by another union.
Yes, I know that I am very very hated by many in your union. I don't care. I'm not trying to be popular, only to defend the wages, hours, and working conditions of my union brothers. My main concern is that your rank and file know the truth about what has really happened to the truckers. There is a widespread theory amongst truckers that the ILWU was in cahoots with the CWA to come in and attempt to destroy LATA before it united with the IBT. In order to continue to claim solidarity, love, and brotherhood with the Teamsters the ILWU was pulling the strings of the CWA in order for the CWA to file an article 21 against the IBT. This would give the ILWU time to win all of trucking including the Alameda Corridor. It all would happen before the IBT knew what hit them, sort of like a date rape. Your not sure what really happened while it was occuring but in the end you knew you somehow got screwed! When you review the trucker/longgie political history you can appreciate the theory. Truckers believe that if it rolls off the harbor it belongs to the truckers. If the ILWU continues to date rape the IBT one day the teamsters will wake up, wipe their butts, and have their major rail terminal operators bid on harbor work.
I understand that I am persona non-grata by your Los Angeles locals but your rank and file have the right to know what has really transpired. The ILWU should realize that LATA is here to stay and that our influence is spreading to all of the harbors of this nation. Truckers are not your enemies but possibly your salvation in the near future.
Thank You for this forum.
Ernie