Negotiation Updates

ILA's Hughes Issues Rebuttal to Daggett

Tuesday, 25 August 2009 18:48

ILA's Hughes Issues Rebuttal to Daggett

Longshore union’s internal conflict complicates contract negotiations
Richard Hughes, president of the International Longshoremen's Association, issued a tart rebuttal to "erroneous statements" by the union's No. 2 officer that Hughes had engaged in "secret negotiations" with management about a new contract for dockworkers in Atlantic and Gulf ports.
Hughes also called a special meeting of the union's 200-member wage scale committee to update them on negotiations for a master contract covering dockworkers in Atlantic and Gulf ports. The meeting will begin Aug. 31 in Orlando and may last the entire week, he said.
Harold Daggett, the ILA's executive vice president, had sent a letter to union locals last week complaining that "the ILA president and a few, select executive members" had held talks with management's United States Maritime Alliance in violation of a pledge to include wage scale delegates in the talks.
After an initial exchange of contract proposals to replace the existing agreement that expires Sept. 30, 2010, the ILA and USMX broke off talks last February.
In a letter to wage scale delegates, Hughes said he had continued to have conversations with USMX Chairman James Capo to explore the possibility of additional bargaining or a contract extension. He said such communications are normal and proper.
Hughes has said for months that he hoped to negotiate a new agreement or an extension well before next year's expiration, in order to prevent shippers from diverting cargo to avoid a possible shutdown of Atlantic and Gulf ports.
Daggett has urged that talks be delayed until closer to the contract's expiration in hope that the economy will improve and the union will have more leverage. The Longshore Workers Coalition, an intraunion faction that has criticized ILA leadership, also has urged a delay in talks.
Earlier this month the LWC posted a statement on its website (lwcjustice.org) claiming that Hughes and Benny Holland, the union's Texas-based general vice president, had engaged in "backroom" negotiations. Daggett made similar allegatioins in a letter to ILA locals.
In his rebuttal letter posted on the ILA website (ilaunion.org), Hughes said, "The meetings were not secret. All of my executive officers were aware of the fact that conversations were continuing with Mr. Capo," after the breakup of formal negotiations last February, and that no one took the position that they were improper.
Hughes said that in early June, when he believed his exploratory talks with Capo had produced enough movement to expand the meeting to include other officers, Daggett was the only ILA executive he asked to join the meeting. He said Daggett never complained to him that the meetings were secret or improper.
Hughes also said claims that the ILA was rushing into an early agreement are "misleading," and that the proposals under discussion would not be one-sided for management.
"It is easy to select one negative element and use that as a basis to conclude that the entire agreement should be rejected as financially suspect," his letter said.
Hughes said management had proposed deferring a wage increase scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, the start of the final year of the current contract. Hughes said this would save employers $37.6 million, based on hours worked under the 2008 contract year. But he said management also had proposed removing the cap on container royalties, which provide year-end bonuses, as well as a wage increase for top-tier workers, an increase in the minimum hourly wage to $20, and a new fringe benefit fund.
"In summary, as you can readily see, the proposal is not a vehicle for management to save money," Hughes said. "In fact, by my calculation, it would increase the actual cost to management by some $150 million."