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Members of the Committee for Change, a reform group in the 3000-member United Marine Division Local 333 of the International Longshoremen’s Association, tried to run for office three years ago but were disqualified on an invented technicality. In May, however, in voting supervised by the Department of Labor, they won four executive board posts, giving them a majority and empowering them to choose the local’s top officer, the board chair. The local represents workers on tug boats, barges, and coastal tankers in New York harbor.

Now the local’s “old guard” is maneuvering to prevent them from taking control. The local president is an ex-officio executive board member. But, according to Bill Harrigan, one of those recently elected, the president does not have the right to vote; nevertheless, when the board met on July 25 the president, in violation of the constitution and past practice, voted against the reformers candidate for chairman, Steve Oravets, thereby creating a four to four tie.

The maneuver was only the latest in a series of procedural obstacles thrown at the reformers since 1998 when a few members formed the Committee for Change slate to combat what they saw as the deteriorating strength of the once-formidable local. They criticized the incumbent leadership for engaging in backroom negotiations, and for squandering bargaining opportunities created by a shortage of harbor boat workers and the economic boom. They proposed a shop steward system for the many boats that lacked them. Their campaign resonated with harbor workers who want to make up for concessions made in the settlement of a grueling strike that began in 1988 and dragged on against some employers into the mid 1990s.

In 1999, according to Oravets, a member of the local since 1972, the Committee for Change nominated a full slate of insurgents, but they were disqualified by the local election committee which claimed the candidates had neglected to “second their seconds” as required by the local bylaws. This was an outright lie, says Oravets, which the election committee attempted to support with a “fraudulent, hastily rewritten copy of the nominating meeting minutes.” The group protested, first to the ILA international which rejected their complaint, and then to the Department of Labor, which sued the local to force an election rerun. In February 2001, the incumbent officers settled the case, agreeing to DOL-supervision of the recent election.

Meanwhile, the Committee for Change began publishing its own independent newsletter, the Harbor Herald, and established a web site (www.harborherald.org). A disaffected membership, reports Oravets, supported their efforts, but was fearful of blackballing in the union hiring hall.

In April 2002 elections, the insurgents elected four of its six candidates to the executive board, but the incumbents protested to the local election committee, which they themselves had appointed, claiming the voters list, which they themselves had compiled, was inaccurate. The committee ordered a rerun; it yielded the same result; four of seven board spots went to the insurgents. But, according to Harrigan, neither the outgoing executive board chair nor the newly-elected president, Charlie Chillemi, would convene a meeting of the executive board at which the new board could choose the new chairman.

(Local 333 has an unusual structure: executive board members are not paid; the salaried posts of president, secretary treasurer, and delegate are not members of the executive board. The seven-member board sets policy and chooses the board. Thereby hangs a tail: Chillemi, the new president, had originally been nominated to run on the Committee for Change slate for an unpaid executive board position. But after he was fired from his job on a boat, he changed his mind and ran for president, which job pays $95,000 a year.)

Bowing to pressure from the new board members, a meeting was scheduled for July 3 and abruptly cancelled the day before. Finally, on July 25 a full board meeting was held. The Committee for Change expected to exercise its authority and choose Oravets as chair. But claiming a right to vote, Chillemi voted for Oravets’s opponent Perry Smith and refused to recognize Oravets as the chair.

Chillemi says that previous presidents, on occasion, have voted at the executive board and that his positions is supported by the local’s attorney, Seymour Waldman. Chillemi, a 47-year local members, says he wants to “give the power of the union back to the men.”

The reformers, who are being advised by attorney Louie Nikolaidis, an AUD board member, have protested to the International and are considering legal action.

Other articles on the ILA:
Reform movement spreads in ILA (12/04-1/05)
Longshore workers nearly reject master contract (9/04-10/04)
Question and Answer: RICO monitorship in ILA? (9/04-10/04)
Who will police the Longshoremen's ethics code? (1/04-3/04)
ILA Baltimore local threatened with trusteeship (5/03-6/03)
Nine years without a contract in ILA Lake Charles Local (3/03-4/03)
Reformers win majority in harbor workers local 333, ILA (8/9 2002)
AUD at Charleston ILA meeting (News 4/02)
Charleston Longshore unions win major victory 2/3 2002
"Charleston Longshore workers lead battle for reform." 8/9 2001
Links to Longshore worker websites

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