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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 2018)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | UNION DEMOCRACY New leadership at ILWU house workers in California, Willie Adams succeeds Bob Oregon, Washington, Alaska, McEllrath after the union’s first Hawaii, and Canada. It with- contested election in 18 years drew from the AFL-CIO in 2013, citing jurisdictional dis- Members of the International putes and political differences. Longshore and Warehouse Adams grew up in Kansas Union (ILWU) elected their City, Missouri. He went to union’s first-ever black presi- work as a longshore- dent, Willie Adams. man at the Port of Adams, ILWU’s long- Tacoma, Washington time secretary-trea- in 1978, and became a surer, outpolled long- member of ILWU Lo- time mainland vice cal 23. Since 2003, he president Ray Fami- has served as interna- lathe 4,423 to 4,030 in tional secretary-trea- mail ballots cast begin- surer at the union’s ning in August. San Francisco head- Adams succeeds quarters. He’s also Willie Adams “Big Bob” McEllrath. served as a mayor-ap- McEllrath has been president pointed member of the five- since 2006, but the ILWU Con- member San Francisco Port stitution bars members over 65 Commission since 2012, and is from running again. currently the commission’s vice Election results were certi- president. fied Oct. 29 after the union ex- Also elected were: Bobby ecutive board voted 15 to 6 to Olvera, Jr., mainland vice pres- reject a challenge over irregu- ident; Wesley Furtado, Hawaii larities in how ballots were vice president; Ed Ferris, secre- mailed to and collected from tary-treasurer; and incumbent members in Panama. ILWU Coast Committee members represents 3,000 dockworkers Frank Ponce De Leon and Cam and pilots in Panama in addi- Williams. tion to 35,000 dock and ware- ...Shapiro From Page 7 movement? The Carpenters left the AFL-CIO just prior to when I joined. So my impression partly is just understanding the history of the AFL and the CIO is that it's been pretty common throughout the decades for there to be a lot of flux of membership within those organizations. And particularly in the craft unions, whether the unions are in the AFL or not, there are jurisdictional disputes. Certainly not being part of the AFL or the Building Trades in certain areas affects that. There could be a perception that there's more jurisdictional raiding, but I haven’t found that to be the case. I think the Carpenters union is aggressive about organizing, and that's important. But I think there’s an overarching problem in craft unions in particular where there is way too much time and resources and energy spent on infighting and concern about jurisdiction. You’ve just been elected to head the largest construction union in the Pacific Northwest. What direction would you like to lead the regional council in? My main focus is around organizing and growth. Having a really aggressive growth strategy is important for our union and for any of the craft unions, especially when the December 7, 2018 | PAGE 11 vast majority of construction work nationwide is nonunion. That affects us at contract time, and pretty much any time we're looking at wages and security and safety for our members. In order to organize and grow, we need a much higher degree of participation from the membership. I think historically the union has not necessarily believed that we could get that level of engagement from our members. That is not a vision I share. I believe that we absolutely CAN. Internal organizing is something we’re going to be focusing a lot more energy on, so that we can go back to the basic principles of organizing that formed our union. We're not going to do it without the members, plain and simple. We just need to go back to those basics. Call or Visit Us Today IronworkersCU.com • 877-769-4766
