Caucus members look to future with a focus on improving medical, pensions and organizing new members
Over 180 member-delegates from 84 ILWU units attended the first caucus of the union’s General Trades Industrial Grouping on June 20 and 21, 2011. Delegates from the union’s Sugar and Pineapple Groupings, and Longshore Grouping mechanics also attended the meeting. Included in the count of delegates are 38 full-time officers and staff of the union.
Maui members Trent Minor from Troon Golf Kapalua, Garrett Hera from Castle & Cooke Lanai, Dane Kaneshina from Maui Lani Golf Course, Francis Kamakaokalani from Ameron made the reportfrom the “miscellaneous” discussion group, which included construction, golf course, and memorial park units.
I LWU Local 142 President Isaac Fiesta Jr. opened the meeting by explaining that the caucus would focus on three issues: medical benefits, retirement benefits, and organizing. The goal is to improve our members’ medical and retirement benefits, and organizing is the means to achieve these goals.
Isaac told the delegates, “We need to organize our members to stand united, and we need to organize nonunion companies to bring them up to our standards, instead of having them threaten our standards by competing against our companies. If we organize our units and stand united, we can get it done. We have to look to the future and don’t just look at what we can get today.”
ILWU Health & Welfare Trust
Paul Tom, the ILWU’s consultant on medical plans, explained how the union’s Health and Welfare Trust Fund has been a huge success. The ILWU started the Health and Welfare Trust Fund five years ago in the tourism industry. The Tourism Health and Welfare Fund has kept medical costs under control, has responded quickly to fix problems raised by members, and in some cases saved hundreds of dollars a month for both members and their employers.
The Tourism Health and Welfare Trust Fund is able to achieve these benefits because it eliminates the fees and profits paid to a middleman (such as HMSA); is directly controlled by trustees appointed by the union and employer who can act quickly to fix problems; and is self-funded where the Trust Fund pays the bills and saves money in a reserve fund to pay for expensive medical procedures. By being selffunded, the Trust Fund can better control costs and negotiate better deals with health care providers.
A similar Health and Welfare Trust Fund for general trades and other industries was started in 2008 and is beginning to deliver the same success by lowering co-payments for members and lowering medical costs for employers. However, the fund needs to grow a little larger and add more participants in order to get the full benefits of self-funding like the tourism fund.
(L-r) Hawaii Division Business Agent Corinna Salmo, Diane Galban (ML Macadamia Orchards LP), Jovena Moses (Punalu’u Bake Shop), and Kim Viloria (Foodland Super Market, Ltd. Waimea).
ILWU Local 142 President Isaac Fiest Jr. laid out the three major goals of the General Trades Caucus: improve medical benefits, improve retirement benefits, and organize new members into the ILWU.
Providing medical benefits for ILWU retirees
A long term goal of the union is to provide medical benefits to retirees. Paul cautioned that it needs to be done in small steps over time. One way this can be done is where the union negotiates a benefit where an employee can retire at age 62 but is treated like an active employee and the company continues to pay for their medical benefits until age 65, when they qualify for Medicare coverage. The advantage to the employer is that these medical costs appear as current expenses and does not have to be carried on their books as a future liability.
Paul explained how the Future Retirees Plan, also known as the VEBA plan, was an effort by the union to begin to provide some retiree medical benefits. The Local originally wanted to pay for the benefit from the union’s general fund, but the union’s finances took a hit during the recession following the 9/11 attack and the Gulf War. The plan was completely changed and contributions were lowered to $3.00 a month per member which would be paid out of the unit’s fund. This would only provide the member with a modest benefit of $360 plus interest after ten years.
Units and individual members can increase their contribution to the fund, which would give members a larger benefit when they retire.
If a unit votes to leave the fund, however, they would forfeit all the money they contributed earlier and their members would get nothing. Units should continue to support and participate in the Future Retirees Plan.
Pension plans take care of your future
Charles Furuike, the union’s expert on pension plans, explained why union members need to understand the importance of negotiating substantial improvements to their pension plans. Too often, our members are short-sighted and place a higher priority on getting a wage increase instead of negotiating higher pension contributions to take care of their needs when they retiree. This can be a big mistake and many members nearing retirement age discover they face a big loss of income and an uncertain future because Social Security and their pension benefits will not provide enough money to support their current standard of living.
Members need to understand that a good retirement is like a threelegged stool. Social Security is one leg; a company pension is the second leg; and personal savings is the third leg. The stool is only strong and stable with all three legs. Take away any one leg, and the stool will fall over.
Most union negotiated pension plans are defined-benefit plans. Nearly all union pension plans lost 20-40 percent of their value during the 2009 financial crisis. This will require the union to negotiate a much higher employer contribution to the plan in order to provide adequate retirement benefits.
Defined benefit plans are better
Many members don’t understand the advantages and benefits of a defined-benefit pension. It is very different from a defined-contribution plan, which is more like a 401k or savings plan. Employers want to eliminate defined-benefit pensions in order to limit their liability and put the risk onto the workers. Some workers mistakenly believe they are better off with a 401k plan instead of a defined-benefit pension. Personal savings is important, but this would leave only two legs of the three-legged stool. 401k plans also lost a lot of their value during the 2009 financial crisis.
Involving members to reach our goals
How do we get unit members to support the Health and Welfare Trust Fund and support the goal of negotiating higher contributions to their company defined-benefit pension plans?
Local 142 Secretary-Treasurer Guy Fujimura answered this question in his presentation on the ILWU’s unit structure. Guy explained that the purpose of the unit structure was to get results—to involve members in the union, to activate members and their families, and to meet the needs of members on a day-to-day basis. When the unit structure first evolved in the sugar industry, units were large, with hundreds of members, and workers lived in plantation housing. The ILWU would organize the entire community—the jobsites and the plantation camps. The union extended into the family and social lives of members. The union had a membership services program which showed movies for the kids, organized activities for families, ran a number of team sports, and provided other social services to members.
Guy said, “the Unit was the most effective way to organize our power collectively to achieve our aims. It was the way to organize and best use our discipline and resources to get results.” The unit structure was how the union had contact with every member and how every member had contact with their union.
Kealoha told the delegates we need to invigorate and involve members. We need to change our culture where we tend to rely on one person like our unit officer or business agent. Joanne urged delegates to energize their unit members—develop leadership; spread responsibility and work; and work to have members feel invested in their union. Involving members builds union power, explained Joanne.
Kauai caucus participants included (l-r) Charlie Rodrigues (Mid-Pac Auto), Herbert Kekuawela and Jon Garcia (Kauai Commercial), and Jayelle Bray and Doreen Kua (Wilcox Memorial Hospital).
Organizing new members
Wesley Furtado, International Vice President Hawaii, explained why the union needs to organize new members into the union. The union needs to have the numbers and the majority of an industry organized in order to set the standard for wages and benefits in the industry instead of having non-union companies drag us down.
International Representative Tracy Takano explained how the union decides which company and workers to organize. We evaluate if the company is making money; if we can get a contract; if it is a competitor; if it is expansion of existing workforce; if it makes sense for us; and if we can benefit the workers. Most of our organizing will lead to an election among the workers which is supervised by a federal government agency—the National Labor Relations Board, or by the Hawaii Labor Relations Board.
Organizer Ron Cough shared his experiences in talking to workers. Ron is a full-time organizer and found that workers will listen more to another worker. “They look at me as a full-time union staffer and think I’m just saying what I have to say. Workers talking to workers is the most effective.”
Guy Fujimura added that union political action helped pass laws which helped the ILWU organize workers into the union. One of the key accomplishments was prepaid health (it took 8 years of effort before the law was passed), the little Wagner Act which created the Hawaii Labor Relations Board, and the card check bill that passed the legislature.
Contract pitfalls
Contract Administrator Michael Murata listed and reviewed those sections of the union contract where members need to be watchful and to get officers involved if there are any management proposals to change those sections.
Why Union Political Action?
Joanne Kealoha, who also does legislative work for the ILWU, listed the results of this year’s Legislative Session. She explained that ILWU units need to get involved in the ILWU political action program. She urged unit leaders to “get your members involved. Talk to them, get them registered to vote and inform them about the union recommendations.”
Jose Miramontes, from Hawaii Logistics, recounted his experiences in helping the union’s endorsed candidates in the 2010 elections. “I didn’t really want to get involved but got involved to learn something new.” Jose said. “We helped with the Colleen Hanabusa for Congress campaign. She looks out for the workers, came from Waianae and knows about poverty and working hard. She was up against Republican Charles Djou. I helped with phone banking — whoa, that’s rough. We went with Kam, Dillon, and George from Hawaii Logistics. We walked the hills of Pacific Palisades. In the first election, people voted for Charles Djou, but person to person contact made a difference and Hanabusa won the second election. It took time away from my family but one day a week for three months won’t hurt. It gets you involved. You know what’s happening on election day—you know what it means because you helped this guy win.”
Oahu Division healthcare industry members Joni Eubanks (Hawaii Pacific Health) and David Gravatt (Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children) reported some great ideas on using social networking to organize non-union sectors of the health care industry.
Caucus second day: mobilizing and organizing
On the second day of the caucus, delegates divided into five groups to talk about how they would mobilize their units and organize non-union companies into the ILWU. These are some highlights from the reports they gave to the full caucus.
Agriculture Industry Report
Kelly Rudias, from Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. Maui talked about the challenges they face organizing in agriculture, where the big monster is Monsanto. This company held lots of meetings and one-on-one to brainwash people. “Why should workers organize?” asked Ruidas, “Because employees know the union will back them up and back them up with a union contract. They will know their legal rights. We need to find the core group or ‘pushers’ inside the company. These people know other people. There are ‘drivers’ who push, ‘thinkers’ who get too philosophical, and ‘socializers’ who talk to each other. Be active in community service as you can network with the same people who are in politics. This Huffington Post survey found that 32 percent of workers consider leaving their jobs in 2010, compared to 25 percent in 2005. That is a lot of dissatisfaction.”
Juanita Pedra, from ML Macadamia Orchards Kau, said “We need to look at targets that compete with us, like Macfarms, Honokaa Macnut, and Olsen Farms. We need to look for leaders in the company we are organizing and in the community who can talk to workers.”
Health Care Industry Report David Gravatt from Kapiolani Hospital said, “There are a lot of departments in Hawaii Pacific Health (HPH) that are non-bargain-
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