The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) confirmed the September 6, 2012 results of the ILWU’s officers’ election. The results stand as official as there were no challenges to the election received by the September 13, 2012 deadline as provided under Rule 17.A of the union’s election rules.

The ILWU International Balloting Committee reported the results of the election after ballots were counted and tabulated at a meeting held on September 6, 2012 at the Holiday Inn Hotel in San Francisco, California.

All members of the Balloting Committee were present: Adam Mendez (ILWU Local 10), Francis Kamakaokalani (ILWU Local 142) and Sean Farley (ILWU Local 34). All members of the Election Procedures Committee were also present: Peter Peyton, Chair (Local 63), Doug Cabading (Local 142) and Cyrus Kodani (Local 142). (Kodani replaced Bruce Wade (Local 30) who could not attend the ballot count.)

The following ILWU officers and staff members were present: William Adams, Secretary-Treasurer; Russ Bargmann, Research Director, Alexa Jurczak, Assistant to the President, Linda Kuhn, Office Manager and John Castanho, Coast Benefits Specialist. Also present were the staff of Election Services Solutions; the vendor hired to conduct the mail ballot election.

A number of candidates and observers were present during the ballot count. They were: Melvin Mackay (candidate), Frank Gaskin (Observer for Dennis Young), Eddie Greenwood (Observer for Roger Boespflug), Angel Blanco (Observer for Roger Boespflug), and James Daw (Candidate and also Observer for Leal Sundet). Pete Ciaramitaro (63) and Kevin Wolfe (IL WU-PMA Interim Executive Director) were also present

Election Services Solution management and staff were on hand to conduct the ballot count. At the end of the ballot count, the ballots and the envelopes were boxed, sealed and sent to Election Services Solutions for storage for one year. A total of 43,021 ballots were mailed; 7,824 ballots were returned and received by the Post Office; 7, 783 ballots were counted and 41 ballots were not counted (38 ballots were empty or blank and 3 were invalid).

Election Results 
Four Titled Officers were elected: President Robert “Big Bob” McEllrath from Local 4 Vancouver; Vice President Mainland Ray A. Familathe from Local 13 Wilmington; Vice President Hawaii Wesley Furtado from Local 142 Hawaii; and Secretary-Treasurer William E. Adams Local 23 Tacoma.

Nineteen board members were elected. The following board members were elected from Local 142 Hawaii: Nathan (Nate) Lum for the Hawaii Longshore Industrial Group; Esther Manibog for the Sugar Industrial Group; Elmer C. Gorospe, Sr. for the General Trades Industrial Group; Kehau Oyamot-Maeha for the Tourism Industrial Group; and Matthew Rodrigues for the Hawaii Pineapple Industrial Group. Alan Cote will represent the IBU Marine Division; Landor Agustin Rankin was elected from the newly organized Panama Canal Division; Mark Gordienko will represent the Canada Region; Jack Liebengood will serve on the board from the Southern California Mining Region; and Debbie (Mouse) Manowski was elected from the Alaska Region. The Southern California Region elected three board members: Michael Podue from Local 63 Marine Clerks San Pedro; Frank Ponce De Leon from Local 13 Wilmington; and Luisa Gratz from Local 26 Los Angeles.

Northern California board members include: Fred Pecker from Local 6 Oakland; Melvin Mackay from Local 10 San Francisco; and Rene Ducroux from Local 34 San Francisco. The Washington/ Puget Sound Region include: James D. Daw from Local 8 Portland and George O’Neil from Local 40 Portland. Board members from the Oregon/Columbia River Region will be; Max Vekich from Local 52 Seattle and Cameron Williams from Local 19 Seattle.

Elected to the Coast Committee for California was Ray Ortiz, Jr. from Local 13 Wilmington and the Coast Committee for the Northwest was Leal (Leo) Sundet from Local 8 Portland.

All International officers, board members, and coast committee members will serve a term of three years from 2012 to 2015.

ILWU International Titled Officer detailed election results

ILWU International Executive Board detailed election results

* Elected *
* Joe Cortez of Local 13 received the third highest votes in Southern California but was not elected as only one board member may come from a Mainland local and Frank Ponce De Leon from Local 13 received more votes than Cortez. Luisa Gratz was thus elected as a board member from Southern California. The one board member per local limit does not apply to Hawaii.