The workers at Enron thought they had it made with their retirement program that was heavily dependent on Enron stocks. They were duped just as so many working people are duped into believing that the stock market is the answer to their retirement security. The Enron collapse and the instant evaporation of thousands of workers’ 401(k) retirement savings is the perfect example why we must strengthen and preserve Social Security, and fight against its privatization.
The Administration’s budget would make the massive tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy permanent rather than letting them expire at the end of the year 2010 as currently scheduled. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this tax cut would deprive the U.S. Treasury of $4 trillion in revenue in the decade after 2011, the same period when the baby boomers will begin to retire in large numbers, causing the cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid long-term care to rise substantially. The best projections indicate that during that decade Social Security will move from annual cash surpluses to annual cash deficits as benefit payments begin to exceed tax revenue under the Bush plan. Substantial revenues from outside Social Security would be needed then to ensure the solvency of the Trust Fund if drastic benefit cuts are to be avoided. The permanent extension of the tax cut would render such transfers of revenue to Social Security virtually impossible unless severe cuts were made elsewhere in the budget or sizable tax increases were enacted. Bottom line: Bush’s push to make tax cuts permanent could doom the future of Social Security.
Transportation funding cut
The Bush plan also slashes funding for transportation programs. Since January 2001 the ILWU has lobbied Congressional leaders to spend transportation funds to relieve congestion at our nation’s ports. The ports and waterways have received short shrift over the last decade compared to other intermodal areas of the country.
The union had hoped that the Dept. of Transportation would tap into funds authorized by TEA-21 (the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century) to pay for port congestion relief projects. But proposed cuts to this program make this appear unlikely in the near future. The Bush budget slashes spending under TEA-21 by a whopping $9 billion. This 29 percent drop in funding will result in lost jobs—industry groups estimate those losses could reach 380,000 jobs over the next 10 years, including many in construction and manufacturing that are dependent on an efficient transportation system.
ILWU members and their communities face many transportation problems, including the need for dredging and congestion relief. Dredging of vital waterways such as the San Francisco Bay and the Columbia River must occur to accommodate larger vessels now under construction and save maritime jobs. The Seattle/Tacoma area of Washington State has terrible traffic problems. The 710 Freeway that serves the Port of Long Beach has seen truck traffic double and triple every couple of years. This freeway is choked with traffic during the day and residents, commuters and visitors are forced to drive in bumper-to-bumper traffic jams.
These significant transportation problems require federal assistance. Solving them will help not only maritime workers and the port communities, but the national economy as well. Yet the Bush budget is oblivious to the need to invest in transportation.
Write your legislators
Congress must scrutinize every single dollar of Bush’s proposed defense and security spending to determine the country’s true needs. Let your legislators hear what you think those needs are. You can reach them through the ILWU Web site, www.ilwu.org. From there, click on the Legislation and Elections button on the left-hand side of the page. Then, click on “E-mail link to Congressional Offices.” Click on the “Issues and Legislation” tab, where you will be able to send a letter to Congress. To reach your legislators by phone, call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for their offices. Representatives can get letters at the House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515; Senators can get them at the U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510.
Member involvement is key to longshore negotiations —continued from page 1
The way longshore mobilizes for negotiations is a good example of democracy and member involvement within the ILWU. The process begins with membership meetings at each of the 24 units that make up the longshore grouping. Unit members have direct input in making proposals for changes in the contract and for suggesting the issues that need to be resolved with management.
Proposals unified at caucus
The units then send a representative, usually the unit chairperson, to a statewide meeting or caucus to consolidate the separate proposals into a unified package which becomes the union’s bargaining goals for negotiations with the employers. Longshore held their statewide caucus in Honolulu on March 14-15 and Young Brothers units held their caucus on March 27 and 28.
Besides the usual wage and benefit items, longshore negotiations also deal with a long list of company work rules that define how operations are carried out. Some rules apply only to certain companies and certain ports. This means the caucus must sometimes act on hundreds of proposals, as they put their negotiating package together.
Tough Talks
Hawaii longshore members will be watching closely as the West Coast ILWU begins negotiating with the PMA next month. PMA employers are seeking to cut labor and increase productivity with the use of new computerized and automated systems. Some of the new technology that employers are looking at include: further integration of global positioning systems and radio frequency transponders on containers to track cargo movement on the docks; putting these systems into cranes, trucks, and other equipment to automate cargo flow; using this system to speed up gate check-in for truckers; replacing the union dispatch hall with an automated telephone dispatch system.
Maui Pine seeks tariff exemption—continued from page 1
10-K report filed with the Security Exchange Commission.
Maui Pine is seeking an exemption to the tariff, but the Commerce Department has literally been flooded by over 1,500 requests for special treatment and has until July 3, 2002, to decide whether to grant any of these exemptions.
The company has hired a Washington D.C. law firm to help get the exemption. Lindsay McLaughlin, the ILWU’s Legislative Director in Washington, will also be pursuing his connections to assist the company’s efforts and protect the jobs of ILWU members at Maui Pine. Local 142 Secretary-Treasurer Guy Fujimura suggested that the union’s contacts with staff people in the federal government can sometimes be very effective.
Bush’s main motive in ordering the tariff appears to be political. It is aimed at maintaining votes for Republican House members in certain Midwest, steel producing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia for the 2002 elections.