Your union contract is a written agreement with your employer. It defines your wages, benefits, conditions of employment, and rights on the job. It is enforceable through a grievance procedure and ultimately in a court of law.

Most union contracts are renegotiated every three years, although some contracts run for only one year and others run for as long as six years. How long the contract runs is up to you and your negotiating committee. The ILWU is a democratic union and members are involved in every step of the negotiation process.

A single worker is powerless to bargain with his employer for good wages and conditions. In the same way, a single voter can’t do much to influence the legislature.

Workers join unions so they can bargain as an organized group, and this pays off in better wages, working conditions, and job security. Likewise, unionized workers can organize their votes, which gives them the power to get laws passed that benefit workers and their families.

Landscape workers (l-r) Domingo Rafanan, Wilfredo Bumanglag, Irenio Manzano, Paul Pinget and Lennon Sugse take care of the grounds at ILWU Unit 4436 - Dole Plantation.

November 3 was a hard day to face. For nearly a year-and-a-half the ILWU and most of the rest of the American labor movement poured its heart, soul and resources into the effort to defeat Bush and his radical anti-worker agenda. We had great hopes we could get off the defensive and start moving an agenda to improve the lives of American workers. But that did not work out.

Still, it is not cause for despair. Much was accomplished in the effort, and that will be important as we move on in our mission protect and advance the interests of ILWU members and all workers.

Late 2006 is the target date set by the Hawaii Superferry company to begin operating an inter-island passenger and freight ferry service with the first of two high-speed, giant catamarans. The twin-hulled catamarans are as long as a football field and will have the capacity to carry 900 passengers and 285 cars (or 20 trucks and 65 cars). Travel time between Honolulu and Maui or Kauai would be about three hours and 4-5 hours from Honolulu to Kona.

Back in the day, locally owned coffee companies lined the streets facing San Francisco’s waterfront. Longshore Local 10 members literally rolled sacks of beans across the street for roasting and shipping by warehouse Local 6 members. 

Now just one of those local coffee companies remains, and it has moved to Oakland.

Light manufacturing has gone the way of coffee and the Warehouse Division has hemorrhaged members up and down the Coast. Longshore work has changed as well, though membership has held steady.

WAHIAWA—The parking lot is spacious—and needs to be—to accommodate the constant flow of excited visitors to Dole Plantation. The first thing you see is a beautifully landscaped slope leading up to the large main building, the word “Dole” spelled out in colorful foliage against the green lawn. ILWU members are responsible for maintaining all of the grounds at Dole Plantation.

Students of Maui’s King Kekaulike High School will soon be getting the inside scoop on what it’s like to work as a business agent for a union. Maui ILWU division director William Kennison is scheduled to speak to the students as part of the school’s career day program this semester.

Frozen or fresh baked bread?

ILWU members at Love’s Bakery are negotiating a new labor agreement and the company wants cuts in wages and benefits. The company claims the cuts are needed because of stiff competition from frozen bread. Grocery stores are selling the thawed, previously frozen bread which comes from the mainland on the same shelves as the fresh baked bread produced by Love’s Bakery.

Hawaii Division Sports Coordinators Roy Jardine (left) and Richard Kaniho (right) with Bully Kahalioumi of Transcontinental Corp., who took second place in the Men’s A Flight as well as winning the Fred Paulino Memorial Men’s Low Gross Award.