Are you a new employee, hired within the last 12 months?
If so, this issue of the Voice of the ILWU was prepared especially for you. As a union member, you are entitled to many rights and benefits and some responsibilities. This issue will help get you started with the essential information you need as a member of the ILWU. (Even longtime members may find the information useful.)
As a member of ILWU Local 142, you are part of a long and proud tradition where workers join or form organizations for their mutual benefit and to promote fairness and justice on the job. These organizations are called labor unions, trade unions, or just unions.
A third and very important benefit of union membership goes far beyond your job. You are now a member of a workers’ organization--dedicated to defend your interests as a worker and to promote the general welfare of you and your family.
This is spelled out in the ILWU Declaration of Principles:
Hawaii hotel workers earn among the highest wages of any hotel worker in the nation. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual pay of Hawaii hotel workers was $31,045 in 2003. Maui County hotel workers did even better with an average pay of $32,526
The only hotel workers who earned more were in the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia, where they averaged $33,018 and $32,746 respectively.
Laid-off workers from Maui Pineapple Company’s Kahului Cannery are eligible to receive a wide range of job assistance from the federal government. The ILWU successfully filed a petition requesting these benefits under the Trade Act of 1974, which provides Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) to workers who lose their jobs because of increased foreign imports and additional assistance for workers over the age 50.
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.