The Constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the Local Executive Board, subject to the approval of the majority vote of all ILWU members voting at Unit membership meetings.

At its December 14-15, 2006, meeting, the Local Executive Board approved a change in the Constitution that makes it clear that the Judicial Panel itself shall choose from its alternate members to hear cases which come out of a Division (Hawaii, Maui, Kauai, or Oahu) or when its regular members are disqualified from hearing any particular case.

For the last 12 years, Congressional Democrats have been stuck in the political wilderness as the minority party. The Republicans marched in lockstep with George W. Bush and shut out the Democrats from offering an alternative agenda on the floor of the House of Representatives. The 2006 election in which the Democrats took back the House and Senate was a repudiation of Bush’s and the lockstep Republican Congress’ agenda.

The 24th Convention heard and approved nine reports which detail the work of the union. The Convention also received a report from the ILWU Memorial Association and from the Housing Program.

Report of the Local Officers (OR-1) 
This is a report from the three Titled Officers (president, vice-president, and secretary-treasurer) which gives an overview of the economic and political conditions faced by the union and describes the major activities and programs of Local 142 in the last three years.

The 24th Convention of the ILWU Local 142 adopted the following resolution to honor the contributions and accomplishments of the Filipino sakada in Hawaii. Many of the sakada were ILWU members.

On September 9, 2006, the Kauai Filipino Centennial Celebration Committee dedicated a concrete marker in the Hanapepe Town Park in memory of 16 Filipino workers killed by police during a territory-wide strike of Filipino plantation workers in 1924. Four police officers were also killed. The incident is known as the Hanapepe Massacre. Kauai Division Director Clayton Dela Cruz represented the ILWU at the ceremony and the following is based on his remarks

Lanai hotel members at the Four Seasons Resort Lana’i at Manele Bay and The Lodge at Koele will see a huge increase in their take home pay beginning January of next year. Thanks to a new collective bargaining agreement between the ILWU and the Four Seasons, the hotels will come under the ILWU Health and Welfare Trust Fund, and workers will no longer need to pay their 15 percent co-share of the monthly medical premium.

Two full-time business agent positions on Kauai are pending the outcome of a re-run election scheduled for January 27 to February 2, 2007. The re-run affects only the business agent race and all other officers on Kauai are elected.

Del Monte workers met on November 22 at the Kunia Gym to get information to help them deal with the sudden loss of their jobs.

“Not to worry,” insists the Bush Administration. We screen on hundred percent of every container entering the US. High risk or suspicious containers are X-rayed and checked for radioactivity.

The statement is misleading.

Over 9 million containers are never physically screened. The only thing screened is the cargo manifest that describes the content of the container. The screening is not done by a human being, but by a computer and an artificial intelligence program called the “Automated Targeting System.”

After five years of effort and billions of tax dollars spent, the Bush Administration’s multi-layer approach to security has done little to secure our ports

Problems with cargo screening and manifests

Every manifest of all containers entering the US is screened. Foreign shippers are required to send the manifest to US Customs 24 hours before the containers are loaded. High security seals are used to lock the container doors and detect tampering with the container.