Political action in Local 142 is on fire and getting hotter everyday. The primary election is on September 18 and there are only a few weeks before the November 2 General Election.

Each of the four island Divisions of Local 142—Hawaii, Maui, Kauai, and Oahu—are already hard at work registering members to vote and educating members on the issues. As the election gets closer, the work will shift to actively supporting those candidates endorsed by the union and getting members to vote at the polls or by absentee ballot.

A coalition of five unions, representing several thousand unionized civilian workers employed by the U.S. Department of Defense, have formed a coalition to protect their rights and protest a plan they say would destroy the federal civil service system.

One issue dominating union contract negotiations in every industry around the country—healthcare benefits. No one has anything like security in their lives if a sudden illness or catastrophic accident can wipe out their family’s savings or they can’t get the medical attention they need and face death because they can’t afford help.

On March 31, 2003, the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a regulation that would make millions of workers ineligible for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. DOL plans to issue a final regulation later this year. Legislation introduced by Representatives Peter King and George Miller would stop the Administration from implementing any regulation that takes away workers’ right to overtime pay.

A new law passed by the Hawaii State Legislature allows workers to use their own sick leave days to care for their seriously ill child or other family member. The law took effect on July 1, 2003, and applies to all employers with 100 or more employees.

George Bush and his administration are pushing another trade deal which threatens to destroy more U.S. jobs. The “Free Trade Area of the Americas” is expected to be finalized in 2004 and be fully implemented by the end of 2005. The agreement is with 31 countries of North, South, Central America
and the Caribbean (Cuba was not invited to participate).

Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., the parent company of Del Monte pineapple operations on Oahu, reported record sales and profits for the first quarter of 2003. In a press release issued on April 29, 2003, the company announced a record breaking $107 million in gross profits from sales of $643.8 billion in the first quarter of 2003.

A weak economy, accounting irregularities like overstating profits, too much debt, and growing too rapidly has led to record levels of corporate bankruptcies in 2001 and 2002. There were 257 corporate bankruptcies in 2001, a record for the largest number of bankruptcy filings in a single year. In 2002, there were only 187 filings but the value of the assets involved, $368

Working men and women of the ILWU take on multinational corporations of the PMA

Nearly 2,000 fired-up longshore workers and their supporters crashed the grand opening party of Maersk Sealand’s new terminal in the port of Los Angeles on August 15. The facility is the largest terminal in the world, and Maersk Sealand is the second largest shipping company worldwide.

These are the toughest contract negotiations the ILWU’s Longshore Division has faced in a long time. Not since 1948, when our strike broke the old Waterfront Employers Association and the Pacific Maritime Association was set up in its place to resolve the dispute, have we seen an employer so emboldened, so ready and eager to bust the union, so intently focused on making this contract the one that will eliminate the ILWU—if not immediately, then over the long term.