The
Red Hook StarªRevue SOUTH BROOKLYN’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
THRU SEPT. 30, 2012
FREE
LONGSHOREMAN STRIKE A POSSIBILITY
by Drew Petrilli egotiations on the new union contract between the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) and the International Longshoreman’s Union (ILA) of the East and Gulf Coast have recently stalled. The USMX is a multinational alliance composed of over 40 shipping companies from around the globe, including China, North and South America, and the Middle East. A new union contract is slated to take effect after the 30th of September. According to industry sources, the ILA and the USMX are set to return to the negotiating table on the September 19th with the Federal Mediation and Conciliatory Service acting as a moderator. However, if the two parties cannot reach an agreement on the conditions of the new contract, ILA President Harold Daggett has given his word to the media that “a strike is likely” by the Longshoremen, including Red Hook’s Local 1814. Sources on the waterfront have indicated that grievances with the status quo of the ILA expressed by the USMX include “work practices” such as overtime pay. Sources in the media state that the ILA fears automation “automation” and the implementation of new technology on the waterfront. The issue of automation of work detail is not a new concern in the ILA.
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Union is not against more efficient practices
This romantic scene was observed one morning on Van Brunt Street (photo by Geoge Fiala)
Town Hall meeting asks: “Don’t Red Hookers deserve respect from the police?”
A
By Alexandra Gillis
September 19th Town Hall meeting at the Red Hook Community Justice Center turned into a heated discussion about interactions between police and civilians. Community activist Dannelle Johnson was the first to speak, asking the police how they planned to stop crime without making innocent citizens feel under siege. She brought up Old Timers Day where festivities had gone past curfew. There were many complaints that the police were disrespectful to innocent citizens as they were clearing the park.
ing to police, the festivities were supposed to be over by 7 pm and there was a cleanup from 7-9 pm. The community didn’t feel that the attitudes of Old Timers Day attendees deserved this particular treatment from the police. Dorothy Shields of Red Hook East ended the discussion by saying, “I do not go to Old Timers Day because I do not agree with it.” She mentioned that events like Family Day ran smoothly because they ended on time.
This prompted a discussion about the event, where citizens and police had views that differed about how the night’s events panned out. Police wanted to make a clear point about the permits that were given for the event. Accord-
The rest of the night continued a pattern of concerns about police treatment. Reverend Watkins was called on shortly afterwards and spoke of the “arrogance” (continued on page 6)
This is not to say that the union is against an increase in efficiency on the docks that may result from such implementation. In a 2002 New York Times interview between waterfront labor expert David J. Olson and Times reporter Steven Greenhouse, Olson states: “I don’t think the union is resisting new technologies. They want to…make sure the jobs created by the newly implemented technologies fall within union jurisdiction. They don’t want those jobs to be nonunion.” The practice of the ILA vigorously defends their right to dock jobs is long held. An addendum to a memorandum between the Council of North Atlantic Shipping Associations (CONASA) and the ILA states the union’s right “to protect the work jurisdiction of its members to the fullest extent permitted by law.” That addendum was published in the ILA’s former newspaper, the Brooklyn Longshoreman, in June of 1977. New technology introduced to increase efficiency on the docks is a welcome idea in the ILA, as long as the work detail being automated is still carried out by a certified longshoreman behind the controls. A strike is not a welcome idea on either side of the contractual negotiations. James Pelliccio, of Ports America Group, a USMX shipping company, states that the shipping companies are putting forth their best efforts to ensure that a consensus can be reached with the ILA and a strike avoided. However, in the event of a work stoppage, he states that “contingency plans are forming” in Ports America Group and The Red Hook Containerport is NYC’s last other shipping companies. The Journal of shipping facility Commerce quotes a source in the shipping industry regarding such contingency plans, stating that, “Importers anticipating a strike placed orders early to ensure that their goods would arrive in time, and are most likely also switching deliveries for the East Coast to the West Coast instead…” This tactic by the shipping companies would ensure that goods still arrive on store shelves in a timely fashion, but with the added costs of bringing in goods from the West Coast by means of freight trains or perhaps even trucking. As far as what will happen with shipping containers and break-bulk on the East Coast, Roger Giesinger of Hampton Roads Shipping (continued on page 3)
Also in This Issue: The
9/11 Remembered page 12
Blue Pencil Lunar Revue
Spoofs page 10 new original crossword puzzle page 11
PLUS LOTS MORE!
From the ashes of PS 27
pages 6 & 7