Tessier's ILWU Labor Relations Newsletter
Check out the latest Local 13 Election Picks.
Vote early and vote for Eric Aldape for V-P and Caucus Delegate.
On-the-Hook Fall 2014 Election Picks
Shame on you Ruben Chacon and your Facebook nonsense. Eric exercised his rights and does something when he feels wronged, you got a problem with that?
Local 13 will get the leadership they deserve, one way or the other.
Why are Local 13’s corrupt Officers so afraid of Eric Aldape?
In a word, because he is honest.
Eric Aldape is a straight talking honest longshoreman, who scares the shit out of the current Local 13 leadership because he is just that, honest.
Bobby O Jr., Mark Williams, Julie Brady, Mark Mascola, Harry Dong, and the rest of the corrupt current leaders of Local 13 are so used to lying and deceiving the Local that they do not know what to do with someone who tells the truth, and does not keep secrets from the membership.
Why else would they have let Mondo Porras run again in the election that he caused to be re-run, as a result of his breaking the rules?
Why else would they manipulate the Trial Committee procedure to prevent Eric’s complaint against Mondo from going before the membership?
Why else would Mark Williams refuse to put Eric on the agenda for the Executive Board Meeting, twice, after receiving 2 request letters from Eric?
Eric can not go to the Union Offices, because of Mark Williams’ claims that he is a threat to the office workers. Mark called the police 3 times when Eric came to pay his dues, then threatened to fire the guard if he let Eric in to pay his dues, because he is afraid of Eric.
Mark is not afraid for the safety of the office staff, he is afraid of what Eric will do if he gets elected.
The Clique is so afraid of Eric, that they allowed the guy who broke the rules that caused the election to be re-run, to run again, because they are afraid Eric would win with Mondo and the twin out of the race.
If Eric had been the one found guilty of breaking the rules, there is no way he would have been allowed to run again. No way in hell.
Mondo got 901 of the 2413 ballots cast, which is 37.3% of the total voters who cast ballots. For some reason 231 members did not vote for Vice-President at all.
Just think, if all the members who did not vote for Mondo including the 231 who did not vote for V-P, vote for Eric, he will be the next Vice-President.
Mondo has proved he is only there to prevent Eric from getting elected, he has done absolutely nothing during his 6 months in office, except take a paid vacation. Bobby and the Clique brought in Chris Viramontes to do Mondo’s job and negotiate the supplements, in secret of course because the membership does not need to know what is going on with their Union. After all the Clique knows best, and if you do not know that you must be anti-union.
Time for the membership to speak, and tell the Clique they are tired of secrets and lies.
Time for the membership to vote, and tell the Clique they want transparency and honesty.
Time for the membership to elect Eric Aldape Vice-President, and tell the Clique to take a hike.
Hard to say exactly what is going on during the Local 13 election process. It could be fraud, or it could be simple incompetence.
At the end of the last election, right before the count, one of the member judges asked the pensioners conducting the election to tell him the totals for the number of members signed/scanned in and the total number of ballots to be counted.
Seems like a simple question, and the information requested was easily available to the pensioners getting ready to conduct the count.
The number of members signing in and the number of ballots to be counted should be the same. No problem, right?
Wrong, instead of answering the simple question, the pensioners turned to Mark Williams and asked him if they could answer and he said NO, and told the pensioners that the member would have to fill out a request for information and submit it to the Local.
According to the Local 13 Constitution, the elections are run by the pensioners, who wanted to answer the question asked by the member, but Mark Williams stepped in and told them not to answer, so they did not.
The reason the number signed in is compared to the number of ballots, is to prevent ballot stuffing, which is where someone stuffs a bunch of phony ballots in the boxes to change the outcome of the election.
We are not saying that Mark Williams and the Clique are stuffing the ballot boxes, but they could be. Why else would he refuse to answer the simple question posed by the member?
After a secret meeting, where he allegedly counted the number of members signing in and the number of ballots counted, Mark Williams announced that the numbers were the same, but the judges observing the election will never know if the results were tampered with because, it was done in secret after the fact.
Election fraud or simple incompetence, what do you think?
Who decided to start paying the “volunteer” members of the Local 13 Executive Board?
Frank Ponce de Leon’s “Clique” is still very much in control of Local 13, including deciding which of their friends on the Executive Board gets paid for their volunteer work, using his current puppet President, Bobby Odor Jr.
Controlling the rank-and-file thru fear, intimidation, deception and lies is how “The Clique” operates.
Union meetings are short, nothing of substance is discussed, and minutes are not made available to the rank-and-file. Everything is secret.
Members who ask questions or dare to disagree with the “Clique” are subjected to personal attacks and labeled anti-union. If your real lucky Frank will turn your wife in at her job, for using her email to push a flier, or call 911 on a member for going into an alley.
Negotiations have been going on since May 12th, and no information about what is going on is being given to the membership, NONE.
Secret negotiations lead to disastrous agreements like the PNW Grain agreement.
The union negotiators never told the rank-and-file anything about the contract until it was a done deal, then told them they had to approve it “because it was better than nothing”.
Unless Local 13 wakes up and replaces “The Clique” with new leadership, the ILWU Dispatch Hall is on its way out and the longshore employers will be calling their workers from home using their new shape-up iPhone application, and all you will hear from the union is, “PMA made us do it.”
Time to wake up Local 13.
Time to vote for new leaders.
Time to elect Eric Aldape Vice-President, and put the Hall back in control.
When asked to explain who Local 13 paid money to, as reported on their 2103 LM-2, the Local admitted to paying the following (volunteer) members of the 2013 Executive Board:
Christine Aguirre – $1,662
Joe Cortez – $7,132
Mike Dimon – $1,562
Jesse Enriquez – $3,359
Sunshine Garcia – $832
Mark Jurisic – $1,141
Jeff Linares – $1,160
Steve Mejia – $1,427
Bobby Olvera Jr. – $10,459
John Solaro – $831
Greg Viramontes – $457
Scott Walker – $1,141
The LM-2 reporting procedures require “ALL” payments to union officers be listed in Schedule 11 and an “Officer” is defined to include “any member of its executive board or similar governing body.” Mark Williams failed to report any of the payments make to the Executive Board members.
Local 13 claims they reported the E-Board payments as payments to employees making less that $10,000, which do not have to be itemized.
However, the LM-2 reporting procedures require reporting payments made to employees in Schedule 12 which requires itemization for those paid over $10,000 and allows “All Other Employees Making $10,000 Or Less” to be lumped together, and Mark Williams claimed $0 on that line.
Do you think the DOL will do anything about this false reporting, or will the ILWU be able to do what ever it feels like?
http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EFS/LM-2_InstructionsEFS.pdf
The Local 13 2013 LM-2 signed by Mark Williams on March 28 2014, contains false statements and intentionally misrepresents material facts, in direct violation of the LMRDA reporting requirements.
Mark Williams intentionally failed to properly list all the labor organizations officers and report all salaries and other direct and indirect disbursements to officers during the reporting period, when he failed to list payments made to Executive Board members.
During the 2013 reporting period Local 13 paid 12 members of the 25 member Executive Board, as unidentified employees earning less than $10,000 which in turn was not reported as required, and it was Mark Williams that failed to properly report the information as required.
According to the LM-2 instructions: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EFS/LM-2_InstructionsEFS.pdf
The president and treasurer or the corresponding principal officers of the labor organization required to sign Form LM-2 are personally responsible for its filing and accuracy. Under the LMRDA, officers are subject to criminal penalties for willful failure to file a required report and for false reporting. False reporting includes making any false statement or misrepresentation of a material fact while knowing it to be false, or for knowingly failing to disclose a material fact in a required report or in the information required to be contained in it or in any information required to be submitted with it.
The president and treasurer or the corresponding principal officers of the labor organization required to sign Form LM-2 are personally responsible for its filing and accuracy. Under the LMRDA, officers are subject to criminal penalties for willful failure to file a required report and for false reporting. False reporting includes making any false statement or misrepresentation of a material fact while knowing it to be false, or for knowingly failing to disclose a material fact in a required report or in the information required to be contained in it or in any information required to be submitted with it.
The reporting labor organization and the officers required to sign Form LM-2 are also subject to civil prosecution for violations of the filing requirements. Section 210 of the LMRDA (29 U.S.C. 440) provides that “whenever it shall appear that any person has violated or is about to violate any of the provisions of this title, the Secretary may bring a civil action for such relief (including injunctions) as may be appropriate.”
Under the CSRA and FSA and implementing regulations, false reporting and failure to report may result in administrative enforcement action and litigation. The officers responsible for signing Form LM-2 are also subject to criminal penalties for false reporting and perjury under Sections 1001 of Title 18 and 1746 of Title 28 of the United States Code.
Is this just another example of the ILWU being allowed to do what ever it likes, or is someone (the DOL) going to step up and tell them to knock it off, then make them do it right? Local 13 – LM-2 – 2013
By the way, the Local claims they were audited. Oh my, what a surprise.
Vote early and vote often, and vote for Eric Aldape for Vice-President.
Local 13 will get the leadership they deserve.
Hope it is New Change and Eric Aldape.
Last night at the September membership meeting, Bobby Odor, Mark “the lying sack of shit” Williams and Mondo “I didn’t do it” Porras, told the membership absolutely nothing about the status of the PCLCD contract negotiations. Not one word about the Health Benefits tentative agreement, or any other topic related to the master contract negotiations continuing in San Francisco.
No surprise that the corrupt leadership would continue their mushroom growing strategy of keeping the membership in the dark, and feeding them shit.
What they did say does not bode well for the future of the Longshore Division of the ILWU, who should consider changing their motto to – “It is better than nothing.”
Bobby, Mark and Mondo told the membership the recently ratified PNW Grain Agreement is a good deal, and they are in the business of keeping jobs and putting members to work.
The lying corrupt leadership can keep talking about how wonderful the Emperor’s new clothes look, while the rest of the world can clearly see that he is naked and afraid.
The degree to which the lying corrupt leadership is keeping everything secret, and the way they are singing the praises of the disastrous give aways contained in the PNW Grain Agreement, does not inspire any confidence that the outcome of the PCLCD negotiations will be different than the outcome of the Grain negotiations.
Time to send the lying corrupt Local 13 leadership a message.
Time to elect New Change leadership, like Eric Aldape, in next weeks election.
The recent AP article on the ILWU/PMA Tentative Health Benefits Agreement, by Justin Pritchard ( [email protected]), discusses a number of healthcare benefit related issues including the June 16, 2014, Grand Jury indictment related to fraud against the Union’s plan.
The article goes on to state:
“The Associated Press found evidence of two other federal investigations into clinics that treat dockworkers.
Last year, Department of Labor and FBI agents raided or seized assets of those clinics, one of which was founded by union members. The clinics were based in or near Los Angeles and Long Beach, the two cities with the West Coast’s largest ports.”
One of those other clinics the DOL and FBI raided was Port Medical, founded by ILWU member Chris Viramontes.
Eric is doing a year and a half off work because of his election flier that claimed Chris was a part owner of Port Medical. Chris’ phony 13.2 grievance which was processed by his buddy, fellow bookie, Judge Roy Bean Miller, and Jerry Avila’s lies about what happened in the Local on July 3, 2013, resulted in Eric getting penalized a total of 720 days off work.
Bobby Odor was at the JPLRC meeting where PMA said there was no Section 13.2 violation and they were not agreeable to giving Eric any time off.
It was Bobby Odor, along with Mark “the Mask” Mascola, Harry “Gong” Dong, Mark “the lying sack of shit” Williams, and JoJo “do nothing” Cortez, who called the Arbitrator and demanded that Eric be given time off, despite PMA’s refusal. What kind of Union Officials go after their own member? Local 13’s corrupt scumbag Officials.
It was Bobby Odor that called George Lujan, after he was elected President, and asked him to arrange a meeting with Eric. At the meeting, it was Bobby Odor that told Eric that he wanted to get him back to work, but he has done nothing.
Bobby Odor has been able to put 4 of his longshore friends, and 1 mechanic, on the payroll as special Business Agents to police the docks during the contract negotiations, but he has done nothing to help Eric.
Bobby Odor was able to call the employer and get 2 guys put on the payroll to “babysit” his mother, at the luncheon Mayor Garcetti put on for him at City Hall, but he has done nothing to help Eric.
Bobby Odor told Eric he wanted to help him get back to work, then went out and asked members, including Alberto’s twin brother, to run against Eric for Vice-President. How is that supposed to help Eric?
Eric is still off work as a result of the incident in the alley last July 3rd, but he is eligible to run for office and he (and his family) could sure use the job.
At the end of the day, Local 13 will get the leadership they deserve.
The membership deserves leadership that will be honest, transparent, and above all represent the members best interests.
The membership deserves Eric, but first they have to elect him, either way they will get what they deserve.
Elect Eric Aldape Local 13 Vice-President.
AP article – Deal on Health Care Aids Port Contract Talks
According to Local 13 Bulletin #25, the Grain Agreement was ratified with 88.4% of the members voting yes. (1,475 yes, 193 no, total 1,668)
Sounds impressive, 88.4% yes makes it sound like the longshoremen overwhelmingly approved the agreement.
Lets look at the facts. According to PMA the number of registered workers in each of the Locals who were allowed to vote is as follows:
That is a total of 2,549 registered members eligible to vote, of which 1,668 voted. That means 65% of the eligible members voted.
1,475 of the 2,549 voted yes, so 57% of the eligible voters, voted yes.
There are 11,342 registered members in the bargaining unit, of which 1,668 voted. Than means 14.7% of the eligible members voted.
1,475 of the 11,342 voted yes, so 13% of the bargaining unit voters, voted yes.
What that says to me is that 13% of the bargaining unit approved a Grain Agreement.
A historically bad Agreement, of which the UCLA Center for Social Theory and Comparative History says;
“The ILWU’s accord with the PNGHA would give back to the employers virtually all of the gains in work rules and shop floor powers that the union had wrung from them during many decades of struggle in northwest grain, as well as in longshore.
The union would lose control over the hiring hall, the foundation of its power. The companies would get to hire from a list of workers that they had pre-approved.”
The once mighty “democratic” ILWU is now being run (into the ground) by 13% of the members, and leadership that lies like rugs.
Too bad, so sad; Harry would be very disappointed to see what his Union has become.
UCLA article on Grain Agreement