Category: Default

A lone, longshore worker, Eric Aldape, lifelong dues paying member in good standing of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 13, opposed the Union and Pacific Maritime Association in Federal Court on Friday, August 30, 2019.

Aldape’s, lawyer argued that a provision of the collective bargaining agreement was an illegal sham which allowed the 89 member companies of PMA and the Union to avoid liability for violation of the civil rights of waterfront workers.  

PMA and the Union argued that Section 13.2, bargained for and agreed upon by the Union and PMA for more than 15 years, is a “speedy” resolution of discrimination claims.  

PMA and the ILWU both claim everything that happened was in accordance with a collective bargaining agreement ratified by both parties. They just forgot that the last paragraph of the July 1, 2014, LOU Regarding Proper Application of Section 13 states; intra-union political disputes are not covered by Section 13.1, and that all Eric’s fliers were political fliers.

Aldape’s lawyer countered that it was a kangaroo court procedure that must be complied with within days of any “discriminatory” event and robs workers of their statutory rights under state and federal law without the benefit of advising workers of the rights they are giving up.  

Importantly, for victims of harassment and discrimination, there is no actual remedy, except for the discipline of the “accused.”

The lawyer for Aldape argued that even if the arbitration provision contained a warning, it cannot be saved from its illegal nature because of the way in which civil rights issues are resolved, without the benefit of lawyers, without sufficient time to gather witnesses, and before an “arbitrator” who is another longshore worker and has no other qualification.

The Judge asked PMA; How does a ILWU longshoreman, appointed as Arbitrator, accused of bias, rule himself not biased w/o a hearing, then terminate the employment of a longshoreman he admitted he threatened to kill?  PMA had no answer.

Mr. Aldape was the “accused” in 15 such arbitrations over nine years. Section 13.2 was weaponized by union officials against Mr. Aldape for the publication of political flyers and cartoons which lampooned union officers and those running for office, accusing them of fraud, graft and corruption.  Mr. Aldape was punished for his dissidence with nearly three years of time off and ultimately, his termination.

Mr. Aldape’s lawyer argued that the procedure was unlawful as applied to Mr. Aldape by punishing him for his outspoken and protected right to criticize union officers. 

Provisions of Federal law provide protection for workers who exercise their right to freedom of speech in the workplace.  

The Honorable, Andrew Birrotte, took the matter under submission and is expected to rule late next week.

The outcome will impact 22,000 longshore workers in every working Port on the West Coast, from San Diego to Bellingham. 

Below are the Documents submitted to the Court prior to the Hearing:

Here is what it looks like when the ILWU uses intimidating tactics before a NLRB hearing they know they can’t win.

Local 19 is not going to go to trial. They are going to settle, just like Local 23 did on the exact same issue.

Do Rich and his attorney really think they are going to be able to convince a Judge that they should be allowed to redact the JPLRC Minutes they provide to longshoremen?

Here is an example of the kind of redactions I am talking about:

Both Region 19 and Local 19 agreed to a Settlement which allowed them to redact information like they did for Eunice, I refused to agree and appealed the matter to DC.

DC agreed with me, they rejected the proposed Settlement which is why there is going to be a trial.

There is no way this is going to trial.

This is an example of a lawyer going for maximum billable hours, while trying to intimidate the people who file NLRB charges in order to have a chilling effect on others.

Like I said: Screw Little Richie Austin and his scumbag attorney.

Check out the Section 13.2 Complaint filed by E-Board member and caucus delegate Christine Aguirre, after she failed to get her way at 2 Special JPLRC Meetings where the matter was held over.

The completely unqualified PMA Arbitrator seems to be working as directed and has scheduled a Section 13.2 hearing on this nonsense.

Christine did not like something she heard while listening in on a conversation about Union payments to Coast Committeemen.

She injected herself into the conversation and did not like the outcome.

Before filing her Section 13.2 Complaint, with the assistance of Mike Dimon, she complained to the Employer who responded by filing an Employer Complaint against The Greek alleging a Section 17.81, 17.82 violation.

Three days after the conversation, The Greek was called by Luke Hollingsworth and told Local 63 was holding a Special JPLRC to deal with the Employer Complaint.

This is what happens when a Union Official, who thinks they are all that, has a “problem” with a regular member like The Greek.

Christine showed up with 15 witnesses and claimed she was verbally assaulted.

All but 2 of her witnesses did not remember anything and, after listening to everyone involved, the Local 63 JPLRC held the matter over and referred the Employer Complaint to a Tri-Party JPLRC with Local 13.

Seven days later The Greek was called into a Tri-Party JPLRC Meeting along with all of the witnesses, and Luke Hollingsworth, and Ray Familathe.

Mike Dimon and Christine were hanging around at the meeting, but did not come into the room.

After a vigorous discussion The Greek was asked if he would be willing to apologize to Christine in order to settle the matter.

The Greek surprisingly agreed to apologize, if it would resolve the matter, but instead of accepting the apology and agreeing to settle the matter, Mike Dimon held the matter over and had Christine file a Section 13.2 Complaint.

The Greek is now scheduled for a Section 13.2 hearing on August 19th based on Christine’s Complaint, in which she does not claim discrimination.

Mike Dimon has requested all of The Greeks grievance history to use it to prove he is guilty, just like he did with Eric when he got Eric de-registered.

This is very interesting, because Mike is a convicted felon who knows that prior convictions cannot be used to prove guilt, yet he is going to try anyway because it worked with Eric.

When is the membership going to tell Mike Dimon, Luke Hollingsworth, and Ray Familathe to knock off the special treatment for Officers filing Complaints against regular members over inter-union political disputes that have nothing to do with covered work?

Is PMA going to allow Mike Dimon’s and Christine Aguirre’s phony Section 13.2 double jeopardy Complaint to actually get processed?

Is it going to take another lawsuit? Or a Class Action?

Check out the following Federal Court filings.

The first shows that Chris Viramontes recanted his denial of any involvement in the Port Medical fraud, and admitted that he invested $130,000 in Port Medical.

Chris finally admitted what everyone already knew; that he was a partner in the Port Medical fraud.

Eric did 1 year off work because of Chris’ lies, and it was Chris’ lies that resulted in Eric’s deregistration.

The truth is coming out and, if this case gets to trial, a jury will not be kind to either the ILWU or the PMA for their involvement.

The second shows that Mike Dimon covered for his buddy Arbitrator Mark Mascola by faking a Special JPLRC Meeting to deny the Section 13.3 Complaint of bias filed by Eric.

Mike Dimon claims he had a Special JPLRC Meeting with Eric Kalnes from PMA, agreed to deny Eric Aldape’s Complaint, then never notified him. No actual Employer members were present, and PMA staff have no vote.

Now both the ILWU and PMA are claiming that Eric failed to exhaust the grievance procedure, because he did not appeal the decision for which he was never notified.

Here is the entire Opposition to Local 13’s Motion for Summary Judgement:

This Court Document is just one example of the dirty deeds being perpetrated by the corrupt Union Officials at Local 13 and the International, with PMA’s approval.

Both Local 13’s and the International’s Officers, including Frank Ponce de Leon, covered for the criminal activity of fellow Officer Chris Viramontes, by refusing to process the Employer Complaint against him and letting the 2 non-Officers Dave Gomez and Sergio Amador take all the heat. Dave and Sergio went to jail and got de-registered, for their part in the massive Port Medical benefits fraud.

In the mean time, Local 13 Officers are refusing to allow dues paying member in good standing Eric Aldape to be dispatched to non-PMA jobs, as is his right as a dues paying member in good standing.

What do they think Eric is paying for?

If the Executive Board continues to refuse to allow Eric to be dispatched to non-PMA jobs, this issue will be placed before the membership who have the final say.

According to the following Federal Court documents, the ILWU and Pacific Maritime Association have been, and are continuing to, violate the rights of every longshoremen covered by the discrimination grievance procedure of the West Coast longshore contract documents.

The following Federal Court documents tell a tale of corruption and deceit while explaining how the ILWU & PMA have denied 21,000 worker’s rights in order to limit their liability.

You could not make this stuff up.

As more court documents become available (get posted to PACER) they will be posted.

The only way to combat corruption and deceit is with the truth.

These guys will not win using deception and bluff.

Homey don’t play that.

What is Region 19 doing?

Without any explanation, 1 week before the hearing was set to start, Region 19 stopped the process to seek more advice.

Four days after 5 PMA employer representatives on the Tacoma JPLRC were sent subpoenas to appear at the hearing, the Region decides to postpone the hearing, indefinitely, to resubmit the matter to the Division of Advice.

Within 3 weeks of filing the Complaints against both Local 23 and PMA, the Region found merit to the Charge against Local 23, but sent the Charge against the PMA to the Division of Advice.

This matter was at Advice for over a year, before they responded with a green light related to the charge against the PMA.

PMA’s Washington DC lawyers even requested a personal meeting with the General Counsel to try and persuade the NLRB from issuing a Complaint against them. They were not successful.

There is no case law on this kind of Union/Employer partnership, which is why it went to Advice to begin with.

There are no other similiar collective bargaining relationships like the ILWU/PMA partnership.

The ILWU/PMA collective bargaining partnership would be illegal under the current standards, however they have grandfather rights as the ILWU/PMA partnership goes back to 1934.

This kind of thing has never happened before because the Employers have never been stupid enough to allow themselves to be bullied into doing something that they cannot possibly defend.

The entire Complaint and Notice of Hearing is in the article I wrote on January 20, 2019. https://longshore-labor-relations.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4402&action=edit

What happened that caused the Region to all of a sudden, out of the blue, stop the process and send the matter back to Advice?

Toby has been off work since November 2017, a week before he was going to be elevated to Class A status.

This matter was at Advice for over a year the first time.

What the Union and PMA did to Toby is illegal, outrageous, and indefensible.

Why is the Region doing this?

What is really happening here?

When the ILWU fights with the ILWU, they hide behind their PMA member employers.

Check out this NLRB Board Decision.

This is what happened when an ILWU Clerk decided to file a Section 13.2 discrimination complaint against an ILWU Watchmen, and the ILWU Watchmen said; “Homey don’t play that.”

Will the real ILWU members please stand up?

Thank you Watchmen, you are the true ILWU members.

Longshoremen are entitled to unredacted JPLRC Minutes, period.

Time for the union to stop lying to members about what exactly is happening at their JPLRC meetings.

Time for members to hold their union representatives accountable for what they do at the JPLRC meetings.

Little Richie Austin and his buddy, Idiot Boy Jarrod Faker, won’t be able to lie to their members.

That means you too Roger, if you win.

Congratulations and good luck Roger.

If you win will you let dues paying member in good standing Eric come back to work at the SIM, and save the Local some money? And do the right thing?

According to PMA’s answer to the NLRB in a Case set to go to trial on May 21, 2019, Todd admitted that the Doctor’s note Toby submitted to the Tacoma JPLRC, at the JPLRC meeting Toby was cited to appear at, would have excused Toby’s low hours for the month, but PMA refused to accept it because it was not date stamped by the Local 23 secretary.

This is what it looks like when Todd and his PMA flunkies try and cover for corrupt idiot longshoreman like Local 23’s Jarod Faker.

Jarod Faker arbitrarily created a phony due date for B-men to submit medical excuses for low hours, arbitrarily required the be date stamped by the Union secretary, and Todd and his PMA flunkies are backing his arbitrary rules.

How do they get to cite Toby to a JPLRC to question him about alleged deficiencies with his excuse, then refuse to allow him to correct them claiming his corrected excuse is untimely?

This is pure Faker bullshit.

Why is Todd and PMA buying into Faker’s irrational nonsense?

The trial starts on May 21, 2019, at 9 am, at the NLRB office in Seattle.

Subpoenas will be going out next week to some of the actual PMA members of the Tacoma JPLRC.

I am really looking forward to questioning the actual PMA members about what exactly happened during the meeting where Faker and PMA staff deregistered Toby.

In what seems to be continuing fallout from Local 8 driving Elvis out of Portland, another Company has filed a lawsuit against 154 individual longshoremen claiming payroll fraud and RICO violations related to the practice of working 4&4.

This is what happens when you pour elk piss on the windshield of the grain company manager. Paybacks are a bitch.

The company is asking for $15, 934,881 in damages, divided by 154 individuals, which means each person would owe $103,473.25.

If every longshoreman working 4&4 thought they might have to pay back the money for the hours they were gone, would that end the practice?

Hell yes!

Here is the entire lawsuit.

Thanks Local 8, and Leal.