Corrupt pay practices involving the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach steady men, first identified by Union Arbitrator John Pandora in his Decisions SC-9-97 and SC-10-97, have not gone away.
In fact just the opposite has happened, the corrupt influences of Local 13 steady man Danny Imbagliazzo have now reached all the way to the top of both the ILWU and the PMA, with the help of con man (crane certified but never crane trained) Local 13 President Bobby Olvera Jr.
In Decision SC-9-97, ILWU member and ILWU/PMA Area Arbitrator John Pandora identified 43 steady men who were paid over $281,000 in violation of the PCLCD. He did not require the steady men to repay the money, he turned the matter over to the LA/LB Joint Port Labor Relations Committee to deal with it.
The LA/LB JPLRC did nothing. They let the steady men keep the money and did nothing to the Employer who paid it.
In Decision SC-10-97, ILWU member and ILWU/PMA Area Arbitrator John Pandora identified steady man Danny Imbagliazzo as the ring leader. The Arbitrator ruled that Imbagliazzo was a corrupting influence and ordered that he be removed from working as a steady man at MTC as long as he was a registered.
The LA/LB JPLRC did nothing, the Decision was never implemented, nor appealed; it was just ignored.
The corrupting influence of steady men, including Imbagliazzo, has been allowed to grow and develop since the 1997 Decisions and has now become part of the PCLCD, as a result of the secret agreements contained in the February 20, 2015 Letter of Understanding between Jim McKenna and Bob McEllrath.
This secret Crane Training:Pay Guarantee Agreement, which has not been given to all ILWU members, has not been approved by the rank-and-file or the CLRC and, is not part of the recently ratified MOU dated July 1, 2015.
On the same day the ILWU and PMA announced a tentative agreement on their 5-year deal, PMA-Press-Release-02-20-2015, they signed the secret Local 13 Crane Training Program Tentative Agreement, which includes all kinds of pay for steady men and includes under the table lump sum payments to hall crane drivers who work other than crane jobs.
PMA wanted access to crane drivers so badly that Jim McKenna himself agreed to the following:
– Only trained/certified longshoremen will be eligible to take Skill III Crane jobs.
– To train 250 crane drivers at a rate of at least 100 per year.
– To buy 4 new Vortex crane simulators, and possibly train on 2nd shift.
– Each Company will provide 4 steady men to assist training and not count their shifts toward the 20 shift cap.
– CY Training to continue at rate of 12 per month until sufficient competent operators are available.
– Eliminate Supplemental Crane board with exception of those in training or those now on the Board with 200 hours on the date of MOU ratification, who will be allowed to stay on for 1 year.
– ALL INDIVIDUALS CHECKED IN ON THE A AND B CRANE BOARDS SHALL BE PAID AT THE EQUIVALENT CRANE OPERATOR PREVAILING DAILY RATE OF PAY, MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY, REGARDLESS OF THE JOB THEY WORK IN ACCORDANCE WITH 14.521. THIS IS A MAKE WHOLE PAYMENT IN INDIVIDUALS WORK OTHER THAN A CRANE JOB. THIS IS NOT A GUARANTEE.
– Immediately after agreement on MOU, Employers will revert to practice of ordering 2 men per machine (transtainer), and lift all restrictions on labor orders currently in place for weekends, 2nd and 3rd shifts, and holidays.
– PMA agreed to drop all (over 2000) outstanding PIT complaints against longshoremen for failing to work in a skill for which they had been trained.
I for one find it interesting that PMA’s Jim McKenna claims that he negotiated language to stop benefits fraud at the same time he negotiated a secret deal to pay make whole payments without reporting the hours, which is defrauding the benefits plan of assessments on those hours. Management chief defends ILWU contract | JOC.com
What other secret agreements do Big Bob and Jim McKenna have?
Come on boys, there are no secrets on the waterfront. Or are there?
Chug, chug, chug……..