Larry is a nice guy, and a really good lawyer, but he is not neutral and he is no outsider.
Larry was representing Local 19 in 1983 when I transferred from PMA San Francisco to PMA Seattle.
In the mid-1990s Larry took over representing Local 23 in Tacoma after longtime ILWU attorney, and son of Local 19 dispatcher Dewy Dugan, Bob Dugan retired.
Here is one of the numerous NLRB settlement postings Larry signed while representing ILWU Local 23.
Neutral? I don’t see how. His first inclination is always going to be to protect the ILWU.
From outside the industry? Come on!
This is just the latest in a long line of cons being run by Pinky and The Brain.
Starting in 2008, the ILWU and PMA agreed to modify Section 13.2 and replace the local Arbitrators with a “neutral panel,” but were unable to figure out how to do it for the entire term of the Agreement.
During the 2014 Negotiations, the ILWU and PMA agreed to “appoint the following individual from outside the industry to serve as the Coast Appeals Officer under the Section 13.2 procedures; [name].”
The LOU claims the Coast Appeals Officer shall serve at the direction of the CLRC, but we all know that means at the direction of Big Bob, aka “The Brain.”
All Big Bob’s Arbitrators are in place and in Southern California, doing his bidding. Right Mascola?
$55/day bonus pay to dayside steady crane drivers, without assessments, no problem.
Make whole Crane payments of up to $178/day to Hall crane drivers, without assessments, no problem.
Robots are taking over the docks, without assessments, no problem.
Pinky and The Brain’s plan to take over the world, without assessments, no problem because they will both walk away millionaires and leave the unfunded benefits for the rest of you.
It has been over 3 years since Eric’s election flier with this cartoon caused Local 13’s President, Chris Viramontes, to file a Section 13.2 discrimination complaint.
The Arbitrator ruled the cartoon was not a violation, but then he and the Union decided they were going to “get” Eric and found him guilty of making “libelous and disparaging statements,” and gave him 180 days non-dispatch.
When Eric appealed to the Union’s Coast Appeals Officer, Rudy Rubio, he not only denied the Appeal, he added another 180 days to the penalty.
PMA refused to implement the Arbitrations claiming they should be vacated in 2 letters. One dated November 21, 2012, the other dated November 27, 2012.
On December 18, 2012, The Union called the Arbitrator and forced PMA to implement Eric’s 6 months non-dispatch.
Thanks to a couple of actual Union men, Eric was able to work at a non-PMA rail ramp at the Port of Tacoma who hire ILWU workers under a non-PMA contract .
When Local 13 found out Eric was working out of Local 23 at the non-PMA job, they contacted their buddies at Local 23 and had them pass a rule to prevent Eric from being dispatch to the job.
When Local 23 tried to enforce the “Eric” rule they were confronted by the NLRB who told them their rule was illegal, and they ended up dropping the rule.
On July 3, 2014, right after Eric’s return from Tacoma, he was confronted by Local 13’s President who invited Eric to go across the street into the alley and “work it out.” He was pissed off that Eric had been able to work when the Union had put him on non-dispatch.
It was Frank Ponce de Leon that ran crying into the Local, like a little girly man yelling call 911 Eric had assaulted Chris, and the Local called the Arbitrator and got Eric another year on non-dispatch, plus the 180 days added on by Rubio.
Local 13 told Eric they had to implement his non-dispatch, because all penalty Arbitrations had to be implemented, in order to protect the integrity of the grievance procedure.
Eric filed his Section 13.3 discrimination complaint, UC-42-2013, in late February 2013 when he found out the Union had been lying to him about their claim they had to implement all Arbitrations.
Eric found out that Award SC-10-97, the Award that banned Local 13’s favorite son Danny Imbagliazzo from steady employment for life, had never been implemented. So much for their integrity.
It took Eric over 3 years to get to the first step of the Section 13.3 grievance procedure, his Section 17.4 hearing.
On March 10, 2016, the LA/LB JPLRC allowed Eric to present his case.
Here is the list of the 66 Exhibits submitted by Eric at his hearing.
The documents speak for themselves, and they tell a story of a Union doing everything it can to deny a member his right to due process, but in the end right makes might.
Eric finally got the opportunity to make his case that he was discriminated against by his own Union, and here is what he said;
It is now up to the LA/LB JPLRC to make a decision, and Eric has the right to appeal their decision to the CLRC and ultimately to the Coast Arbitrator, if he disagrees.
In the mean time, Bobby O Jr. and his crack rat buddies are going to kick Eric out of the Union, at the next Union Meeting, without telling him what he did or giving him anything in writing.
Time to find out if the words; An Injury to One is An Injury to All, really mean what they say.
Time for the over 6,000 members who did not vote for Bobby to show up at the next Union meeting and tell Bobby you do not want to kick Eric out of the Union, because the words mean something.
Time to find out if Harry was right when he said; if the members get all the information they will always do the right thing.
Time for the members of the ILWU to start acting like a Union, and do the right thing.
If not, this is what the beginning of the end looks like.
PMA member companies and Southern California politicians must be very happy this morning, King “Crack Rat” Bobby O Jr. is in for another year.
Another year with Bobby O in charge means nothing will happen for another year, and the robot overlords can continue to eliminate longshore jobs with impunity.
Only 2,413 of the nearly 7,000 “Union” members in Local 13 voted. Bobby was elected by 1,204 members.
Congratulations Bobby, and thanks to your little Local 13 crack rat buddies, another year of job security for me.
John Seixas got the nick name “Bobby’s Boy Toy” after he got caught lying like a rug, as Bobby’s witness, in the Grievance Bobby filed against Eric accusing him of tearing down Bobby’s election fliers.
This Section 13.2 Complaint that Seixas filed against “The Greek” is a perfect example of his pathological lies.
Arbitrator Jan Holmes initially denied Seixas’ bullshit 13.2 Complaint, but Bobby used his influence with the Coast Appeals Officer, Rudy Rubio, retired ILWU member suffering from dementia, and had him give his “Boy Toy” a hearing.
That hearing resulted in Award SCGM-0001-2016, and here it is:
Click the hyperlink if you prefer a pdf file. SCGM-0001-2016
Lying sack of shit John Seixas is fronting for Bobby O again, this time as the Attorney of Facts for the Trial Committee, where he just made a move to kick Eric out of the Union, with no exhibits, with no evidence, and without telling him what he did.
Oh, and John, I misspelled your name because I got the spelling from some Trial Committee minutes. I will be sure to get it right from now on.
Stop lying like a rug John, and everything will be ok.
Bobby and Victor’s plan to kick Eric out of the Union for life started out just like they wanted it to.
Bobby and Victor knew they did not have a quorum when they started the meeting. Just what they wanted.
Bobby and Victor know if only a few members, their followers, show up at a Union meeting they can do what ever they like.
That’s how it works at Local 13, most of the time, but it only takes 1 member to stop them dead in their tracks and thats what happened at last Thursdays lynching.
Dr. Felix Mendoza decided he had had enough and stepped up and called for a quorum.
This is where it gets interesting. For those of you that do not know, according to the Union’s Constitution in order to conduct business at any Union meeting there needs to be a quorum. A quorum is 10% of the Union membership.
10% or less of the Union membership make most of the decisions at Local 13, because rarely do they get enough Union members to show up at a Union meeting unless it is a stop-work meeting.
At last Thursdays Union meeting it was obvious that there was no quorum, but Bobby and Victor went ahead and started the meeting anyway, and they started reading the Complaint that Larry Toledo filed against Eric. Not the decision and recommendation like they are supposed to. They were intent on whipping their crowd up and setting them lose on Eric.
If no one calls for a quorum the meeting can, and most of the time does, continue with less than 10% of the members present.
This is what I call the “tail wagging the dog” management style. It is a very interesting way of doing business and it works as long as the dog allows it to. However, it only takes 1 member to stop it from happening and that is what Dr. Felix did.
Local 13 has about 6,800 members in good standing, according to the recall efforts from about a year ago, so 680 members would constitute a quorum.
It was obvious that there were fewer that 680 members at the meeting, so Bobby and Victor started to try and lower the number by claiming that members who are off injured do not count, and somehow they came up with the magic number of 521.
Even that ploy did not work because they “counted” and could only come up with about 400 members, even though some who were there said the number looked more like 250, and Bobby and Victor had to cancel the meeting for lack of a quorum.
If Dr. Felix had not stepped up, Bobby and Victor were fixing to kick Eric out using 250 or so of their followers, then claim “the membership” decided. Thank you Felix.
If the members of Local 13 do not want to go to meetings they should have at least 1 member call for a quorum at every meeting to stop Bobby and Victor, from wagging the dog.
Next month should be a Stop-Work meeting, because of the elections, which should make Bobby and Victor’s plan to kick Eric out of the Union more difficult, if not impossible.
As a result of Victor Hudak refusing to answer Eric’s letter or phone calls, and being told that the Union Meeting was going to be a free for all against Eric, he decided not to go and sent Victor the following letter.
But that did not stop Eric from passing out his fliers on the Casual hiring process.
The CLRC minutes from meeting #12-04:
And the Attachment to the Minutes of CLRC Meeting #15-15:
One of Eric’s friends sent this Vintage 1975 Flier attacking Harry Bridges before the 1975 negotiations, and guess what the guy that wrote it did not get kicked out of the Union.
Fuck you Bobby O Jr., and Victor Hudak.
UPDATE – No Quorum so Bobby and Victor’s plan fell apart. Too bad, so sad.
What is going to happen now Bobby and Victor? You fucking morons.
Depending on what happens at tonights Union meeting, it may be the last time you will get information from Eric.
At last Thursdays Executive Board meeting, Frank (Mr. Transparency) Ponce de Leon, showed up in his good luck black Hawaiian Aloha shirt, the same one he has been wearing for years, and acting like he is no longer a Local 13 member, presented what is referred to as the “Coast Directive” on the new Casual hiring process.
Frank put his info on the overhead and Victor scrolled thru the CLRC Minutes from meeting #15-15, and the CLRC Minutes from meeting #12-04, then he put up the new “Coast Directive,” a 3 page document attached to the Minutes of CLRC meeting #15-15.
Frank did not have copies of any of the documents he is taking about, but he thinks he is being transparent.
We believe that when the members get ALL the information, they will do the right thing. Problem is all the ILWU Officers, both Local and CLRC do not want the membership to know anything.
When you read the entire Minutes from Meeting #15-15, you can see that every Local on the West Coast asked for registration for both B-men and Casuals, and you can see that all the Locals (including Local 13) submitted Coast Referrals requesting what they want in their Ports.
The CLRC does not “direct” Locals to do anything. The Locals make requests (most registration requests are Joint) and the CLRC agrees with them, or not. Some times the CLRC changes the numbers, but they do not direct anything. If the Local does not agree they can Arbitrate the matter. Both PMA and the ILWU have pursued disagreements related to numbers to be hired to the Coast Arbitrator, and both have won some and both have lost some. That is the way it works.
Problem is the current ILWU leadership does not want the members to know how things work, they aim to keep everything secret, that way they can keep their power and no one can challenge them. Not a good thing for the Union in the long run.
Here are the minutes of CLRC Meeting #15-15, click the hyperlink. CLRC-015-2015
Check item #21, that is the LA/LB referral. Also, check out all the other requests, 20 of them.
Item #21 refers to the procedure agreed to in Meeting #12-04.
Get the minutes of CLRC Meeting #12-04 at the Union meeting tonight.
Notice that the item is being discussed because of a Joint Referral from the LA/LB JPLRC.
The current 3 page outline for the new Casual hiring procedure is based on the 2004 agreement, and attached to the Minutes of CLRC Meeting #15-15.
If you want a copy of the attachment, I would go to tonights Union Meeting, there may be some copies available.
I am not going to post the secret agreement signed by Frank on June 23, 2015.
If you want one, you will have to go to tonights Union meeting.
I do not see how any self respecting longshoreman cannot go to the Union meeting tomorrow March 3rd, to vote NO on the motion to kick Eric out of the Union without even telling him what he did.
What kind of people treat their own members like this?
Time to tell Bobby and his crew, Victor Hudak, Mondo Porras, John Seixus, and Larry Toledo, to knock it off; then vote them out of any Union Office to make sure they get the message.
Homey don’t play that.
ps If you go to the Union meeting you will be able to get some good info on the 6-23-15 CLRC directive on Casuals.
The subject of Casuals is back in at Local 13, just in time for elections. Surprise, surprise, surprise.
Check out the latest edition of Inside the E-Board with Eric Aldape.
Local 13 invited the Coast Committee but they are to busy kissing ass, and telling lies, at the 2016 JOC TPM Conference this week in Long Beach, and it is too inconvenient for them to stop by Local 13’s Membership after the TPM ends on Wednesday.
Frank is afraid to go in front of the Local 13 Membership, he knows what will happen.
The only reason Frank was elected to the Coast Committee is because he ran unopposed. (Big Bob fixed that at the Caucus)
Frank claims transparency, then refuses to give copies of the documents he is using. I don’t think Frank knows what the word means, after all it is a big word.
