Last night the ILWU Community Support March started out in typical longshore fashion, when Local 13 President Bobby Olvera Jr., with his son at his side, kicked it off by waving his middle finger in the air and shouting FUCK PMA.
Great example for his son, and perfect behavior for those that think longshoremen are a bunch of over paid thugs.
Most of the estimated 5,000 who showed up are good people who believe in their Union, however, as usual a couple of bad actors, this time International Vice-President Ray Familethe and his party, including Coast Committeeman Ray Ortiz and past Local 13 Secretary/Treasurer Frank Ponce de Leon, got into an argument with the owners of the Acapulco Restaurant who refused to post the ILWU Support poster, and decided to leave without paying their $500 bill.
Police were called, but Bobby O’s connections with the Mayor payed off when the cops talked the owner out of filing charges by telling him, “I’ll look into it, but it would hurt you more.”
Check out the FaceBook posts by a couple of Local 13 members.
What’s next Bobby, are you going on Jerry Springer?
BOBBY O IS RUNNING ILWU AND ITS DUMB ASS MEMBERS INTO THE GROUND .
most all ilwu members eat up all the lie that bobby o the scum king feeds them …when he gives a ratts ass about members . and hes laughing all the way to bank …he is like a hawk feeding on the dumb ass ilwu members
ilwu 13 are scum they thimk acapulco will go broke over cheap ass ilwu members not going there ….fuk ilwu my check says pma not ilwu. I will never say im belong to this scum bag thug minded union.
Your really on top of local 13 members, looks like your friends with them on Facebook.
Nope, I don’t do Facebook, other that having a presence so I can check out people like Bobby O.
Wow Jim, you sure know a lot about a union your not a member of.
That is a fact.
Waterfront, do you hire outside people to spy on other businesses for your own benefit?
An indictment of PMA, who they are and what they’re all about; ridiculous. How are you to negotiate with an organization who doesn’t even trust themselves?
The same way you negotiate with any multi-employer group. ILWU has been doing it for years, some better than others.
The real question is why can’t Big Bob get it done, and why is he keeping everything secret, even from his elected caucus delegates?
You know why, “Now the real fun begins.”
Are we having fun yet?
Economic Terrorism? Explain why a membership approaching 7000 members, PMA has only authorized 2 crane instructors? That’s right, only 2 with maybe one person getting trained a month if at all. You got it all wrong waterfront.
Contrary to what the Union is telling you, they tell the employers not to train anymore, because they are greedy and do not want to share the work.
In Tacoma, Local 23 did not even allow PMA to train any longshoremen until around 1995, and they still run the program, PMA just does what the Union wants.
You think the people in the Union with power want to train crane operators? The pma and the union don’t want to train. PMA saves money, people on the A-crane and b-crane boards get less competition
Doesn’t seniority rule? If in fact the union. Doesn’t want their membership trained than they suck as much as pma does. If seniority rules then there should be little competition. In my labor union the senior guys have the job choice and those with less seniority end up working far away and out of state. That being said , is why I have devoted much of the last decade to the casual apprenticeship. The ability to have a blue collar job in my neighborhood. Without having to leave home for weeks and months at a time. God bless Harry bridges for his contribution to the labor movement.
In the ILWU, the guys in office are more interested in getting their friends and relatives trained. The work off sign-up lists that are years old, refuse to post new sign-up sheets, and add friends and relatives to the old lists. The Union’s trainers make sure that only the guy’s they want to pass, do. Some guys fail and get right back in to be re-trained, others are not allowed. Yup, you guessed, the guys that get re-trained just happen to be friends and/or family of the guys’s in office.
ILWU officers are special, and only they can decide who is good enough to join their crane trained club.
Don’t dare question them, or challenge their definition of seniority, or you will be labeled anti-union by the good old boys.
Ask Big Dean mcGrath about how they do it in Tacoma.
this is why ilwu is worse union ever they are run by all family and friends that have a freakin 6 graders education. ilwu will be
taken over by pma. and for this I say fuk u ilwu .
Let’s pull the production numbers and then we can talk about slow downs. I’ve been driving utr at SSA, Evergreen, Matson on the nightside dockwork and everyone is working hard. Parking spaces and ample decking space in the yards, just as GJoe’s videos demonstrate.
Breaks? Management is aware of everything. We only go when they say go. If not, we can be fired. Management wants numbers and safety. So the work pace of the docks is conducive to their wants. Combining coffee breaks is a perk to the dockworker, but it also helps management keep a steady slow of cargo.
How many employers do you know allow their employees to be as abusive as you claim? What would ATT have done? NBC? Why would PMA allow this abuse to occur, as you claim, from the 1990’s to 2000’s? I have no idea. What I do know is that the number of people who are not abusers outnumber those who are. It took me over two years to use my health insurance for anything other than eye care and dental. Only because my back was hurting did I go and seek massage and chiro.
Many many more like me. Excuse grammar and punctuation- on iPhone.
Sorry- after “cargo” the next sentence should have started with the question “health fraud”?
The companies tried to curtail the abuses by allowing the PMA compliance access to their terminals. You guys would still do your breaks even if management were written up and fined.
PMA compliance was set up for the sole purpose of spying on other terminals. Why is terminal A doing 10+ moves more per hour then terminal B? What’s their secret, where are we falling short? It had nothing to do with breaks or so-called abuses as you said. Nice try…..
The companies set up compliance to try and control each other, not the ILWU. PMA members are competitors and have no love lost for each other, they are forced to deal with each other. Compliance was set up so one PMA member could stop another PMA member from breaking their club rules.
Of course, the ILWU thinks it was set up to deal with them, because they are the center of the waterfront universe. Just ask them.
Not me, you just repeated what I said.
Your denial of what the ILWU is doing does not mean they are not doing it.
Local 23 is working slowly, they wrote their number on the chalk board. Bobby O and Frank Ponce de Leon were bragging about how they cut the crane jobs using their 8.51 program. Get real, and use your health insurance, you will feel better.
The only reason I’m not too proud too be a local 13 union member is because of the members in this union ….unity and solidarity should be every single day that you are a member of this union not just when times are hard like now ….this union is just getting worst and worst ,,people have no more respect for the job and for each other …everyone is looking how can they fuck the next person ….I been a member for 14yrs now and I see it getting worst ….I know one thing for sure if Harry bridges we alive today he would be so dissaponited in our membership and the way this union is going
Now, you are telling the truth. Thanks for your honesty, Jim.
Say Amen.
And Mr Waterfront you say we not fooling anyone ?? You know a lot about the job …so since you sound like you are a person that does the right thing …next time you get a utr you let your boss know that you only want 15 min break before and 15 min after because that’s what you are entitle too …next time you get a lash you let the boss know that once you are caught up you don’t want a break that you will stick around and catch up with the crane ….
See above…Not jealous of the ILWU, just concerned that you are running the industry into the ground..
Don’t worry about what I am doing, I am not running anything into the ground.
The ILWU is doing doing that just fine by themselves.
And Mr .Owner of this site , I don’t agree with some of the things our president say or does , but you make it seem like he is God and he is not allowed too be angry or can cuss …if I was in his shoes I would be very angry too .. We ilwu created pma and now they act like they don’t know who gave them a job and now they don’t need us anymore …yeah I would flip them off and say the same hung he said …its called frustration and anger …at the end of the day all this companies don’t care about who we are all they look at is the numbers …$$$$ signs if they making money then that’s what its all about they just want too se positive cash flow …both pma and ilwu makes money at the end of the day so what’s the big deal here ….
If you don’t get what the big deal is, you should probably go back to watching FOX. We will both feel better.
Hey waterfront ,, sounds like you are a miserable casual ..cause you definitely dont sound like a union member of local 13 or maybe you someone that got deregistered or failed some type of test that stopped you from getting in …because regardless of what happens on the waterfront once you in those gates is no one business …..there is blood and lost life’s behind local 13 there is history and if you know any of it you wouldn’t be talking so bad about your own Union….where ever you stand in life remember don’t worry about what everyone else around you is doing and just do your best too make sure you make it home too your loves ones …in life we cannot please everyone
Jim,
You are sorely mistaken.
I am not a miserable casual nor a union member that failed a test, but I am a business owner. I used to work with the ILWU for many years and I do have a good idea about local 13 history. See here is the problem, YOU think everyone wants to be a longshoreman. Like it is some great honor. Truth be told, I know that I do not want to ever be a longie. Never did, never will. I had my chance in late 1990’s, but passed because I did not want to go behind my employers back to get registered by signing pledge cards. I am pro-management, but respect SOME of the members that really come to work rather than get on the payroll and spend energy trying to get out of work. The only point I want to make is that the ILWU talks a good game, but is probably one of the most unprofessional organizations in the business world. See the waterfront is a fantasy land, a world where core business principles are overlooked due to greed, nepotism and hate of all things NON-ILWU. Your union is a bunch self-entitled, drains on the payroll that want to be paid for little effort…of course, you can pump it out if the shift looks short or the break looks long. Freaking talk about parasites. If your union keeps up the posturing, I am sure tonnage will be forever lost to other ports where the unions work better with their employers (i.e. ILA).
Not my Union, I am a member of a real union. SEIU 775NW, 43,000 strong, and getting stronger.
Transportation choices are driven by cost, and cost alone. No one is going any where, unless they get a better deal.
If this is all you got out of last night, then you have to be the most 1 sided guy writing articles. I was there with my wife & 2 kids, 8 & 10, and heard little if no cursing. There were hundreds of Respectful Families out there. Where were you and your Family? Do you have one? Just wondering since you like to point the finger at others who do.
Daniel Carranza
130740
Local 13
Yes, I pointed out that there were around 5,000 respectful members and their families, too bad that YOUR elected officials acted like the arrogant assholes that they are.
Where does Bobby O get off flipping off the PMA and telling PMA to FUCK OFF?
Why bully the owner of a restaurant who did not want to put up a ILWU poster, then start a food fight and leave without paying a $500 bill?
Why would the cops tell the owner it will be worse for him if he files a complaint against his ILWU buddies?
Shame on you for defending scum bags like Bobby O Jr., Ray F, Ray O, and Frank P.
Not paying the bill, not cool. I agree.
It would be worse for the owners business in a sense that he would lose a Huge part of his business. Not because of any other reason. It’s a Union town. Can’t piss off the hand that feeds you.
Unless you have generations of Union in your direct history, it’s not easy to understand.
And defending Bobby I will. I might not agree with all his doings or beliefs, but I continue to stand behind the names mentioned because they have and will continue to do more for not just me, but the community, than I bet you have.
I don’t know you so I’m not attacking you. I am attacking the biased opinion of yours.
Thanks for your response as well. I like to understand different point of views that are not in a Union.
“Can’t piss off the hand that feeds you.”
How come you try and bite the PMA (member companies) hand every day through abusive breaks, health care fraud and blatant slowdowns ?
Nobody is slowing down!
The breaks work!
HealthCare fraud? Ask the doctors!!
Slowdown is a fact.
Healthcare fraud is a fact.
Denial is not just a river in Egypt?
Let’s handle these in separate issues;
Abusive breaks. Have you ever driven a UTR for 10 hours? Might get a 2 hour lunch, but I bet your Whole body hurts!
Lashing? Huh, like to see you try?
Health care fraud.
I guarantee that most equipment operators (T/H’s , HH’s and UTR’s) slowed their roll and hoist as an offensive tactic during these negotiations. Are you saying they didn’t ? You and I both know the truth…we all do. You all should just own up to it, as we both know this is the real reason for the 2002 lockout. Economic terrorism.
Well I am in a Union, and I am from a Union town, and I do not agree that you or any other Union has the right to bully those who dare not agree with you.
You are free to defend the bad behavior of your Union leadership.
Management gets the kind of Union they deserve, and Unions get the kind of leadership they deserve.
There are plenty of good people in the ILWU, unfortunately the few who bother to vote do not seem to care what their leaders do, as long as they can get a 4&4 and get paid big bucks.
Harry Bridges refused to take any more money that the average longshoreman was making, ask your current officials why they are making twice as much the average member.
When you associate with scum bags, people think you are the same.
So your thinking is, Bobby O is a Scumbagg and is a leader of this Union. I’ve never met this Daniel guy, but he’s behind Bobby, so he must be a scumbag too? Wow. Sorry for wasting my time. I thought you’d be a little more open minded and be able to agree on a healthy conversation. Thanks for the entertainment, but your close mindedness is a buzz kill.
Again, not attacking you, just your now Close minded views.
I will decide for myself whether or not I consider someone a scumbag.
You going to put words in my mouth, then have a problem with what you say? Are you serious?
Keep reading, and commenting if you wish. We both might learn something.
Let’s handle these in separate issues;
Abusive breaks. Have you ever driven a UTR for 10 hours? Might get a 2 hour lunch, but I bet your Whole body hurts!
Lashing? Huh, like to see you try?
Health care fraud.
Normally a UTR is driven for 6 hours on a regular shift, and you are paid for 9 hrs.
You guys always hang your hat on what it takes to hang a four high bar. If you would work with a partner like you are supposed to rather than try and work twice as fast for half as long, then I’m sure the lashing jobs would be safer and easier.
Health care fraud. How many longs do you know of that have enrolled cousins, parents, and other family members on the no cost he alt care ? I know of multitudes that did it back in the 1990’s and early 2000’s…massages and breast implant abuse. hahaha you guys don’t fool anyone that really knows what is going on.