REMARKS OF RICHARD P. HUGHES, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN’S ASSOCIATION, AFL-CIO

District President Clyde Fitzgerald, District Secretary-Treasurer Michael Dickens, District Executive Vice President Charles Spencer; District Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Wilbur Rowell; (Mr. Perry Harvey, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus); sister and brother delegates to this 88th Convention of the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast District; International and Atlantic Coast District officers and members; Honorable fellow dais guests (Congressman Al Green and Gene Green), thank you for that warm reception and the invitation to address this convention here in Las Vegas.

Since the last time we were together, our ILA family has lost a great leader and a good friend of mine in Reuben Wheatley. For decades, Reuben made his mark in the ILA as a compassionate and forceful leader, not just in Houston and Galveston and not just throughout the District but for all the ILA. His contributions were enormous and his memory will endure.

This 2008 Convention of the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast District comes at a most opportune time for reflection and anticipation. It’s been one year since I became your International President, and a little more than two years before the expiration of our current six-year Master Contract. So it is safe to say that we are at an important collective juncture as a union and I’m certain our work here this week will go a long way towards moving us in the right direction.

One year ago this week, I raised my right hand and pledged to serve the ILA as its eighth International president. In taking the oath of office, I promised to uphold the ILA Constitution and to protect the membership for whom I was humbly elected to serve. Each day during the past year, I have tried to do just that. I can say it has been a wonderful experience, full of learning opportunities and challenges. Upon a year’s reflection, the ride has been rich and rewarding.

At times this year, I needed to make some tough decisions. Whatever the issue, I knew that if I faced them with honesty and integrity and kept the interests of ILA members closest to my heart; I was doing as good a job as I could. Our union has a lot to be proud of as we continue our growth and look to build on a number of solid programs and projects that we’ve instituted to keep us on top of our ever-changing industry.

As your president, my appreciation for the ILA and what it means to its members, their families and their communities has grown ever deeper during the past year.

The ILA is about representing our members in contract negotiations, but I’ve learned it’s so much more. It’s about the many scholarship programs now operatng at so many ILA ports benefitting the dependents of our members. It’s about the ILA gaining respect at all our ports and putting its representatives on Port Authority Boards

Perhaps no better example of this in recent times is the appointment of our own is James O. Campbell, who in late May, was elected Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans. Congratulations, Jim! In so many port communities, it’s those ILA locals with their own buildings who open their union hall doors to extend hospitality and protection to local citizens in times of emergencies. It’s the toy drives and turkey drives and our own ILA Children’s Fund.

There are countless examples I could cite from the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast District ports that demonstrate the goodness and good work of the ILA. I am proud of what the ILA has thus far accomplished and remain excited about the prospects of our future. We all need to play an important part to ensure it success.

What do I mean? We in the ILA must remain vigilant in protecting our historical jurisdiction, making certain our members do the work we’re suppose to do. It’s hard enough keeping our work, let alone trying to recapture work we let slip away. We expect our management partners to live up to that ageless promise that ILA members were entitled to current and future work related to the loading and unloading of cargo from and to ships and the receiving and delivering of said cargo into and out of our terminals. This includes general longshore work, maintenance and checking and clerking, especially new work created by technology. You’ll find the ILA receptive to being part of new trends in cargo transportation such as Short Sea Shipping. Our ILA’s message to employers is that we expect on being properly compensated for the contributions our rank and file has made toward building our multi-billion dollar industry.

Sometime soon (and I hope sooner, rather than later), I will direct our locals to elect wage scale delegates, to present demands and to begin negotiations on the new Master Contract. Naturally, we will be keeping a keen eye on our Brothers and Sisters out West and will be guided in our own negotiations on how the ILWU is treated in theirs.

Last week, ILWU President Bob McEllrath provided a bargaining update to more than 100 delegates at the Longshore Caucus who gathered in San Francisco. “We’re making progress and moving in the right direction, but it’s going to take a while longer before we have something ready for you,” said McEllrath in a report on behalf of the entire Negotiating Committee.” I try to speak to Bob and other ILWU officials as much as I can and continue to pledge our collective support for them.

As for our own negotiations, please remember Sister and Brother members of our great ILA that the contract demands that are ultimately presented to USMX will originate from our members and delivered through their elected wage scale delegates. Therefore, while it serves no purpose today for me to specify what I expect those demands to be, it became clear at our International Convention last July that tiered wages, container royalty cap and automation are likely among the key issues that will keep us busy in the early sessions of negotiations.

I’m all for a continuation of this spirit of cooperation with USMX, but I ask our management counterparts not to expect us to be pushovers. We have no intentions of going backwards with health care, with wages and with other fringe benefits. Nor do we expect to be bulldozed into accepting new forms of technology without strong protections for our member’s jobs and jurisdiction. We also expect Safety and training to figure prominently in our talks with management.

Delegates to our International Convention last year were clear in calling for effective safety programs at our workplaces. To accomplish this important task, the ILA expanded its Safety department and brought on three very capable ILA members to help coordinate it. George Lynch from New York; Bob Fiore from Miami and Willie Seymour from Savannah now comprise the ILA Safety Committee and they each bring a wealth of experience and knowledge of safety and training programs to their jobs. ILA members will surely benefit from their expertise.

I look to Jerry Owens and John Baker to expand their roles within the ILA’s Organizing Department using current ILA staff and Executive Officers to identify prospective new members, to organize campaigns and to aggressively expand the ILA. We remain hopeful that Congress will pass the Employee Free Choice Act which will surely open up many new organizing opportunities.

Like many in the ILA, I was overjoyed last November when Federal Judge Leo Glasser dismissed the Civil RICO suit brought by the Justice Department in 2005. My happiness faded when the government exercised its option two months later to refile the case, which they did at the last hour of the last day of 2007. Our lawyers have again filed papers to dismiss this lawsuit.

Although we remain optimistic that we will prevail, the Federal Government’s 2005 Civil RICO suit against the ILA has extracted an enormous financial toll on the union. It is a testimony to our collective strength that we have been able to defend ourselves as a union, all the while performing the duties of our offices to serve our union membership. For the past year, your ILA Executive Council and Executive Officers have dutifully been addressing the International’s financial situation. We are scheduled to meet again this week to determine what actions we need to take to keep our union functioning as a strong, powerful and effective labor organization. I ask for your continued trust and support as we work through this challenge.

President Clyde Fitzgerald, I applaud and thank you for your appeal for greater unity among our members, our locals and our districts. I remain faithful to the ILA’s Constitution and don’t think there’s any union that protects the rights of its individual members and allows for the free exchange of opinions and ideas more than the ILA. Our upcoming negotiations need to begin with the membership of the ILA committed to unity and singleness of purpose.

The expiration of the current contract is, as I said, just a little more than two years away. Much sooner than that, we face another date with destiny that is of great importance to the ILA and its membership. That date is Election Day 2008 – Tuesday, November 4th to be exact - when Americans will elect a new President of the United States. After a tough, but healthy primary campaign, I am proud that the ILA has already endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president. For us, the choice was clear.

There’s a story worth telling here. Once, Theodore Roosevelt was giving a speech and was interrupted by a heckler who kept shouting: “I’m a Democrat!”
“May I ask the gentleman why he’s a Democrat?” Roosevelt inquired.
Came this reply: “My grandfather was a Democrat, my father was a Democrat and I’m a Democrat!”
“My friend,” Roosevelt asked, “Suppose your grandfather had been a jackass and your father had been a jackass. What would you be?”
“A Republican,” he said.

Sister and brother ILA members, come November, we will be choosing between Barack Obama who wants to strengthen the labor movement and John McCain who has opposed the right to organize and bargain collectively for THREE DECADES. These are not opinions. These are facts. These are recorded votes that John McCain cast as a Senator and Congressman. Our AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department looked at thousands of votes cast by Senator McCain – all of them. His record is long, and it speaks for itself: John McCain is against almost every issue the ILA and organized labor is fighting for.

From Election Day 2008 through our ILA negotiations, the mission before us is challenging, but clear. Please join me as we embark on our next journey to raise the ILA to new heights. Join me as we continue to improve the lives for our members and their families. Join me as we work to bring about a better America where freedom rings and compassion reigns and together, please join me as we enjoy a future full of prosperity and hope. Today, let’s take the first step on that journey.

Thank you. God bless you. God bless the ILA and God Bless America!