Scores of union members rallying in front of the Harbor Commission on Dec. 15, were joined by a dozen strikers of the University of California Los Angeles United Auto Workers. Inland Boatmen’s Union members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have been on the picket lines at UCLA and UC San Diego as an act of solidarity. They have also been out to Moreno Valley to support the organizing drive of the Amazon Labor Union at the giant warehouses there.
“We’re going to fight for those jobs, even though the company will probably close the door on us, because these guys worked during the pandemic and they worked here for years,” John Skow, the regional director of the Inlandboatmen’s Union, told the protesters. “There’s a lot of experience here and they just want to throw them out into the street like a piece of garbage.”
Skow went on to say that the union wants their jobs back or for the company to find jobs for them at its other facilities.
“We are in for a fight because it is also about the pension plans,” Skow said.
Newly elected LA city councilman for the 15th District, Tim McOsker, voiced concern at the commission hearing.
“We need the port commission to enforce all the rules and to hang onto these great jobs and we stick with working families and the contracts that you have signed,” McOsker said.
Cris Sogliuzzo, a member of the Inland boatman’s Union, and an employee at Westoil Marine/Centerline Logistics spoke on the union’s last communication with the employer.
“Westoil has now informed us that its other last customer is leaving the LA market,” Sogliuzzo said. “I believe that Leo Marine initially attempted to unlawfully recognize and assist a competing union that the employees there did not choose themselves, to service the customer base that was taken from us in early 2021 which we, the ‘Westoil’ IBU unit, have historically serviced for [the last] 25 years.”
Last year, Saltchuk Marine and Centerline Logistics, two large national marine transportation corporations, exchanged assets. The exchange upended scores of contracts worked by IBU, the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots, and the Sailors Union of the Pacific maritime workers while weakening the Southwest Marine Pension Trust.
The maritime unions charge that Saltchuk and Centerline used the asset exchange as an opportunity to replace longstanding contracts with the IBU and the MM&P with a substandard agreement with the company-friendly Seafarers International Union that undermines the standards for fair wages and benefits previously set by the IBU and MM&P collective bargaining agreements.
In December 2020, Saltchuk Marine announced that it acquired eight ship assist tugs owned by Centerline Logistics and operated in the Pacific Northwest and California. Centerline Logistics, in turn, purchased six bunker barges operated in California from Foss Maritime, a subsidiary of Saltchuk. A bunker barge is like a floating petrol station. The bunker barge pumps fuel oil into the ship’s storage (bunker) tanks.
The effect of this deal had an immediate impact on mariners from Los Angeles and Long Beach to San Francisco. In Los Angeles and Long Beach, Foss Maritime terminated 21 employees who worked on its bunker barges. The collective bargaining agreement with MM&P, who represented the mariners, was voided as were contributions to the Southwest Marine Pension Trust. In San Francisco, roughly the same number of employees represented by the Sailors Union of the Pacific also lost their jobs when Foss Maritime stopped its operations.
In March 2021, the National Labor Relations Board decided that Centerline Logistics, the parent company of Leo Marine, illegally recognized the SIU. The IBU and the MMP were competing over jurisdiction for the Leo Marine employees.
Additionally, the National Labor Relations Board issued a consolidated complaint based on several charges in violation of the National Labor Relations Act when Centerline Logistics transferred work away from IBU-represented Westoil Marine Inc. to the new company Leo Marine. Charges include bargaining in bad faith and repudiation of the contract.
Sogliuzzo said he is asking the Harbor Commission to conduct an investigation into the labor law charges pending at the NLRB and investigate Westoil’s intent to close operations as it relates to the lease permit 882.
“If the commission finds that wrongdoing has occurred, I would like to see the Harbor Commission and city attorney take affirmative action on our behalf against the parties in violation and make those of us injured by such acts whole for all damages,” Sogliuzzo said. “If possible, I would also like to see injunctive relief … so that ‘Westoil’ is not allowed to close its doors on us while the other affiliates are allowed to continue to operate at this location performing our historical work despite being challenged before the NLRB.”