Please explain what else goes with those very low wage rates. OT, ATO, Holiday pay, travel, grub, pension credit, etc.
It’s expensive to live in California. Taxes are high.
As an aside, what can you tell us about Westar? Is it true that they have a camp on a barge in SF for their day boat crews to live on? Are they vertical MMP Inland?
Why are the guys in NY putting up with this shitty Centerline contract?
There are other jobs available.
There are even other SIU jobs available. SIU has been advertising for new members to sail deep sea. I’ve never seen that before.
Where did it go?
I have heard anyone that truly wanted to find employment elsewhere has. Moral and manpower is so low I was told there are multiple manned barges with one man on them. Safety first right?
A skeptic might get the idea that they spent the $10 million in Paycheck Protection loans on labor lawyers and hookers and cocaine to negotiate that horrible contract.
Obviously, the union officials must have been high on something when they agreed to that contract.
The victims of that contract need to vote with their feet to reject it.
I’m very glad to be a non-union Mariner with a healthy 2021 raise, paid travel, unlimited food budget, etc., etc.
Ok, I would like to have paid Holidays and a big year end bonus.
Perhaps this subject has morphed into Union versus Non-union debate again… Bouchard boats were tied up for quite some time with no work for most of the crews. Glad they are working again. Whether they are Union or not…
Moral of the story is this place is sketchy and I wouldn’t believe any promises from anyone at Centerline.
Yep westar is MMP inland top to bottom
I heard a story that they have their day boat crews living in a camp on a barge in SF Bay.
I also heard a story that their MMP contract is so shitty that their Mariners cannot even attend the MMP school without paying themselves just like the non-union Mariners.
What kind of a union or employer would enter into a contract like that?
Of course MMP Inland has always seemed to me like the polar opposite of MMP Deepsea.
I’ve belonged to two maritime unions. I’d say that one of them was basically honest, just a bad negotiator. The other had a business agent who was a criminal.
It doesn’t sound like Harley has changed much without Harley. Just a new name, and lower pay.
Will not join in bashing of the numerous unions, Have participated in three. They all have different contracts for different fleets. We all have the option to choose where we work, was never forced to work anywhere. Although retired, have a pretty good insight on the business.Reached out to many fellow mariners who knew who was making the best efforts to take care of our fellow mariners.Are there waiting lines for the best jobs? Absolutely, always has been.
IBU fights to protect jurisdiction, area wage standards on tugs and
THE INSIDE NEWS
ILWU, ITF team up on
supply chain organizing 2
ITF Inspectors assist in vaccinating seafarers 2
First Blood memorial
event honors fallen
ILWU members 3
Remembering Joe Lucas, former Local 10 President 7
TRANSITIONS 8 BOOKS & VIDEO 8
Local 6 workers locked out in Fresno
page 6
Obarges in LA/Long Beach
n May 6th, members of the ILWU’s marine division—the Inland-
workers represented by the IBU, Workers impacted in LA & SF
Pacific (SUP) and weakens the South- boatmen’s Union (IBU), and west Marine Pension Trust. Saltchuk
ILWU Locals 13, 63, 94, 63 OCU, the Pacific Coast Pen- sioners Association, Federated Auxiliary 8, and the Interna- tional Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots (MM&P) rallied outside Westoil Marine Service on Terminal Island in San Pedro to protect IBU’s historic jurisdiction and the area wage standards they have created through their contracts.
Corporate shell games
A complicated shell game con- sisting of asset exchanges by two large national marine transportation corporations—Saltchuk Marine and Centerline Logistic—has upended the livelihood of scores of maritime
and Centerline have used the asset exchange as an opportunity to replace longstanding contracts with the IBU and the MM&P with a substandard agreement with company-friendly, Seafarers International Union (SIU) that undermines the standards for fair wages and benefits previously set by the IBU and MM&P collective bar- gaining agreements.
In December of last year, Saltchuk Marine announced that it acquired eight ship assist tugs owned by Centerline Logistics and operated in the Pacific Northwest and Califor- nia. Centerline Logistics, in turn, pur- chased six bunker barges operated in California from Foss Maritime, a sub- sidiary of Saltchuk. A bunker barge is like a floating petrol station. The bunker barge pumps fuel oil, into the ship’s storage (bunker) tanks.
MM&P, and the Sailors Union of the
The effect of this deal had an immediate impact on mariners from LA/Long Beach to San Francisco. In LA/Long Beach Foss Maritime ter- minated twenty-one employees who worked on its bunker barges. The collective bargaining agreement with MM&P who represented the mari- ners was voided as were contribu- tions to the Southwest Marine Pen- sion Trust. In San Francisco, roughly the same number of employees rep- resented by the Sailors Union of the Pacific also lost their jobs when Foss Maritime stopped its operations.
“The day after Christmas I received a call from Foss Maritime stating that they had sold their bun- ker barge business and that the con- tract which had two-and-a-half years left on it and employed 21 of our members was gone,” said Sly Hunter, Regional Representative for MM&P. “They said the company was sold to
continued on page 6
Centerline Logistics, which then cre- ated a subsidiary, called Leo Marine. They claim that MM&P didn’t have jurisdiction. We tried to sit down with everyone to try to come to a resolution and work out a new contract. We hit dead ends everywhere. They refused to meet with us.”
The transaction also impacted 55 IBU members working for the Center- line-owned Westoil/Millennium when Centerline’s Millennium-branded tug operation was sold to Saltchuk opera- tion.
Instead of folding the six bunker barges and the contracts it acquired from Foss into its existing marine fuel- ing companies including Westoil, Cen- terline gave the contract and barges to its newly created subsidiary, Leo Marine Services, leaving many of the IBU mariners who manned both the Millennium tugs and the Westoil barges without work.
All that remains now for the 55 workers at Westoil are contracts from two smaller customers.
“I was laid off from my permanent position. Now I am on an on-call status and my hours have been cut by 50 per- cent,” said IBU member Michael Zua- nich who has worked for Westoil for eight years. “In a couple of months, I will probably lose my medical benefits. No more overtime. No more regular schedule. It’s been a drastic change for me and my family. This has affected about 55 IBU members who have lost their jobs. I have a little more seniority, so I still get some work but other work- ers are getting nothing.”
“Some of these workers are strug- gling to pay rent right now,” said IBU Southern California Regional Director John Skow. “Some are at risk of losing their medical benefits. It’s challeng- ing right now, especially during this pandemic. This company had made millions of dollars and even got a PPP loan,” Skow said noting that Center-
line received a $10 million loan from the federal government that was given to businesses to keep their workforces employed during COVID.
Sweetheart deal with SIU
IBU President Jay Ubelhart explain- ed that after Leo Marine was incorpo- rated on February 2, the company rec- ognized and signed an agreement with the Seafarers International Union (SIU) in record time. On February 19, 2021, after only two days of negotiating, Leo Marine recognized the SIU as the rep- resentative union of Leo Marine work- ers, Ubelhart said. The SIU petitioned the NLRB with recognition cards from only thirteen workers. Leo had not yet hired the 50 to 60 employees it would need. Within days of recognition Cen- terline/Leo entered a collective bar- gaining agreement with the SIU. SIU is known as a company-friendly union with sweetheart contracts that short- change the workers they are supposed to be representing.
“I have never had a new contract negotiated in two days, signed, sealed, and delivered,” Ubelhart said. “The SIU is a predator union. We don’t believe that contract is even valid. They signed a contract when they only had a hand- ful of workers out of a workforce of what is now 40 mariners.”
Built on the backs of workers
Zuanich noted that Westoil was successful because of the hard work of IBU members, only to have the com- pany turn its backs on the very workers to whom they owe their success.
“Westoil started over 20 years ago,” Zuanich said. “They purchased a small tug and barge outfit. At that time, they had two boats and three barges. In 20 years, with IBU labor, they built a fleet of 11 barges and 4-6 tugboats from our sweat. We worked day and nights, holidays—while man- agement was home on their three-day weekends, spending Christmas with their children. Now we are not good
enough. They got about 80 percent of the contracts in the harbor because of our safety record and our work ethic. Centerline logistics—I think their slogan is ‘Lead with Integrity.’ This doesn’t look like integrity to me.”
Never giving up
The IBU and MM&P have both vowed to fight this attack on their juris- diction and area standards for mariners in LA/Long Beach.
“This is a coordinated, organized attack against labor. We are never giv- ing up,” Hunter vowed.
Ubelhart said both unions are pur- suing all available legal challenges to Centerline. The recognition of the SIU and its low standard contract with Leo Marine is being contested by the IBU and MM&P. Leo Marine employees are also contesting representation of the SIU and the agreement that they did not bargain or ratify. They claim the company violated their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.
The IBU and MM&P have both filed Unfair Labor Practices against Centerline/Leo with the Labor Board. Campaigns seeking a fair and honest election for representation from other unions have begun in both LA/LB Har- bors and San Francisco Bay.
“If we can’t win these contracts back, we are going to organize the peo- ple doing that work,” said Ubelhart. “They will become a part of the ILWU/ IBU family and then they will know what a decent contract is. One of the backbones of the ILWU is to organize the unorganized. Those workers are not our enemy. They are just work- ing people who were looking for a job when they signed on with Leo Marine. We want to protect our jobs and keep our hard-fought area standards. The LA/Long Beach tugboat contracts are the envy of everyone—the best on the West Coast without a doubt. We want to keep hostile unions from taking over our turf and we will fight them.”
You’ve got family
At the rally, ILWU International Vice President (Mainland) Bobby Olvera addressed the workers from Westoil and promised the full weight and support of the International to the ongoing struggle.
“You do not walk alone. Everybody is here for you,” Olvera said. “Center- line thought this was going to be a little fight. Now we are doing organiz- ing drives in two different areas. IBU, Westoil workers—you’ve got family here. We are here for you 100 percent. This is the ILWU’s fight. This is the IBU’s fight. This the MMP’s fight. We will set the tone. We will set the nar- rative. And that is how we are going to win. The next time we meet in this parking lot, it may not be a victory cel- ebration, but it will be the precursor to a victory celebration. At some point in the very near future, we are going to walk down this road, we are going to open the gate and we are going to take back the jobs that are rightfully ours.”
@mattgodden d?
@mattgodden transparency would be great. Let’s start off with the 40 mariners that you have affected in LA with your decision to lay off. Did you think of their families when you made that decision or only thinking about lining you and investors pockets? These men provided a service to this company for years and made the company millions. These families relied on that income and benefits and you stripped them away from that. Shame on you!
Where was the upper management pay cuts?
Did you spend the same effort getting the embezzled money back from Harley as you did ruining your employees lifes?
Is ruining 40 men’s careers considered a good outcome to centerline?
From Oct 4th Puget Sound Business Journal:
Centerline Logistics Corp. has made a $200 million purchase of several new vessels that will expand its petroleum transportation capacity and provide infrastructure to support the maritime industry’s transition to cleaner-burning fuels.
The investment follows a deal in late December in which Seattle-based Centerline acquired ships and customer contracts from marine services company Saltchuk’s California subsidiary, while handing off its own harbor ship assist operations across the West Coast.
“We’ve been very acquisition-focused, trying to grab capacity,” to help along the transition from heavy, carbon-intensive fuels to cleaner-burning and eventually carbon neutral alternatives, said Centerline CEO Matt Godden.
The acquisition began with the addition of a single 91-foot-wide articulated tug and barge (ATB) unit — roughly the size of a tanker ship — capable of transporting 260,000 barrels of petroleum. Centerline later added several more vessels to the deal.
The ATB, called the Joni Lee & Robin Marie, is currently being retrofitted and recertified to transport newer, lighter fuels, Godden said. The acquisitions will allow the company to add between 100 and 150 employees nationwide, after growing its headcount to around 700 in 2021, a more than 10% increase.
The expansions support a strategy Centerline launched in March to help its marine partners develop new technology, processes and standards, which it has dubbed its Visionary Fuels initiative.
The deal with Saltchuk also helped it focus on transporting fuels safely, Godden said.
“It was natural for us to divest some of the assets that were associated with that business that was outside our scope and buy into a business that plays to our strengths,” he said.
The company aims to support a maritime industry that has had to adapt to rapid shifts in demand and productivity due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has brought changes to the volumes and types of goods that are moved by sea.
“(Maritime shipping) ran very smoothly. Covid changed that,” Godden said. Even small changes in output at factories overseas in response to the pandemic “reverberate through the entire system.”
I’m steaming out of internet range, so I’ll leave it to someone else to research what Centerline and SIU are doing to cut wages in NY.
Have fun
I don’t think you’re going to see much more of him on here…
Popcorn in my next grocery order.