The Coast Contract: Strength Through Solidarity

"The history of the Pacific Coast shows that much of the trouble, and lack of organization and, therefore, much of the trouble, bad conditions and so forth, were the result of no coastwise dealings and no coastwise action."

Harry Bridges testifying before the National Longshore Board appointed by Roosevelt to adjudicate the 1934 strike.

The two pillars of the strength of the ILWU's Longshore Division have always been the hiring hall and the coastwise contract, which covers all longshore work along the Pacific Coast in California, Oregon and Washington.

Through these coastwise agreements the ILWU has maintained its position as one of the nation's strongest and most progressive unions. These coastwise collective bargaining agreements between the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), with their uniform wage rates, costs of benefits and grievance procedures, are also a source of stability for the shipping industry of the entire Pacific Coast.

West Coast longshoremen won the coast contract during the strike of 1934. The new contract not only made tremendous improvements in the working lives of thousands of longshore men and their families, it also made possible the defense of those conditions -- and the strength and solidarity necessary to improve wages and benefits for generations to come.

The grievance procedures established by the longshore and clerks' contracts protect the rights of all longshore workers. Together with the collectively bargained Pacific Coast Marine Safety Code (PCMSC), these agreements provide a stable and safety-conscious working environment for the entire waterfront work force.

But it wasn't always this way Before 1934 waterfront employers --- both ship owners and stevedoring companies, tried to make the workers in one port compete with workers in neighboring ports for work by driving down wage rates and reducing the number of workers on the job.

Stevedoring companies would likewise try and win loading contracts by bidding lower cost services at the expense of worker safety and wages. Men worked hours without limit, often to the point of total exhaustion and sometimes to death. 

When longshoremen in one port would organize and even strike for better wages and conditions, the employer shifted work to another port where workers often welcomed the extra work, even if it was at the expense of the welfare of other workers. The endless competition for work fueled rivalries among longshore workers in many ports.

By 1938, when new union organizing along the waterfront established the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) in every port along the Pacific Coast, the bitter lesson had been learned if longshoremen In any port were to succeed in their struggle for improved wages and working conditions, they had to all be working under the same contract.

Even some industry leaders saw the wisdom of having uniform labor costs up and down the coast. But it took a bruising and bloody battle between 1934 and 1937 to firmly establish the coastwise agreement.

When smoke cleared both the ILA and shipowners were bound by an award handed down by the National Longshore Board Oct. 12, 1934. The award established joint hiring halls, uniform wages, hours and conditions for the entire coast including coastwise grievance machinery for the settlement of disputes by arbitration.

This award became the basis for coastwise collective bargaining between the union and the ship owners, Despite some attempts by the employers to dismantle coastwise bargaining after 1934, the National Labor Relations Board affirmed the legal basis for the coast contract in 1938, and it has remained intact ever since.

The coast agreement is a living document negotiated in a bottom-up, democratic process. The members of each local vote on contract proposals and elect delegates to take those proposals to the Longshore Caucus, a body of delegates elected by the members of each longshore local.

The Longshore Caucus refines and combines the various proposals and then elects representatives from the different areas to the Negotiating Committee, which presents them to the employers' committee.

The Negotiating Committee then returns the agreement bargained to the Caucus for recommendation and then the rank and file votes on it. Through this democratic process each member and local union are responsible for and subject to the content of the contract.

While the members and the local unions are bound together by the coast contract, individual locals have autonomy. Different locals have different "port working rules," "port supplements" and even different agreements to handle certain bulk commodities unique to their area or region such as coal and grain. As provided in the coast contract, these local rules and agreements are subject to and cannot be lower than or in conflict with coast standards.

The relationship between the locals and the coast contract and the union's Coast Committee, which administers the contract at the coast level is similar to the division of powers between the federal government and individual states.

Like the federal government, the master contract spells out wages, benefits and terms and conditions of work. Items not specifically spelled out in the coast contract can be negotiated by individual Locals similar to "states rights" in the United States. But all local rules and agreements cannot conflict with the coast contract.

The coast grievance machinery handles issues that affect all locals, preserving coastwise uniformity of contract interpretation and implementation.

The coast contract yields coast pension and welfare benefits, allowing not only leverage in negotiating the benefit, but increasing funding which benefits all ports, large and small, through a combination of economies of scale and solidarity. Each local is backed by the coast, lending mutual assistance and resources for local bargaining.

Embodied in the contract are several other provisions often taken for granted, but made possible only because the contract covers all longshore work on the Pacific Coast, including the right to travel and transfer between ports, and a guaranteed weekly wage. The contract also lays out uniform standards for determining ILWU jurisdiction on West Coast waterfronts (see below for further benefits of coast contract).

The strength, solidarity and stability of the ILWU's coast contract are not duplicated by the ILA on the East and Gulf Coasts. There a multitude of ILA contracts exist on port and regional levels carving out certain commodities and operations from any semblance of a coast contract.

The ILA separates, for example, container shipping from break-bulk cargo. ILA contracts covering break-bulk shipping are negotiated port by port, along side non-union operations in right-to-work states.

This division of work has often given East and Gulf Coast employers leverage to pit one port against another and one ILA local against another in bidding for work, just as was done on the West Coast before 1934. Today, this practice has allowed non union operations to gain a foothold in ILA territory.

This forces ILA locals to negotiate wages and benefits competitive with non-union operations in order to help keep work in their home port.

The history of the ILWU on the Pacific Coast and the recent experience of the ILA on the East and Gulf Coasts, clearly shows that the coast- wise agreement and ILWU hiring halls are the two fundamental building blocks of a powerful democratic anion and must be maintained at all cost.

Benefits of Coastwise Contract

The West Coast Longshore Contract gives the union great strength and the following benefits:

1. An industry-wide Health and Welfare package.

2. An industry-wide pension.

3. Coastwise travel program and 30-day permits in visiting ports.

4. Voluntary Travel program.

5. Coastwise registration.

6. One door policy to ensure long- shore transfer into clerks,

7. Coastwise safety

8. Standardized work practices

9. Training.

10. Coast transfers.

11. Pay Guarantee Program.

12. One employer organization to bargain with.

13. All employers get the same standards and contract in all ports,
cutting down on competition between work forces in each port.

14. The union defends all ports, large and small.

15. The union's strength is in its large ports, but all ports must
be defended to ensure that out side employers do not create
non-union ports.

16. The number one importance of a coastwise contract is a unified front against the employers.

This article from the "Dispatcher" is the second in a series about central issues in upcoming longshore contract negotiations under preparation by the members of the Longshore Education Committee:

Joe Wenzl (19) Art Almeida (13, retired), David Arian (13), Dennis Brueckner (54), Kevin Clark (40), John flush (200) and Coast Committeeman Ray Ortiz. Research and editorial assistance provided by Steve Stallone, Dispatcher Editor, and Gene Vrana, Associate Director of Education and ILWU librarian.