Longshoremen's Union cuts ties with AFL-CIO Citing Obamacare

ILWU.org

I hope that this is simply the tip of the iceberg as to what is coming down the line with regard to these Union thugs and their unwavering support for progressive policies that harm the working man.

I was a member of a union years ago, and there are just as many fat cats in the unions as there are in the high-rise offices of corporate America.

What say you ATS?

reply to post by ProfessorChaos


I read their statement which you provided a link to and it does not really mention anything about Affordable health care act as a reason for their split from the AFL-CIO.
The ILWU has always had a rocking relationship with all unions due to their history as a very hard as nails independent union(my family has a long history of union activity so I know a little about the ILWU). This time it appears they do not feel they have gotten enough support from the AFL-CIO so they cut ties.
It has nothing to do with the affordable health care act from what I can see.

Originally posted by freedomwv
reply to post by ProfessorChaos

 

I read their statement which you provided a link to and it does not really mention anything about Affordable health care act as a reason for their split from the AFL-CIO.
The ILWU has always had a rocking relationship with all unions due to their history as a very hard as nails independent union(my family has a long history of union activity so I know a little about the ILWU). This time it appears they do not feel they have gotten enough support from the AFL-CIO so they cut ties.
It has nothing to do with the affordable health care act from what I can see.

edit on 2-9-2013 by freedomwv because: (no reason given)

here's an excerpt:

President Obama ran on a platform that he would not tax medical plans and at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, you stated that labor would not stand for a tax on our benefits. Yet the Federation later lobbied affiliates to support a bill that taxed our health care plans.

it's a long letter citing various issues, but Obamacare is one of them.

Kind of like my cousin who owns a business, who TRIED to take care of his employees and did for many years, who can no longer provide insurance for them because he can no longer afford it.

It's sad how far we are being dragged down in this country, and somehow most people seem to think it's for some "good" reason somehow.

Capitalism, a nice way of saying "To capitalize upon or from", which is really nothing but a thinly disguised term for "Taking Advantage".

This country, the world and its people are #ed.

Most of us or them deserve it to be honest, the level of stupidity that is running rampant in this place is out of control.

Everyone in America is an asshole now. How and why?

It took 2 generations for this place to fall apart i wonder what happened.

reply to post by MyHappyDogShiner


What people fail to understand the reason the country and it workers are falling apart is not because of free markets. This is what they want people to think so when when you point your finger of change they will help you out.


Truth be told I could go into greater depth and spell it all out but what's the point in today's world. We have already lost and nothing can change it. I will leave you with something to wonder about what percentage of the American economy is controlled by the government? This is not capitalism.

Originally posted by onequestion
This country, the world and its people are #ed.

Most of us or them deserve it to be honest, the level of stupidity that is running rampant in this place is out of control.

Everyone in America is an asshole now. How and why?

It took 2 generations for this place to fall apart i wonder what happened.

The progressive mindset. With it comes apathy and fear. You think things are bad now what until the everybody wins generation takes control. They figured out with the Black culture just how good the progressive propaganda works after the death of Mr. King and applied it to everyone.

reply to post by MyHappyDogShiner


It is now fascism running the USA. The 'they' people so often spoke of when I was a child have monopolistic control of our country and have cornered the market illegally. Law officials at the top have failed to do their duty over Wall street and other crimes because of lobbyist providing means for the elected to sell us out wholesale. The checks and balances are being manipulated for monumental personal gains. Now it APPEARS they are controlling the last few administrations and the top of the judicial system.

With the citizens of western society free from the stranglehold of the old order, they have been gaining strength and gathering their new order together. We can vote them out but it may be too late as more than 50% live on government handouts who can't afford to vote someone out who gives them goodies. It may be since fascism seems to thoroughly be in control of our government and business', we are going to have to wait for the inevitable collapse that a system based on socialism's stated principles invariably suffer. God speed the change back to a Capitalist system that has consequences for pillaging the people of the land for personal gain.

reply to post by SubTruth


I know it's not about free markets, or free market economics. It's about being a member of the club wearing big boy pans, and if you can't afford big boy pants, you can't participate.

In a nutshell, kinda sideways, anyway...

The issues are so convoluted and intertwined, that even if one were to take the time to try to explain it, almost nobody has the capacity to comprehend it. It's so twisted it's simple...

from their letter;

we had to fend off attacks from other national affiliates, who actively tried to undermine our contract struggle by filing legal claims and walking through our picket lines protesting the ten-day employer lockout. And this was at a time when the Bush Administration had openly threatened to militarize the ports and even shoot some of us to secure the ports for the coming war in Iraq. Even after this passed, six years later, when the longshore contract reopened in 2008, one of these national affiliates filed ULP charges against the ILWU to try again to sabotage our bargaining.

Since then, we have seen a growing surge of attacks from various affiliates. A particularly outrageous raid occurred in 2011, when one affiliate slipped in to longshore jobs at the new EGT grain facility in the Port of Longview, Washington, and then walked through ILWU picket lines for six months until we were able to secure this critical longshore jurisdiction. Your office added insult to injury by issuing a directive to the Oregon State Federation to rescind its support of the ILWU fight at EGT, which threatened to be the first marine terminal on the West Coast to go non-ILWU.

The attacks by affiliates against the ILWU have only increased. One affiliate has filed a string of ULP charges as well as an Article XX charge that not only interfere with ILWU contractual rights at specific ports; the ULP charges also are attempting to dismantle core jurisdictional provisions in our Longshore Contract for the entire West Coast. In Los Angeles and Oakland, another affiliate is imposing internal union fines against dual union members for the “crime” of taking a job as a longshoreman — the stated purpose of the fines being to prevent the ILWU from filling new waterfront jobs that replace traditional longshore work due to new technologies. In Oakland and Tacoma, another affiliate is trying to use a recent NLRB ruling against one of our employers to take over ILWU jobs with some of our other employers. Throughout the Pacific Northwest, we are daily seeing still other affiliates blatantly cross the picket lines of ILWU members who have been locked out for months by the regional grain industry. And just this week, some of the Building Trades affiliates have displaced ILWU workers in the loading of barges at Terminal 46 in Seattle where longshoremen have done this work for generations. They also had the gall to file several ULP charges against us for picketing at our own marine terminal. These multi-state attacks against the ILWU are being coordinated in large part by a law firm with close ties to the Federation.

Sounds like Obama has successfully got the Unions at each others' throats.

He had them all believing in his 'new hopes'.

Now we see he has crapped on them too !!

Originally posted by ProfessorChaos
ILWU.org

I hope that this is simply the tip of the iceberg as to what is coming down the line with regard to these Union thugs and their unwavering support for progressive policies that harm the working man.

I was a member of a union years ago, and there are just as many fat cats in the unions as there are in the high-rise offices of corporate America.

What say you ATS?

I am a retired member of the International Longshoremen's Association or the I.L.A., which is the east coast equivalent to the I.L.W.U. and the organization from which the I.L.W.U. arose back in the early 1900s. As such, I feel that I am more qualified than most to comment on this particular subject and I can tell you that IMO, "ObamaCare" had very little to do with the I.L.W.U. decision to withdraw from the ranks of the AFL-CIO.

The I.L.W.U. and the individual Locals that make up it's membership have always been a very independent group. They have always demanded to be autonomous at every level, from the individual Locals to the District Offices to their International Office and to have another organization attempt to make any inroads whatsoever into that autonomy, would simply not be tolerated. It was this very thing that led to the I.L.W.U. pulling away from the I.L.A. back in the 1930s and judging by the letter submitted to the AFL-CIO by I.L.W.U. President Robert McEllrath, I'd say that it has a lot to do with their current decision to withdraw their affiliation.

Despite what yourself and others like Xuenchen may think, this is not the tip of any iceberg and Obama doesn't have the unions at each others throats.

Originally posted by MyHappyDogShiner
Kind of like my cousin who owns a business, who TRIED to take care of his employees and did for many years, who can no longer provide insurance for them because he can no longer afford it.

It's sad how far we are being dragged down in this country, and somehow most people seem to think it's for some "good" reason somehow.

Capitalism, a nice way of saying "To capitalize upon or from", which is really nothing but a thinly disguised term for "Taking Advantage".

The use of the govt hammer to manage and choose winners and losers negates even the most minute thought that what we have today in business is capitalism. Blaming capitalism for what is happening today is like blaming the temperature of water for every boat that has ever sank. Absolutely nothing to do with what is going on because capitalism does not exist and hasn't for many decades.

The loudest blamers and cry babies are the commie marxists.

They always use red herrings.

Originally posted by MyHappyDogShiner
reply to post by SubTruth

 

I know it's not about free markets, or free market economics. It's about being a member of the club wearing big boy pans, and if you can't afford big boy pants, you can't participate.

In a nutshell, kinda sideways, anyway...

The issues are so convoluted and intertwined, that even if one were to take the time to try to explain it, almost nobody has the capacity to comprehend it. It's so twisted it's simple...

I actually love how you put it. Why do you think they hate anyone in favor of just following what the founding fathers wanted? Because if we did follow it they would all be sent to jail.



Anyone out in cyber land who reads this please research what the founding fathers felt about banks. Jefferson and Adams understood all to well the evils.

reply to post by ProfessorChaos


You are right, it was a lot to read. It only slightly mentions `Obamacare` so it still does not seem to be the main reason they broke ties with the AFL-CIO. They have been fighting each other for a while now. They wanted more support from the AFL-CIO and simply did not get it.

The Longshoremen most likely want to take profit directly from the companies their workers work for and set up a healthcare plan based on percentage of money workers put into it; which a union can do under the AHCA. As long as they get approval from the state healthcare committee; which AHCA requires all states set up. BTW Despite some state governors saying they will not set up those state committees, they are required to and all of them have now stated that they are going to set up those committees.

This is what bugs me a bit about people who are totally against the affordable health care act. Any slight mention by any union or left leaning group not happy with every single part of the AHCA will be used as some kind of proof that all workers in America don`t want it. The so-called `Anti-Obamacare` gang will shout `See! See! Proof! The American people don`t want Obamacare!` Which would be untrue of course. There are millions of people in America who need healthcare and this radical new approach to get everyone healthcare, while complex and will take several years to transition, IS a step in the right direction. Universal Health Care is coming to America. The rich Capitalist can fight it all they want but in the end it is going to happen.

And it is a little sad that right-wing workers will demand that the AHCA be fought tooth and nail in Congress just because Fox News told them it is socialist. America is still a wildly Capitalist Empire so don`t worry, a Communist revolution will not happen in America any time soon. Just relax and get your affordable health care. You will come to understand just how much better it will be once you actually have it.

I live in Japan and we have Universal Health Care over here. Japanese people are some of the healthiest people in the world and have one of the longest life spans in the world because of their universal health care system.