7435 Michigan Ave., Detroit, Michigan 48210 www.labornotes.org   #299 February 2004

Longshore Union Floats Ethical Code
In Response to Lawsuit, Reform Pressure

by Carl Biers

Scrambling to fend off a threatened anti-racketeering suit, the International Longshoremen's Association has adopted a Code of Ethics and hired a former investigator of police corruption in New York City to enforce it.

The ILA has a long history of mob corruption and in recent years it has seen dozens of its officers, including members of its international executive board, indicted on racketeering charges.

Now, reports in the news media and from ILA members indicate that the U.S. Justice Department is preparing a RICO suit that could lead to a federal monitorship of the union like the one the Teamsters is currently under.

The code is mostly a reiteration of existing requirements and prohibitions of federal law, but it also forbids knowingly associating with organized crime figures and failing to cooperate with an appointed Ethical Practices Counsel. The Counsel is allowed access to all ILA books and can bring charges for violating the code.

Charges, however, will be heard through the current procedure defined in the union's constitution, which means that the international executive board, or a panel appointed by them, acts as judge and jury. The counsel can also be dismissed at any time by the union.

NO JOB SELLING?
The code appears to provide a means for attacking one of the major sources of corruption and impediments to union democracy: discrimination in job referrals. Such discrimination-including the outright selling of jobs-can be found in many ILA locals, but is especially prevalent in those under racketeer influence.

Part X of the code requires "scrupulous fairness" in administration of union hiring halls. But this section may reveal more about the public relations purposes of the code than indicate an attempt to remedy the problem, since the code is unclear whether the ethics counsel has authority to investigate hiring hall complaints unless they can be linked to other forms of organized crime and corruption.

There are other troubling aspects of the code. A page-long section titled "Democratic Practices" declares respect for members' democratic rights, but gives nearly equal time to vague restrictions on those rights.

Freedom of speech, says the code, "does not include the right to undermine the ILA or its constituent local unions as institutions," or to disregard the interests of the union or "engage in dual unionism." The latter seems specifically aimed at scaring members away from the Longshore Workers Coalition, an internal reform caucus that has made progress calling for greater democracy in the ILA.

Despite its flaws, if enforced, the code would be a step forward for democracy and honesty in the ILA. But effective enforcement is doubtful, because it lies in the hands of the same union officials who have tolerated organized crime for decades.