The Role of the ILWU International

In 1997 the ILWU has approximately 42,000 members in over 60 local unions in the states of California, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii. An additional 3,500 members belong to the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific, which constitutes to union’s Marine Division. Another 14,000 member belong to the autonomous ILWU Canadian Area.

The highest governing body of the union is the International Convention, made up of delegates elected by direct rank-and-file vote in each local or affiliate. The Convention has the authority to adopt resolutions and statements of policy on political, economic, and other issues, and to amend the International Constitution.

The principles underlying the role of the International have been service to the locals and strengthening unity among the many parts of the union, with equal measures of leadership from the Officers and initiative by the locals, and maximum local autonomy consistent with the need for coordinated negotiations and contract administration, democratic procedures, and overall solidarity.

In many ways the ILWU today confronts the same challenges and opportunities that lay before its first members in the 1930s. Once again, the union must organize or die. In a 1995 referendum ballot, the mainland U.S. membership voted up the "2-4-24" program to fund an active organizing program by assessing themselves two dollars per month for 24 months. It remains for the entire union to participate in new organizing as it did in the decade from 1936 to 1946.

The ILWU is poised to move into the next century with the same objective its founders had sixty years ago – economic and social justice for its members, families, and communities – and with the same understanding that the strength of the ILWU lies in active organizing, militant solidarity, and dynamic internal democracy. These are the ideas that moved a generation to sacrifice to build and defend one of the finest labor organizations in the world. We can do no less, if we learn the lessons of the ILWU’s story.

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