If we want to know what is going on in our negotiations with PMA, we only need to look at what is going on in corporate America. What is going on is that a frenzy for profits is developing into corporate losses being fraudulently presented as profits - this for the purpose of bilking investors and workers out of millions and counting. These examples of corporate fraud are increasing daily as reported in the media. We all know the examples such as Enron (now old news) and others such as the latest, Worldcom, which reported a $2.3 billion loss as profit. Many others have been reported and no doubt there are more to come.

To say that public confidence in corporate ethics has reached a new low is to state the obvious. When corporate ethics is exposed for all to see we are faced with a stark social and economic crisis.

This is the kind of country the Bush administration and tag along Democrats are pushing off on us. If it weren't for the "War against Terrorism" and a government policy founded on misinformation or no information, the citizenry would demanding a house cleaning from top to bottom. Bush is not likely to rush to investigate corporate fraud if there is another "terrorist incident." Naturally, if we need to concentrate on Bush's war, we might overlook examples of corruption and other billionaire malpractice's.

In light of all this financial hijinks where do we stand in negotiations with the PMA? Well there is little doubt PMA is also a profit seeker. We haven't heard reports of fraud in that direction, but it is doubtful the PMA is a bird of a different feather. They call, for instance for more efficiency. "Efficiency" means in corporate-speak more profit - at the expense of jobs. It also means shoving health and welfare costs onto waterfront workers. It also means, if they get away with cuts now, as surely as night follows day they will go after more cuts in the future. That is corporate culture. It cannot be changed anymore than "time nor tide." The sooner we understand that, the sooner we can defend ourselves against a determined enemy.

So what do we do? We point out to the public, other unions, the media and anyone else interested in listening, that the PMA is demanding that we go backwards - that we give up a positive labor relation’s policy that has worked for the past fifty years. It brought good relations between labor and management. It allowed fair wages and benefits. It must have brought fair profits for the shipowners - at least we haven't heard of any bankruptcies in that fifty-year span. PMA hopes to whittle us down to the point of no union at all - that too is part of corporate policy.