As the fourth triennial convention of the Seafarers Entertainment & Allied Trades Union (SEATU) got under way Sept. 10, 2007 at the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education in Piney Point, Md., delegates, officials and guests heard from a number of speakers about the necessity of keeping the labor movement strong through organizing efforts.SEATU, an affiliate of the SIU, was chartered in 1995 with 169 members in Alton, Ill. Twelve years later, with the union having more than 4,600 members, this two-day meeting and election of officers focused on the need to continue to grow.
SIU President Michael Sacco, who also is president of SEATU, opened the convention by talking about the challenges currently faced by SEATU/SIU-contracted NCL America and how the company’s three U.S.-flagged cruise ships, the Pride of Aloha, Pride of America and Pride of Hawaii, have brought thousands of jobs to the rank-and-file membership.
He also talked about the necessity to raise money through PACs (political action committees). The SIU has an old saying, “Politics Is Porkchops,” meaning that politics plays a role in helping put food on the table. PACs use money to selectively support those candidates at the federal, state and local levels who support their members’ issues.
One of the union’s greatest friends in the U.S. Congress is Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), who, as a champion of working people, energized the group as he spoke about the labor movement. A successful movement, he noted, is based on faith and trust—“faith in yourselves and trust in your mission.”
He likened the hard work in building up the Paul Hall Center from a barren area to a top-tier training school for merchant mariners to that of the hard work being done in Congress.
He also stressed the importance of remembering that every single vote counts. “You need to figure out what’s in your interest and who’s on your side….You’ve got to vote for people that are on your side and that can organize themselves.”
“Votes for labor just don’t appear in the Congress of the United States,” he said. “It takes hard work, concentrated work to make sure we get the 218 votes that we need in order to get a majority.” It also takes money, and “a PAC is the first line of financial defense in helping elect those officials who will work for you.”
Abercrombie mentioned the foreign cruise ships that currently are sailing in the Hawaiian Islands—cruise ships that don’t pay taxes in the United States and don’t have to obey the health, environmental and safety laws. He said that SEATU members on the NCL ships are pioneers in the struggle to keep a cruise ship operation that is American flagged and crewed under American laws and noted that there wouldn’t be a U.S. cruise industry today without them.
Some people accept their fate, the representative said. They have no faith that they can change their own condition. But by organizing—and voting—changes can be made.
He concluded by thanking those who continue to have faith and trust in him and promised that while he remains in Congress, labor has a friend 100 percent of the time.
On the second day of the convention, Bob McGlotten, a partner in the legislative affairs consulting firm of McGlotten & Jarvis (and previously the legislative director of the AFL-CIO), continued talking about unionism and the need for political action.
“Workers in this country are under attack,” he stated. Changes in laws are being made to help individuals’ interests, not to help the workers’ interests. He acknowledged that votes and money—in that order—are the two things that politicians understand. While individuals may not have the money themselves, they can join forces with others to raise it and become politically effective by outvoting those politicians who are not for working people.
He urged union members to become more political on a daily basis to protect their jobs and their industry—to be players. “Politics,” he said, “plays a major role from birth to death and everything in between. Politics is playing a role in your life every single day…Step up to the plate by registering to vote and help your union survive.”
Gene Clark, senior vice president, human resources at Penn National Gaming, Inc., toured the Paul Hall Center, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and came away impressed by the people, the facility and the work being done there.
He noted that the relationship between SEATU and Penn National (which acquired Argosy in 1995) is unique and unlike any other union association.
The company started out in 1972 as the owner of a racetrack in Pennsylvania. It went public in 1994 and since then the rate of growth has been astonishing. It is the only company in history to make Fortune magazine’s “100 Fastest-Growing Companies” six times in a row. The experienced gaming operation has small and large facilities in a geographically diversified area and employs 2,000 SEATU members, including in Lawrenceburg, Ind.; Sioux City, Iowa; Riverside, Mo.; Baton Rouge, La.; Joliet and Alton, Ill. And that growth and continued growth, Clark affirmed, is attributable to SEATU. He encouraged the union to continue to assist the company with providing the technical training and marine expertise as well as with legislative issues needed to help it provide continued job security for its employees.
“SEATU is successful if Penn National is successful,” Clark stated, and he hoped the two forces will continue to grow together.
Part of the convention proceedings included regional reports from the various union halls, a reading of the Executive Board minutes, and reports from the Auditing Committee, Credentials Committee and Convention Arrangements Committee. Carolyn Gentile, general counsel of the Seafarers Investment Funds spoke about legislative regulations on pensions and health care.
John Mason, CEO of American Service Technology, Inc., the company that provides curriculums and educational guidance to the Paul Hall Center, talked about the skills involved in the maritime, service, gaming and hospitality industries that are taken for granted by the public, and he showed a promotional film about the hospitality programs available to employees of NCL and Penn National, noting that the school has issued 9,952 certificates to SEATU gaming facility members since 1996.
Valerie Lilja, the AFL-CIO Union Plus representative for SEATU and the SIU provided information to the group about the cost savings available to union members through their benefit programs, including a new plan for roadside assistance and auto buying. She also conducted a workshop in the afternoon during which she summarized each of the benefits available, including credit counseling, health savings, insurance programs, education services and the popular credit card program, among others.
Before adjourning the triennial convention, delegates voted to approve 12 resolutions and to return the current officers to lead the union through the next three years. Re-elected were President Michael Sacco, Executive Vice President/Secretary-Treasurer David Heindel, Vice President Augie Tellez and Vice President Tom Orzechowski.
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