Lanai hotel members at the Four Seasons Resort Lana’i at Manele Bay and The Lodge at Koele will see a huge increase in their take home pay beginning January of next year. Thanks to a new collective bargaining agreement between the ILWU and the Four Seasons, the hotels will come under the ILWU Health and Welfare Trust Fund, and workers will no longer need to pay their 15 percent co-share of the monthly medical premium.

Two full-time business agent positions on Kauai are pending the outcome of a re-run election scheduled for January 27 to February 2, 2007. The re-run affects only the business agent race and all other officers on Kauai are elected.

Del Monte workers met on November 22 at the Kunia Gym to get information to help them deal with the sudden loss of their jobs.

“Not to worry,” insists the Bush Administration. We screen on hundred percent of every container entering the US. High risk or suspicious containers are X-rayed and checked for radioactivity.

The statement is misleading.

Over 9 million containers are never physically screened. The only thing screened is the cargo manifest that describes the content of the container. The screening is not done by a human being, but by a computer and an artificial intelligence program called the “Automated Targeting System.”

After five years of effort and billions of tax dollars spent, the Bush Administration’s multi-layer approach to security has done little to secure our ports

Problems with cargo screening and manifests

Every manifest of all containers entering the US is screened. Foreign shippers are required to send the manifest to US Customs 24 hours before the containers are loaded. High security seals are used to lock the container doors and detect tampering with the container.

The Convention is the highest governing body of ILWU Local 142. It is held once every threee years and is attended by some of the most active and dedicated members of the union, many of whom hold positions of leadership. These delegates to the Convention review the work of the officers and have the power to set the policies and programs of the ILWU for the next three years.

The 24th Convention adopted 15 Resolutions which define the policy of the union on certain issues or express the sentiment of the delegation. Following are summaries of these resolutions.

Union Political Action did very well in Hawaii. Our Congressional Delegation is stronger than ever with Daniel Inouye, Danny Akaka, Neil Abercrombie, and the newly elected Mazie Hirono.

There was no change in the State Senate with 20 Democrats and 5 Republicans. A previously Democratic seat held by Brian Kanno went to Republican Mike Gabbard. But this was offset by Democrat, Jill Tokuda, winning the seat previously held by Republican Bob Hogue.

For the first time, the ILWU Local 142 will be holding its convention on a Neighbor Island instead of the Island of Oahu.