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Home > Topics > Organized labor Pilots Agree |
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Organized labor on the waterwaysThe Pilots Agree movement2 - The 1998 uprisingPilots Agree began as a grass-roots movement in late 1997. A group of twenty or so rivermen and -women met at the Arkansas home of Captain Dickey Mathes to discuss the problem of stagnant wages. Many in the group had worked on the waterways for over twenty years and had seen their real pay cut in half while companies increased the mariner's work load. The upshot of the Arkansas meetings was a typewritten sheet which was copied and circulated from boat to boat on the river. The simple piece of paper, headed by the phrase "Pilots Agree," was to be signed by pilots and mailed to Captain Mathes. It contained a pledge to stop work by September 1998 if pilots' pay had not doubled. The sheets were passed around among pilots at different companies along the inland waterways. The plan was to get at least 500 signatures; otherwise, the whole scheme would be cancelled. They ended up with about 1400 sheets signed and mailed in. The industry sat up and took notice. Some of the larger employers, including Marquette Transportation, Canal Barge Company and American Commercial Barge Line, sent letters to their pilots warning of the consequences of any job action. Some companies threatened to fire anyone associated with the Pilots Agree group. But the movement built up steam in the early months of 1998. There was a series of waterfront rallies in St. Louis, Memphis, Paducah, Mobile, Houston and New Orleans. And in a sign of the times, a Pilots Agree web site sprang up. Pilots and their families could use the Internet to keep track of the movement and download sign-up sheets and other materials. During this period the aims of the movement broadened from the original demand for double pay. Many of the pilots who signed on were more concerned about safety and working conditions. The group used this input to develop a list of negotiating points to present to employers. In April 1998, when companies refused to negotiate, the pilots called an early strike. The decision was announced on the Pilots Agree web site, and the word went out by cellular phone, e-mail and two-way radio. Within 24 hours, there were reports of boats stopped along the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Rivers and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The Wheelhouse Report estimates that between five and ten percent of boats industry-wide had stopped. The industry was nervous for two or three weeks, but with little preparation and no strike fund the strikers were unable to maintain, much less expand, their numbers. Many pilots were fired. Within a month or two, most had given up the strike. But by this time, Pilots Agree had come under the wing of the International Organization of Masters Mates & Pilots (MM&P), a 120-year-old union representing over 6000 licensed mariners on the east and west coasts, the Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes and abroad. The MM&P supplied logistical and legal help to begin unfair-labor-practices complaints and other legal procedures. This eventually resulted in reinstatement and/or back pay for some pilots, according to the MM&P. During the Pilots Agree strike, American River Transportation Company (ARTCO) was the hardest hit of all the major companies on the river. ARTCO is the river transportation subsidiary of Archer Daniel Midland Company. One third of ARTCO's captains and well over half its pilots went on strike. According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), 60 to 70 percent of ARTCO's boats were tied up, and the company "was not fully operational again until the fall of 1998 at the earliest." So when the union finally decided to go the legal route and target major companies, ARTCO was an obvious choice. Once the NLRB settled the question of whether ARTCO's pilots are supervisors (they're not, so they're protected by federal labor law), they ordered a union representation election. On 16 February 1999 the votes were counted; 28 for the union, 36 against. Management won. By law, there could be no further elections at that company for another year. After ARTCO, the union turned to Bunge Towing, a company in Greenville, Mississippi. The NLRB ordered an election for deckhands there. Pilots Agree/MM&P also planned a pilots' election at Bunge. But after the deckhands voted no, the union cancelled the pilots' vote. After the election loss at ARTCO and the bungling at Bunge, all hell broke loose. The MM&P stopped paying salaries for PA president Dickey Mathes and secretary-treasurer Fred Hunter. (Vice-president Bob Flannigan was by then also a vice-president of MM&P, so he remained employed.) Dickey Mathes distanced himself from MM&P.
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