International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)

For Rosa Della Porta, the new BMW and other accessories in the end weren't worth it. Della Porta, formerly office manager-bookkeeper for International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 26, was sentenced on March 29 in Los Angeles federal court to 21 months in prison for embezzling well over $100,000 in union funds. She had been convicted by trial jury a year ago following the discovery of a pattern of thefts by local officials and a subsequent federal investigation. Della Porta, who was fired by her union in November 2006, also will have to pay $121,475 in restitution.

Even for longshoremen, crime doesn’t pay.  And it doesn’t necessarily deliver benefits either.  That’s especially true on the South Boston docks.  On October 2, after a four-day trial, a Suffolk County, Massachusetts jury found union dockworker Robert Miller guilty of logging more than 100 hours on timesheets that he hadn’t worked so as to meet the minimum threshold hours necessary to qualify for certain benefits.  Eight days later, on October 10, the jury convicted Francis Biagiotti on similar fraud and conspiracy charges. The two cases were the last resulting from 20 state indictments over two years ago. 

For a union office employee, Rosa Della Porta seemed to live beyond her means.  The new BMW she drove to work raised her boss’ suspicions, especially as funds seemed to be disappearing.  Those suspicions eventually were borne out.  Della Porta, former bookkeeper for Local 26 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in Los Angeles, was arrested this month for embezzlement of $108,000 in local funds and indicted on August 8 in federal court.  “After receiving cash from various sources, Della Porta allegedly deposited less cash than the union received and pocketed the difference,” noted the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

When Congress sent a seaport security bill to President Bush’s desk a few weeks ago, supporters were enthusiastic that our nation was giving top priority to a previously neglected area of national security.  Shipping terminals and cargo containers, they noted, are ideal places where terrorists, with some inside help, could place a bomb, possibly of mass destruction.  President George W. Bush, at the October 13 signing ceremony of the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006, also known as the SAFE Port Act, expressed the need for the law this way:  “Our seaports are a gateway to commerce, a source of opportunity, and a provider of jobs.  Our ports could also be a target of a terrorist attack, and we’re determined to protect them.”  The law, however, may be more significant for what it leaves out than for what it includes.  And what the bill leaves out, thanks to eleventh-hour deletions by certain union-friendly members of Congress, are safeguards against the hiring of hardened felons.  The American people can thank two longshoremen unions, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), for a major hand in this.