Waterfront Commission Hearings Continue

The hearings held by the Waterfront Commission continue.

The Journal of Commerce is reporting. I haven't yet found another source.

Here is what the JOC reports occurred today.

International Longshoremen’s Association official Harold Daggett said there’s nothing wrong with off-contract deals that the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor says provide favored dockworkers with high pay for relatively little work as ILA shop stewards and timekeepers.

“I wish all the members earned more than $400,000,” Daggett testified in a Waterfront Commission hearing. “These guys work their asses off out there.”

Ok, so I think "well, he's just blowing smoke, wanting to look like he is speaking up for the Union workers.

But then there is this.....

At the start of Thursday’s hearing, Daggett insisted on reading a 10-minute statement criticizing the agency, created in 1954 to combat waterfront crime. “The Waterfront Commission treats us all like we are criminals,” he said. “Their main focus is on harassing our membership and beefing up their numbers. … This is the closest thing to communism that you will see in the United States of America.” At another point he likened commission practices to “McCarthyism or SS all over again.”

Commissioner Ron Goldstock said previous hearings documented non-contract pay agreements that “funnel huge amounts of money to a privileged few and as a consequence adversely affect the ability of the port to be competitive.” Goldstock noted that about a dozen relatives of the late Genovese crime boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante hold lucrative jobs on the waterfront, including ILA shop steward positions at the port’s three largest terminals.

Daggett defended Ralph Gigante, a nephew of the late crime boss. Ralph Gigante, a Local 1804-1 shop steward at Port Newark Maintenance & Repair, testified at a previous hearing that he is paid for 168 hours a week, mostly at overtime rates, and expects to collect about $400,000 this year.

So, I don't know if this guy was drunk, or smokin' something, or maybe just not taking his meds. But, it certainly appears he is livin' in a fantasy world.

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