ILA’s Bowers confirms he will retire

ILA’s Bowers confirms he will retire    John Bowers, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, confirmed Monday he will not seek re-election at the union’s quadrennial convention this week.
   Speaking during the opening session of the convention in Hollywood, Fla., Bowers, 84, said he would stay involved with the union as much as possible in the coming years. He has been international president of the union for 20 years.
   It’s expected that Richard Hughes Jr., current ILA executive vice president, will be elected to succeed Bowers.
   The ILA is battling a civil racketeering case filed against it by the U.S. Justice Department more than two years ago. The lawsuit seeks to place the union under the control of court-appointed trustees.
   Union members at the first day of the convention heard speeches from a large number of politicians and other union leaders. Four members of the U.S. House of Representatives: Corinne Brown, D-Fla., Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Al Green, D-Texas, and Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, addressed the group.
   Thompson, chairman of the powerful Homeland Security Committee, called for nationwide adoption of a federal Transportation Worker Identification Card (TWIC) with precedence over state or local cards, noting this would alleviate a financial burden on individual workers.
   International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) General Secretary David Cockroft called for increased cooperation among unions in different countries.
   “The only way to confront global employers is with a global union,” he said. “We have to make employers realize that the ILA is part of a powerful global family.”