FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 19, 2022 CONTACT: Jennifer Sargent Bokaie, 503-703-2933
ILWU Leadership Denounces Alleged Benefit Plan Fraud by Seven Workers as Shameful Abuse of Critical and Hard- Earned Benefits
ILWU-PMA Benefit Plan Covers Tens of Thousands of Workers and Family Members
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (September 19, 2022) – The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has denounced fraudulent claims allegedly made against its ILWU-PMA Welfare Plan by seven workers and three health care providers following an investigation by federal authorities. On Sept. 14, authorities alleged that seven dockworkers received sexual services in exchange for allowing providers to bill the union’s plan for physical therapy, acupuncture, and chiropractic services that never occurred.
“Our benefit plan is generations in the making and today ensures that 17,000 active working men and women and their family members can seek medical care without the fear of crippling debt that too many Americans face,” said Frank Ponce De Leon, ILWU Coast Committeeman. “Our union is proud to have negotiated health benefits with our employer that we believe all Americans should have. We will not tolerate fraudulent use of the benefits in our contract that longshore workers have fought for, and sometimes died for, over the past 90 years.”
“The ILWU-PMA Welfare Plan benefits counteract the difficult work that longshore workers do on the docks every day, and they are vitally important to tens of thousands of people working at ports in California, Oregon and Washington,” said Cam Williams, ILWU Coast Committeeman. “The Officers of the ILWU take any fraudulent acts against the plan seriously and want such abuse rooted out.”
The ILWU Negotiating Committee spent the first two and a half months of the current round of negotiations with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) negotiating benefits. The July 26, 2022 joint ILWU-PMA announcement of the parties’ agreement on health benefits was a major step forward in the negotiations for a new contract.
