j nr. nv.'Fr.n. ivfcws
Published every T'hursJ’a'y^if'Hoirer, Alaska
Hegdahl and Raver, Publishers
Pill Raver, iditor
Subscription Rates
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3 months...— 2.00
DOCK PROBLEM
With the notice of resignation by the Homer dock manager,
Hugh Watson, the board of directors of the PUD finds .itself
with a very large problem on its hands.
We hope that Hugh reconsiders and stays on the job and
we further hope that the board causes a study of the dock,
with its many problems, to be trade and gives the manager the
backing that he deserves.
We would like to suggest that a board, composed of two
PUD board members, two union oen, two men from Homer, two men
from the rural area, and the dock manager, Hugh Watson, be
set up in the next week or two to make a complete study of
the dec*. Such a study should include longshoring expensee,
dock manager’s pay, bookkeeping costs, maintenance costs,
dock income, wharfage charges, and dock policy in*general.
The board of directors has been extremely lax in not
setting, up a written policy for the dock manager to go by.
He has not always been informed of board decisions concerning
the dock. The net re£u?t* 6T this confusion is the notice of
resignation by the manager..
On the other hand the manager has probably not always
presented his problems to the board in a clear and concise
manner. Hugh does not pretend to be a diplomat and we believe
tbet circumstances arising from past misunderstandings could
and should be straightened out by a board after a complete
study of the dock and its operations.
The board of directors has informed the union that it
wishes to re-negotiate the present contract between the PUD
and the union. ~ We believe that the majority of the members
of the local union are fair-minded and sincere in their sta
ted desire to reach an agreement that would be equitable to
both themselves and the PUD.
We believe that the union should, whenever possible,
handle.not only the freighters* tut all ships that tie up at
the Homer dock.
A study of longshoring costs during the past year and a
half are revealing in'the light of the present'controversy.
The following figures were taken from the payroll schedule of
the PUD for the first seven months of 1954 and all of 1953.
The schedule included the names of the men and the amount of
money they received for working the tankers that arrived dur~
ng those 19 months.
For the tanker which arrived July 27 four longshoremen
iorked a total of 21 hours, including dispatching, and at
wartime pay should receive, before taxes, approximately $93.
Three men, not longshoremen, worked the ^ay 6 tanker,
'hey worked a total df*'**’"twelve hours at straight time and
eceived a total, after taxes, of S3P.1B.
For the April 28 tanker the same three men who worked
,he l/ay 6 tanker worked a total of twelve hours overtime and
-eceived a total, after taxes, of $52.24
During the year of 1953 the dock received two tankers an
)ctober, one in August, two in July and one tanker in June,
in nearly all of these cases three men worked four hours
ipiece. l
Realizing that in the past the tankers have not come an
>n any particular schedule and the dock manager has had to
-ound up two or three men as fast as he could to tie up the
ship, these men were, of necessity, members of his own family
sr men working in the dock area when the tanker arrived,
however there has been, for the past two tankers,considerable
iffort to get the exact time of arrival of the tankers an
advance so that longshoremen can be called. Therein **
times, no doubt‘when the dock manager wall not have tame to
the union dispatcher. Put we hope that ohese wall oe
few and far between. . , ,,
When a new contract is signed between the union ana tne
PllD vie hope that the longshore crew can be cut to three men
and the dispatchers time, to only one hour. We believe tnat
this would be equitable to all concerned. •
In the way of an explanation, it should be noted that
overtime payisfor work performed between the hours ot^b p.m.
and 8 a.m. Straight time pay is for work performed between
8 a.m. and 5 p.m. AIsq it might be noted that in longshdbing
the tankers only about one hour of the total pay time received
is used in actually tying up and untying the ship, further
it should he pointed out that longshoremen, when called to
.ork a ship must make the long trip to the dock and back and
also accept the responsibility of always having a crew avai^
tbl* for the work.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR '
The NEWS this week received a letter to t^ ed3^ =°"
earning the operation of the Hoirer dock, jhe
tigned'only with the initials “K.L. and there was no return
address on the envelope. . . t thnssr*
It is the policy of this newspaper to print onlythose
letters that tear the signature of the writer- If the r
wishes that his nane not appear in the paper he cay reque
that his name be withheld, but he cast sign his letter.
TO RENAME HOSPITAL
A move is underway to re
name the Hotter Hospital-Health
Center the Peninsula Hos”
pital-Health Center. Reason
for the change is that it is
felt that many people from
communities other than Homer
•will be given care in the new
Center and the name should be
appropriate to fit those to
be served.
The change in the name has
received the OK of the Homer
Health Council and the PHD
board of* directors. The coun~
cil has also been given the
job of acquiring equipment,
furnishings and supplies for
the Center.
ADMINISTRATOR EXPECTED
Mr. Aneher Nelson, admin”
istrator for the RE4 and oth
er REA officials are expected
to arrive in Homer on August
*7 for a two”day stay. The
men will look over the Homer
Electric Association set-up
and expect to do some fish
ing while here
HIRING MEN
It has been learned that
extensive hiring of men is
being done at Elmendorf AFB
near"Anchorage. Anyone inter
ested can write to the Civil
ian Personnel Officer, Llmen
dorf AFP, A.P.O. 94?., care of
Postmaster, Seattle, Washing
ton for information
TRY A NEWS CLASSIFIED
IT WILL PAY FOR ITSELF
MEED CAFETERIA COOK
Applications for the posi
tion of cook at the school
cafeteria will be accepted
until 5 p.ir. August IP, 1954.
Particulars concerning this
position (Lay be obtained fro*
the cafeteria manager, Mrs.
Frank Hollis.
TO BOY DEEP FREEZE
Officers of the P.T.A. met
July 23 to decide on the pur
chase of a deep freezer for
the school cafeteria as auth
orised by the Berbership at
the last general meeting held
in June. ** Decision . was made
to purchase a 30 cubic foot
Harder-Freeae machine- The
purchase order has been placed
with Love Electric Company of
Seattle.
1: <r
BODY L FENDER WORK
GLASS INSTALLED
PAINTING
AT MODERATE PRICES
NEW TIRES
AT STATESIDE PPICES
MOUNTED FREE
HUSKY
REPAIR SHOP
.WHY GUESS?
WHEN WE HAVE THE BEST BY TEST
FISHING GEAR
— rJ
Jr
I-' V
r*. >j
L
LETTER OF INFORMATION CONCERNING
THE OPERATION OF THE HOMER DOCK
There are some people in Homer, particularly SOME
longshoremen, who cahnot understand why the dock manager
made almost as much] - .money last year as ALL the long
shoremen. j : ?
The explanation; is that every bit of freight that '
they unload and a lot of freight that they don't handle
at all has to be taken off of the dock, It is a good
deal marie trouble to Check a case of goods f irst to a
delivery sheet, then hunt^ it up on a bill of lading and
check it. (This is what is done to each piede of freight
unless it is shipped in banded cribsj. If it is in cribs
the cribs have to be segregated and loaded, then the
cribs have to be taken care of, which is much more work
than just setting the cribs in the >.warehouse* I .have
moved as many os td cribs to get to the one wanted.
There is at least 25 percent of the freight that has to
be sorted by us that is put in a. miscellaneous pile
(freight belonging to .individuals),
The total hours paid for longshoring on dll freigh
ters, tankers, scows, etc, (not what I longshored person—
ally, nothing extra for that) was 1752 i/a hours. If I
had worked only the regular dock hours (I wouldn't dare
estimate the hours I did work plus my wife's free time)
it would have been 2288 hours.
That is the reason the dock manager (in name only),
warehouseman, checker, wharfinger, longshoreman, and
roustabout made ALMOST as much money last year as ALL the
longshoremen,
I am not griping about what J did, I only tried to
do the work t expected to do when I took the job. I
don't like the idea of 7 1/2 -cent-a-minute men feeling
I am OVER PAID.
signed: HUGH S. WATSON