MEETING ON RIVER PILOTS' UNIONIZATION HELD

PADUCAH, Ky. -- The leader of a movement to unionize river pilots says he isn't discouraged that only about 20 people from the Paducah area attended a meeting here Wednesday.

"We have guys who live and work all over the country," said Dickey Mathes, president of Pilots Agree Association, which has threatened a massive walkout if companies don't double pilots' wages. "Just because they don't come from this area doesn't mean they don't work for companies that are based here."

More than 130 people attended the daylong meeting at the Executive Inn. Of those, 20 acknowledged they live within a 50-mile radius of Paducah, he said.

Many of the others drove long distances to support Pilots Agree, Mathes said. The organization is gaining momentum by holding similar meetings in several strategic river-industry cities, he said.

"We do have a semblance of brotherhood out there," he said.

Mathes said more than 1,000 pilots have joined the organization since he started it Sept. 24 to garner support for better wages and benefits and improved safety. Pilots Agree is considered a union, in part because its members pay $30 each annually to the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots, he said.

The IOMMP is affiliated with two powerful labor groups -- the AFL-CIO and the International Longshoremen's Association -- that afford pilots significant clout in the event of a strike, Mathes said.

Pilots Agree is sending letters this week to barge companies, giving them until March 30 to agree to meet to discuss demands. If companies don't respond, a work stoppage could occur as early as April 15, Mathes said.

"I think 90 percent of the guys don't want to strike," said Rick Hughes of Reidland, a pilot for American Commercial Barge Lines. "Nobody wants to walk out. We're just trying to make an honest living for our families."

Hughes said a strike probably would last no more than two or three days, providing there is solidarity. "If it lasts longer than that, then everyone in America is going to suffer," said Hughes.

He said he attended the meeting to get information and hasn't decided to join Pilots Agree. Changes are needed, especially for pilots who earn substandard wages and have few benefits because they work for smaller, less stable companies, he said.

"Their finances are not enough to meet their needs," Hughes said. He said three or four major companies eventually will dominate the river industry. "I work for a good company and have good benefits, but I'm one of the fortunate ones."

He said he earns $66,000 annually from American Commercial Barge Lines.

More pay is the chief concern of Thomas Byassee of Clinton, who said he earns $110 daily as a tugboat pilot for Paducah River Fuel Service. He said he attended the meeting to be better informed but saw few people from the Paducah area.

Byassee said although his bosses did not tell him to avoid the meeting, some pilots told him they were afraid to attend.

"The pilots I talked to around the harbor feel like it just doesn't pertain to them," Byassee said. "Some of them said they're interested, but they didn't want to take a chance on losing their jobs."

Mathes said he was fired Jan. 15 after nine years as a pilot with Stokes Towing Co. of New Orleans, La. Although company officials have said publicly that he was terminated because of work performance, Mathes said he was given no reason and is sure the firing was because of Pilots Agree.

"I've been blackballed," he said. "No company is going to hire me."

Mathes said his experience exemplifies why pilots need to unify to gain job protection and improve pay, benefits and safety. He said pilots earn an average of $50,000 to $60,000 a year but work 84-hour weeks and are on their boats even when they are off watch.

"What we're doing is trying to put everybody under one umbrella," he said. "We will have strength that the companies can't deal with."

Pilots Agree vice president Bob Flannigan, a pilot for Memco Barge Lines of Cape Girardeau, said he earns about $50,000 annually from one of the better barge companies. Flannigan said he lost pensions when two other companies he worked for went out of business, and he has accumulated only five years' vested pension in 31 years as a pilot.

While companies claim they can't raise shipping prices because of global competition, it would take only about a half-cent price increase per bushel of grain to double pilots' wages, Flannigan said. "The consumer is not going to notice that."

Because of competition and cost-cutting, more towboats are pushing far more tonnage per horsepower than is safe, Mathes said. Companies also routinely check engines for water but don't test drink water for bacteria and other problems, and that has caused sickness among tow crews, he said.

Pilots work long hours with little sleep and are being required to take on more tasks than ever, said Richard Plant, director of special projects for the IOMMP. A 1994 study by the U.S. Coast Guard Office of Marine Safety showed that the death rate for towboat crews during the previous five years was nine times that of the industry in general, he said.

"It's a very dangerous business," Plant said. "That's why these guys deserve better than what they're getting."