The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has renegotiated its contract with Northern California bosses to extend pension and health benefits to same-sex couples.
The impetus behind this change was the heartbreaking story of Marvin Burrows, who was denied health insurance
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Burrows was denied his partner’s pension and lost his health insurance by the Industrial Employers and Distributions Association. The bosses’ association twice denied Burrows’s claim for Swenor’s pension benefits, stating that federal law does not recognize same-sex couples as spouses.
Without these benefits, Burrows was forced to move from the home he had shared with his spouse for 35 years. The two men got married in 2004 when the city of San Francisco performed same-sex marriages before the California Supreme Court stopped them.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights appealed to the IEDA, but was turned down. Eighteen months later, the union pension board contacted the NCLR and informed them that it had renegotiated their contract to include domestic partner benefits. A communiqué from the union explained the benefits were made retroactive to March 1, 2005 so that Burrows would be an eligible surviving widower.
ILWU spokesperson John Showalter stated, “Our union’s motto is, ‘An injury to one is an injury to all,’ and we definitely feel that applies in this case.”
In a press advisory issued by Pride at Work, an LGBT-affiliated constituent group of the AFI-CIO, Burrows said: “When I heard the news that Bill’s union had changed their policy and even made it retroactive to include me, I was stunned. Maybe it was me sharing my story with so many people, but I think it is also because they thought it was the right thing to do. I hope this shows our community the power of speaking up and that this encourages more gay Americans to come out and tell their stories. Bill was always proud of how his union provided for its members and I know Bill is smiling down at me and that alone gives me a wonderful reflection.”
