The News Tribune (Lite) - Unions key to pulling off Tall Ships event

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Section: Kits Merryman

Unions key to pulling off Tall Ships event

KATHLEEN MERRYMAN; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
When Tall Ships opens, we’ll be getting a lot more than we paid for.

Thank union workers and employers for a good part of that, especially the pieces that light up the evening and don’t electrocute you.

“We could not have pulled off this event without them,” Tall Ships Tacoma board President Joe Jadwin said a week before this Thursday’s Parade of Sail. “It would be impossible without the support of the labor community.”

Tall Ships relied on union volunteers in 2005. They helped build a mostly temporary infrastructure that accommodated a few hundred thousand more visitors than anyone anticipated. Tall Ships 2005 planners figured they’d draw 400,000 people to some aspect of the festival. Instead, the best retrospective guess is that 700,000 people caught a piece of maritime fun during the event.

It’s tough to put a good guess to this year’s numbers. People could think once is enough. Or they could be putting fresh towels in the guest room and calling every relative they have from here to Kansas City. Seattleites might even be thinking this is as good a time as any to see where those southbound Sound Transit lines go.

The Thea Foss Waterway will be ready for all comers, Jadwin said, thanks to the unions.

“We visited with Pierce County Building and Construction Trades, about 23 unions, and implored them for support,” Jadwin said. “They unanimously agreed. By January and February, they were all onboard.”

Actually, they were on docks, and along the Esplanade doing the stuff it takes to keep crews, vendors, volunteers and visitors safe and carefree.

And sanitary.

“Russ Thompson, he’s our onsite rep for the plumbers union,” Jadwin said. “We have to put in water and drainage for all the hand-washing stations. We have to get water to all the vessels at the north end of the venue. Also, the ships get a sewage pump while they’re in port. Water in and water out for all the vessels.”

The plumbers have laid 3,000 to 4,000 feet of pipe to keep the big stars on the north Foss happy. You can bet crews aboard the Bounty, the Eagle, the Kaisei, the Oriole, the Zodiac, the Merrie Ellen, the Adventuress and the Niña will be flush with gratitude.

Though pipe, wire and electrical boxes count as in-kind donations, most materials will be reclaimed and reused. That’s green, and good.

Every ship will have International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 23 and Dave Hermansen to thank for orderly moorage. Like burly maritime concierges, the volunteers have taken care of everything from fire suppression to life rings.

“They are very proud of what they do. All these guys, they give you 100 percent,” Jadwin said.

The Lynx, the Lady Washington, the Hawaiian Chieftain, the Virginia V, the Odyssey and the Charles N. Curtis will moor at permanent docks with the basics in place, which would be enough if their crews alone were scampering on and off the ship. But those of us who merely visit them will appreciate the stairs and safety railings made by union carpenters.

The list of donations from union workers and employers covers all the details. If they weren’t there, we’d miss the contributions of – take a deep breath – asbestos workers, boilermakers, bricklayers, allied craft workers, cement masons, elevator constructors, glaziers, ironworkers, painters, laborers, lads, millwrights, operating engineers, pile drivers, plasterers, roofers, sheet metal workers, sprinkler fitters and Teamsters.

The value of the labor and the donations is almost incalculable, Jadwin said, though he gave it a shot. In-kind donations, from gift bags for the crews to the use of generators, should add up to about $1 million, he said. Union volunteers should tote up at least $500,000 worth of work. Add in the festival’s volunteer corps, 2,000 strong, and there’s another $500,000.

That’s $2 million in gifts to a festival with a budget of $3.5 million.

That’s Tall Ships’ hidden treasure.

Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677

kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com