There’s a new name etched on the granite list of dockworkers killed on the job:
No. 69, Jose Santoya.
Longshore union leaders gathered in San Pedro Friday, May 15, for the annual First Blood Memorial service, honoring those who’ve died while working on the docks at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Each year, union leaders, workers and their families gather at a statue dedicated to the founder of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which bears a plaque with the names of everyone who has died on the docks.
But this year was different for a couple of reasons. First, the gathering was smaller than usual and socially distanced, a now-common safety measure during such ceremonies because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Second, the ILWU commemorated a recent victim.
Santoya, a 58-year-old father of two adult daughters, was killed a year ago, on morning of May 15, 2019, while he was working at the Fenix Marine Services terminal, on Pier 300, in the Port of Los Angeles. A massive tire exploded, killing the longshoreman and seriously injuring a co-worker, Pedro Chavarin, who survived. Both were maintenance workers and ILWU members.
The incident occurred just hours before last year’s First Blood Memorial gathering.
It sent shockwaves throughout the twin port complex. And in November, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, after an investigation, issued the terminal with five citations classified as “serious.” Penalties amounted to $80,375.
On Friday, about a dozen of Santoya’s family members were on hand to mark the anniversary. They wore white T-shirts with Santoya’s badge number — 133319 — written on the back. The front read, “Rest in Peace.”
Santoya’s name was etched on the plaque just two days earlier.
“What can you say?” said his widow, Luz, after the ceremony. “It’s a sad day for us.”
The family planned to visit the docks at the terminal where Santoya was killed later in the day for a private moment of remembrance.
During the short First Blood ceremony, Greg Mitre, president of the Pensioners for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, read the names of 69 people who died on the docks. Those names appear on a plaque affixed to the back of a bust of ILWU founder Harry Bridges, which was dedicated in 2009.
As Mitre read each name, a bell rang. Wreaths of flowers, delivered on behalf of well-wishers, surrounded the Harry Bridges bust.
The ceremony serves a solemn reminder that despite the advances made in working conditions over the last 100 years, working on the docks is still dangerous.
That’s why, Mitre said, it was important to hold the ceremony, even at a time when so many events are being canceled due to the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
“The pensioners were honored to be able to keep the tradition alive,” Mitre said after the ceremony.
The crowd, though, was purposely kept small — about two dozen people — to make social distancing possible and the program was much shorter than usual, lacking some of the regular elements, such as a bagpiper. The event last year attracted about 100 people.
Still, officers from ILWU Locals 13, 63 and 94 attended. And the event also commemorated the 86th anniversary of the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen’s and Seamen’s strike, which led to the founding of the ILWU.
As he dismissed the crowd, Mitre reminded them to “be safe.”
So far, he said, there has been only one reported positive case of COVID-19 among dockworkers, on April 1.
“We’ve been blessed,” Mitre said.
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