[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 9 (Wednesday, February 2, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              ON THE DEATH OF LONGSHOREMAN MATT PETRASICH

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JANE HARMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 2, 2005

  Ms. HARMAN. Mr. Speaker, a tragedy occurred Monday at the Port of Los 
Angeles when longshoreman Matt Petrasich--a 40-year veteran of the 
docks--was killed as he supervised workers unloading cargo from a ship. 
The entire port community is stunned by this unexpected loss.
  Mr. Petrasich was something of a Pied Piper at the port, a hatch boss 
beloved by younger workers who vied to work on his shifts and respected 
by his peers for his years of hard work, sparkling sense of humor and 
big heart. Just ask Danny Miranda, president of ILWU Local 94, who 
said, ``Everybody on this waterfront is grieving. He was loved by a lot 
of people. . . . He was the life of the party. Just a wonderful 
person.''
  Work on the waterfront is often fraught with danger. The men and 
women who toil on the docks know the risks better than anyone else. But 
their around-the-clock contribution keeps Americans in work, business 
inventories full and our seaports more secure.
  As best we understand the fatal accident, Mr. Petrasich was crushed 
by a container about 9:30 in the morning as he worked aboard the 
Panamanian-flagged Ever Deluxe ship. It was a crane operator who first 
spotted his body and notified port authorities.
  It was also a crane operator, John Rivera of ILWU Local 13, who 3 
weeks ago, on a Saturday night, noticed something strange. While moving 
cargo off a ship, he spotted from his perch high above the docks three 
people crawling out of a hole in the side of a container. Port 
inspectors opened the container and found inside 28 men and 4 male 
teenagers from China--illegal stowaways who had hidden themselves 10 
days earlier at the Chinese port city of Shekou. The container manifest 
listed the contents simply as ``clothing.''
  Mr. Speaker, in an era of terrorism and WMD proliferation, the 
threats against America emanate from the shadows, from underground 
black markets, from sleeper cells, and even from cargo containers in 
the Port of Los Angeles innocently labeled ``clothing.''
  If not for Mr. Rivera, that container would almost certainly have 
made its way past port inspectors and into Greater Los Angeles. That 
cargo could have been a 32-man terrorist cell--13 more than the 19 
terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. As ILWU Local 13 president Dave 
Arian rightly notes, ``We are the eyes and ears of the port.''
  So as we mourn the sudden and shocking loss of Matt Petrasich, we 
should also celebrate the vigilance and dedication of the men and women 
who work day and night at the port--the supervisors, the crane 
operators, the shift workers and, of course, hatch bosses like Matt.
  I offer my deepest condolences to Cathe Bjazevich Petrasich, his wife 
of 24 years, and to his family, his friends and co-workers. The Port of 
Los Angeles has lost a special man.

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