Wildcat strike shuts down Northwest ports
Wildcat strikes disrupted operations in several ports in the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday and Thursday, sparked by a battle over which workers are entitled to jobs at a new, $200 million EGT grain terminal in the Port of Longview in Washington.
Operations on Thursday were disrupted at the ports of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett, Wash. when members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union failed to show up at work. Josh Thomas, a spokesman for the Port of Portland, said on Wednesday there were disruptions at the ports of Portland, Longview, Kalma, Vancouver, Washington, and private terminals along the Columbia River.
It was not clear if protests would continue or spread to other ports. ILWU members perform almost all longshore work on the West Coast of the United States and Canada.
Craig Merrilees, communications director for the ILWU in San Francisco, said neither the international nor local union have initiated or sponsored the wildcat strikes.
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ILWU President Robert McEllrath participated in a demonstration in Longview on Wednesday, and was briefly detained by police, but not arrested.
“The response by workers to the heavy-handed tactics by EGT are understandable. People are angry, they are frustrated,” said Merrilees. ‘They see government and corporations turning their backs on working families and EGT’s decision to disrespect the local community has sparked this kind of action, which should surprise no one.”
Members of the ILWU said they should get the jobs at the new EGT terminal and are upset that the terminal has switched work to a subcontractor, General Construction, which has signed a contract with Local 701 of the Operating Engineers.
The terminal was the scene of mayhem both Wednesday and Thursday morning.
During the early morning hours on Thursday, 500 people stormed the terminal, breaking windows in a private security guard shack, pushed a vehicle into a ditch, cut hose lines on rail cars and opened doors on hopper cars, dumping grain on the ground.
Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha said protesters were at the terminal for an hour or two, but left before police arrived.
“We are all small agencies. It took us close to two hours to call in people off duty and get them into vehicles and get them out there before we could even consider trying to handle a crowd of 500,” Duscha said.
“There were six guards there for an extended period of time who at the very least didn’t feel safe or free to leave, and eventually they were able to get out of there. Nobody was hurt,” he said.
Merrilees objected to earlier characterizations that the guards were held as “hostages.”
Duscha said the investigation of vandalism at the EGT Terminal, led by the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s office, has begun. There are some video cameras at the facility, he said.
The events Thursday morning followed two confrontations on Wednesday between police and protesters trying to block a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train bringing grain to the EGT terminal, once in Vancouver and once in Longview.
At one point “police said a throng of protesters pushed against them, forcing them to beat them away with clubs and pepper spray,’ according to a report in The Daily News in Longview
The report said about 400 protesters blocked a train for about four hours.
An ILWU press release said “police in riot gear charged the group of peaceful protesters, which included women and children, injuring several in the process. When volunteers stood their ground, police retreated and the train was backed off.”
But the Daily News report said the “train passed through Wednesday evening after the protesters were confronted by about 50 officers in riot gear.” It said 19 persons were arrested.
The ILWU said its president, Robert McEllrath, was detained by the police but was not arrested.
‘Everyone came to the tracks on their own free will to stand up for justice and protect good jobs in this community,’ McEllrath said. “It shouldn’t be a crime to fight for good jobs in America.’
Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson said the protests on Wednesday were “not like the peaceful protests we’ve seen in the past. The protesters today were loud, aggressive and assaulted my officers.
“We’ve danced this dance before. When our officers went in to make peaceful, lawful trespass arrests, they were rushed by a mob of hundreds of protesters who were resistive and throwing things at the officers,” Nelson said.
“I have been meeting with local union leadership and business representatives for two months now. I was always assured that things would not get violent towards our police officers. I guess the protesters from out of town didn’t get that message,” Nelson said.
“I’m very concerned about our local folks, and have been since this thing started,’ he added. ‘There are people outside of our community that are pulling the strings here, and our neighbors are the ones getting hurt.”
On Thursday the Port of Seattle posted a notice on its Web site that said “work is not occurring at our terminals today, as longshore workers are not present.”
It noted terminals “are leased to terminal operators who work directly with ILWU for staffing. We do not know when work will resume.”
Tacoma posted a similar statement saying it was “experiencing a longshore work stoppage. We understand similar actions have been taken by longshore workers at other West Coast ports. ILWU Local 23 is not working at the Port of Tacoma this morning. Trucks are not delivering or picking up cargo at port marine terminals. No ships at the port are being impacted by this situation for now.”
The Associated Press said a federal judge ordered union protesters to stop using illegal tactics and complained “the regard for the law is absent here,” and warned “somebody is going to be hurt seriously.”
The EGT terminal (EGT reportedly stands for “Export Grain
Terminal”) is owned and operated by a consortium of companies that includes St. Louis-based Bunge North America, Japan-based Itochu Corp., and Korean shipper Pan Ocean STX. ‘ Chris Dupin