Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

Port of Longview signs off on ILWU and EGT settlement
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By Erik Olson / The Daily News | Posted: Friday, January 27, 2012 4:00 pm | Loading…
http://tdn.com/news/local/port-of-longview-signs-off-on-ilwu-and-egt-settlement/article_881013da-4943-11e1-8929-0019bb2963f4.html

Bill Wagner / The Daily News
From left to right, Port of Longview commissioners Darold Dietz, Bob Bagaason, and Lou Johnson and port attorney Frank Randolph sign a series of lease amendments for the EGT lease agreement. EGT and ILWU representatives requested the specific changes to facilitate negotiations toward a working agreement for staffing the EGT terminal at Port of Longview.

Port of Longview commissioners Friday signed off on a settlement with EGT Development and union dock workers. The pact provides a framework for longshoremen to work inside the $200 million grain terminal and end one of the area's longest, angriest labor disputes in decades.
EGT and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union still have not signed a labor contract, but both sides agreed on the settlement before submitting it to port commissioners, according to port attorney Frank Randolph. Rank-and-file ILWU members approved the agreement Tuesday, according to the union.

ILWU Longshore Union Settles Grain Dispute as Confrontation Loomed

Jane Slaughter| January 26, 2012

ILWU members in Longview, Washington, massed to peacefully surrender to authorities in September in order to end police harassment. Union members had stopped a train and dumped its grain in a campaign against a transnational grain exporter that settled this week. Photo: Dawn Des Brisay.

http://labornotes.org/2012/01/longshore-union-settles-grain-dispute-confrontation-loomed

In a surprise settlement reached Monday, the Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) and transnational grain exporter EGT announced they’d settled their legal disputes in Longview, Washington.

They are negotiating a contract that will cover ILWU members working at EGT’s new grain terminal there.

The conflict had raged since last June, with hundreds of ILWU members mounting a campaign of nonviolent disruption. The settlement came as the ILWU and members of the Occupy movement separately prepared to confront a grain ship soon approaching the disputed terminal.

Although only 25-35 jobs are immediately at stake in Longview, the ILWU feared losing there could endanger the grain work that accounts for 20 percent of the financing of its pension and welfare funds.

Local leaders' reaction to EGT ILWU deal? In a word, relief "Occupy will continue mobilizing until rank-and-file Longshore workers declare permanent victory,"
Local leaders' reaction to EGT deal? In a word, relief

By Barbara LaBoe / The Daily News | Posted: Monday, January 23, 2012 10:25 pm | (5) Comments
http://tdn.com/news/local/local-leaders-reaction-to-egt-deal-in-a-word-relief/article_4c99c020-4633-11e1-b198-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1kaOXPP3d

Special Section: Conflict at EGT Grain Terminal
As word spread of Monday's tentative settlement between the local longshore union and the EGT grain terminal, a giant wave of relief flowed across the community.
"It's absolutely a Christmas present in January," George Raiter, chairman of the Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners, said Monday afternoon.
"There's been a lot of nervousness about what may or may not transpire when a (grain) ship wanted to come in," added Ted Sprague, president of the Cowlitz County Economic Development Council. The EGT terminal started accepting rail shipments of grain last year but has yet to send out a single bushel by ship.
"You don't know what to anticipate, but we were nervous about it," Sprague said.

1/23 NYC Protest in New York Slams Military Union-Busting Against ILWU Local 21
http://www.internationalist.org/nycprotestmilitaryunionbusting.html

Protesters in New York Slam Military Union-Busting Against ILWU Local 21

Seventy-five demonstrators came out in drenching rain to show solidarity with dock workers in
Longview, Washington on January 23. (Internationalist photos)

JANUARY 23 – Chanting “What’s disgusting? Coast Guard union-busting,” some 75 protesters demonstrated for an hour and a half in soaking rain in front of the Federal Building in downtown New York City today. They were denouncing the government’s announced plan to use the U.S. Coast Guard against the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in Longview, Washington. For the last year, the ILWU ranks have militantly fought against an attempt to break their union by a giant consortium, EGT, which has opened a new $200 million grain export terminal in the West Coast port which it is operating with scab labor. This government/employer attack on the strongest and most combative union in the U.S. is a threat to all labor.

Workers have responded to the threat. The armed Coast Guard cutters and helicopters are to be deployed along with a massive police presence to suppress protests when a ship arrives to load grain from the scab terminal, which could occur at any time in the next few weeks. ILWU longshore workers, Longview area unions and Occupy groups have announced plans, including caravans from as far away as the San Francisco Bay Area, to mobilize when the ship arrives. There was talk in the Portland, Oregon region of organizing a flotilla of small boats on the Lower Columbia River – a floating picket line – in support of the struggle of ILWU Local 21.

EGT labor settlement with ILWU postpones NLRB hearing on illegal picketing

By Erik Olson / The Daily News | Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 8:30 pm | No Comments Posted
http://tdn.com/news/local/egt-labor-settlement-postpones-nlrb-hearing-on-illegal-picketing/article_ce58bac6-4700-11e1-8a86-0019bb2963f4.html

Negotiators are staying mum on how many jobs at the Port of Longview's EGT grain terminal will be filled by union longshoremen, but a tentative settlement has already compelled the longshore union and EGT to push back a key labor hearing at the heart of the dispute.
The National Labor Relations Board postponed a hearing scheduled for Monday on whether the International Longshore and Warehouse Union engaged in illegal picketing during last summer's protests, according to Frank Randolph, Port of Longview attorney.
The first day of the hearing, expected to last at least a month, has been rescheduled for Feb. 6. According to the labor board, the Pacific Maritime Association also is listed as a party because of the lost time incurred by shippers due to longshore walkouts in Longview, Seattle and Tacoma in September in protest of EGT's hiring policies.
Attorneys for EGT, the ILWU and the Port of Longview are discussing ways to modify the company's lease and the port's working agreement with the ILWU to create the legal framework to get union workers in the terminal, Randolph said Tuesday, adding that the parties are also trying to settle a federal lawsuit filed a year ago over the staffing of the terminal.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017315309_apwaunionclash2ndld.html
ILWU reaches settlement in Longview labor dispute

A Longshore union says it has reached a tentative settlement to end a months-long labor dispute at the Port of Longview.

OLYMPIA, Wash. —

A Longshore union says it has reached a tentative settlement to end a months-long labor dispute at the Port of Longview.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the company, EGT, did not immediately disclose details of the agreement Monday. The ILWU has been aggressively protesting the company since last year, when EGT decided to use a contractor that staffed a new grain terminal with workers from a different union.

Union protesters blocked trains and repeatedly faced arrest despite the warnings of a federal judge. The judge has fined the union more than $300,000 for the tactics.

ILWU President Robert McEllrath said in a statement Monday that the agreement is a win for the union, the company and the Longview community. He says they are looking forward to developing a positive working relationship with EGT.

Washinton Gov. Gregoire announces tentative settlement between EGT and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union

For Immediate Release: January 23, 2012

http://governor.wa.gov/news/news-view.asp?pressRelease=1840&newsType=1
OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire today announced that EGT and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union reached a tentative settlement on pending legal issues surrounding labor disputes at EGT’s grain export facility in Longview.

“I asked EGT and ILWU to come together in a good faith effort to overcome their differences,” Gregoire said. “Both parties should be commended for their willingness to work together and compromise. This framework reflects considerable effort to put the interests of the Longview community and the entire Columbia River basin first. I am confident an agreement can be reached that will satisfy both parties and allow the new grain terminal to become fully operational.”

“We are pleased to announce that after a series of discussions convened by Governor Gregoire, the ILWU and EGT have reached a tentative settlement to resolve the pending legal matters between the parties and the Port of Longview,” said EGT CEO Larry Clarke. “While the parties are still working to finalize certain conditions over the next several days, we are optimistic we can resolve the dispute and get on with the business of operating the facility. From the beginning, we had two core goals – to operate this 21st Century facility safely and efficiently and to ensure the entire Longview Community shares in the economic benefits this facility will provide. We are optimistic this process will help us reach both of these objectives.”

TWU 100 Playing Nice With NYC MTA Bosses Leads No Where In Contract Negotiations
For M.T.A. and Union, Obstacles Delay a Contract
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
Published: January 22, 2012
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/515773.html

One week after the expiration of a labor contract between theMetropolitan Transportation Authority and Transport Workers UnionLocal 100, there is no shortage of evidence that the two sides are far apart on a new deal.
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Times Topics: N.Y. Metropolitan Transportation Authority |Transport Workers Union

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Talks in Manhattan were halted on Thursday, after the union accused the authority of bad-faith negotiations by revealing its proposals in the news media; neither side seemed hopeful that a new deal was imminent.

But the atmosphere seems far less charged than in past negotiations; there is certainly no suggestion that the union could go on strike, as it did in 2005. The current economic climate is making it hard for most unions to reach agreements without accepting huge concessions, so both sides appear to be taking their time.

ILWU officials shouldn't get a pass
Bay Area labor activist Dana Blanchard responds to a recent article about a debate in the wake of a Seattle meeting to build solidarity with the struggle of the ILWU.
January 23, 2012

http://socialistworker.org/2012/01/23/ilwu-officials-shouldnt-get-pa

I AM writing this in response to a SocialistWorker.org article titled "The solidarity we need for Longview." I am a member of the ISO in the Bay Area, a unionized teacher and an active member of the Occupy Oakland Labor Solidarity Committee.

I believe the article--which takes up a controversy over the Occupy movement's role in building support for the struggle of longshore workers in Longview, Wash., and a solidarity meeting in Seattle where this controversy came to a head in a physical conflict--misses the mark in terms of its tone.

The article is not critical enough of what the ILWU International is doing right now with regards to the struggle in Longview. It points out that the union's International president participated in a blockade of train tracks in Longview in September. But it doesn't address the fact that in the past few weeks since issuing a letter of support for a caravan to Longview when the multinational EGT Development attempts to load its first scab grain ship, ILWU officials have been organizing to limit action in Longview.

Wisconsin Labor Council Tells Obama to Order Coast Guard to "Stand Down"

January 19, 2012

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Obama:

With over 200 present at our monthly meeting on Monday, January 16, delegates to the South Central Federation of Labor heard a very disturbing report about the planned use of U.S. military to intervene on the side of management in a crucial labor dispute in Washington State, and voted unanimously to condemn such intervention.

The International Longshoremen Workers Union is engaged in a crucial struggle at the Port of Longview, Washington, where a multinational company, EGT, is attempting to operate as the West Coast's only non-ILWU facility, despite promising otherwise when it received millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to build its grain exporting terminal. Now, as the first ship makes its way to the port to fill up with grain bound for Asia, it is reported that Coast Guard ships and helicopters will be used to escort this ship. Use of our tax dollars and our military to assist such union busting is horrifying.