ILWU NW Grain Members Working Under Imposed Union Busting Contract Similar To EGT's

ILWU NW Grain Members Working Under Imposed Union Busting Contract Similar To EGT's

ILWU Longshoremen arrive for work under new contract terms Thursday as Northwest grain exports continue

By Richard Read

 December 27, 2012 at 9:39 AM

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2012/12/longshoremen_arrive_for_work_u.html#incart_river

Note that grain bosses say they won’t tolerate any slowdowns or other actions that could affect their profits.

Threaten to herd scabs and unilaterally revise their imposed conditions if union workers object.

ILWU has adopted a legal posture appealing to the NLRB and the courts to help its cause.-MM

Floodlights illuminate a new entrance to Columbia Grain Inc. at 6 a.m. Thursday at the Port of Portland's Terminal 5. The gate was built to separate picketers and [scabs]replacement workers from the terminal's regular entrance, but operations were normal Thursday in the absence of a lockout or strike.

Longshoremen showed up for work at Northwest grain terminals Thursday under contract terms they overwhelmingly rejected less than a week before.
Floodlights illuminated a recently built entrance at Columbia Grain Inc. in North Portland at 6 a.m., the hour that grain terminal owners implemented terms of the contract offer that longshoremen voted down on Friday and Saturday. 
The new Gate A was built so picketers and replacement workers would be removed from the regular entrance to the Port of Portland's Terminal 5. But instead of striking, longshore workers showed up at work as the union contested the owners' declaration that contract talks reached impasse.
A declaration of impasse allows the companies to impose the terms of their "last, best and final" contract offer. But the International Longshore and Warehouse Union is expected to file an unfair-labor-practice charge, contending the terminal owners implemented the contract terms prematurely before negotiations reached an impasse.
The dispute involves six terminals in Portland, Vancouver and the Puget Sound where longshoremen have been working without an agreement since a contract expired Sept. 30. Terminal owners appeared to be gearing up for a lockout or strike, hiring security and putting replacement workers and tugboats on standby.
But at least for now, longshoremen keep working and grain exports continue flowing.
That was the case as well Friday morning at the United Grain Corp. terminal in Vancouver, according to Theresa Wagner, communications manager for the Port of Vancouver.
"We do have a plan in place that if things do escalate that we would move folks connected with UGC over to Gate 2, which is our east gate," Wagner said. "But right now everything is proceeding very smoothly and all is well, so we are just operating as normal."
A Louis Dreyfus Commodities terminal in Portland that is also covered by the negotiations is reportedly closed for maintenance and upgrades. LD Commodities has another grain elevator in Seattle covered by the same bargaining agreement, bringing the total number of terminals involved to four.
Two more terminals were originally involved in the talks: a Temco elevator in Tacoma and one in Portland. But statements by the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association no longer mention Temco, a joint venture between Cargill Inc. and CHS Inc.
So it's unclear whether longshoremen are working at those terminals under the old or new contract terms, or whether Temco might have peeled off from the employers' coalition to enter a separate agreement with the union.