Angry longshoremen walked off the job at ports in the US north-west yesterday, effectively shutting down operations at three terminals.
Shipping terminals in Seattle, Tacoma and Everett came to a halt as union members joined a dispute at a grain export terminal at Longview in Washington state, where security guards were held at bay as a freight train was attacked.
Police said union members had rushed into a contested loading area just before dawn, cutting brake lines on a train full of grain, pushing a security vehicle into a ditch and dumping part of the cargo off the train.
The action followed a clash with police on Wednesday, when longshoremen blocked railroad tracks near Vancouver, Washington, to prevent grain reaching the terminal, 45 miles farther west.
Union leaders contend the terminal should be staffed by members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).
In Wednesday’s protest, union members far outnumbered the police, pelting them with rocks and using pepper spray against them, police said.
There were no serious injuries, but 19 protesters were arrested.
Police were not present during yesterday’s pre-dawn action at the terminal, but said six security guards had been held inside a guard shack while protesters attacked the train.
“Yesterday [Wednesday] there were probably 300 or 400 of them. Today there were even more, and we were just outnumbered,” Longview police chief Jim Duscha said.
The ILWU used its Facebook page yesterday morning. “Call out the troops, we’re going on a road trip,” wrote one union member.
The eruptions cap a simmering summer of labour unrest at the new $200 million grain-shipping facility in southern Washington state, the first major grain export terminal built in the US over the past two decades.
Terminal owners claim they are under no obligation to employ ILWU workers. The company said the union was demanding “numerous costly and inefficient terms,” including a demand for a $20 per hour surcharge to supplement pensions, and work stoppages “for extended periods throughout the day”.
The union said the protests were a result of general “frustration” on the part of its members.
“Workers today are scared. They’re seeing paying jobs in their communities go, and the jobs that are there pay much less, and are much less secure than they were 10 years ago,” it said.
David Badger | Fri, 9 Sep 2011, IFW News