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September 8, 2011 in Region
Judge warns Washington union to halt illegal tactics
A Cowlitz County Sheriff grabs a union worker by the throat as police move in on several hundred union workers blocking a grain train in Longview, Wash., Wednesday. Longshoremen blocked the train as part of an escalating dispute about labor at the EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview.
(Full-size photo)
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A federal judge ordered union protesters to stop using illegal tactics Thursday as they battle for the right to work at a new grain terminal in Washington state.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton issued a preliminary injunction to restrict union activity, saying there was no defense for the aggressive tactics used in recent days. Protesters twice blocked the pathway of a train carrying grain to the terminal at the Port of Longview on Wednesday, and early Thursday morning hundreds of them stormed the facility, overwhelmed guards, dumped grain and broke windows, police said.
The dispute halted work at four other Washington ports, including Seattle, on Thursday as hundreds of longshoremen refused to show up or walked off the job.
Leighton said he felt like a paper tiger because the International Longshore and Warehouse Union clearly ignored a temporary restraining order he issued last week with similar limits. He scheduled a hearing for next Thursday to determine whether the union should be held in civil contempt.
“The regard for the law is absent here,” the judge said. “Somebody is going to be hurt seriously.”
Six guards were trapped for a couple of hours after at least 500 Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha said. He initially referred to the guards as “hostages,” but later retracted that after the guards clarified no one had threatened them.
“The guards absolutely could not get out,” Duscha said. “They feared for their lives because of the size of the crowd and the hostility of the crowd.”
No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested — although Duscha said that could change if police are able to use surveillance video or other means to identify the protesters.
Most of the protesters returned to their union hall after cutting train brake lines and spilling grain from a car at the EGT terminal, Duscha said. They also pushed a private security vehicle into a ditch.
The union believes it has the right to work at the facility, but the company has hired a contractor that’s staffing a workforce of laborers from another union, the Portland-based Operating Engineers Local 701. Representatives of the engineers union did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
In Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and Anacortes, hundreds of Longshore workers failed to show up or walked off the job Thursday in apparent solidarity with the Longview activists, halting work at those ports. Union leaders said they had not called for any such actions.
“It appears the members have taken action on their own,” said ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees from union headquarters in San Francisco.
He said some workers might have been motivated by a photograph of ILWU President Bob McElrath in police custody in Longview on Wednesday.
McElrath was not arrested, but an Associated Press photo showed him being grabbed by several police officers before union activists intervened and grabbed him back.
Police arrested 19 protesters as they blocked railroad tracks on Wednesday night, allowing the train to finally arrive at the terminal.
The protesters in Longview have portrayed themselves as being on the front line in the struggle for jobs and benefits among American workers in an economic downturn. But while union strife has flared up around the country — most notably in Wisconsin — the aggressive tactics seen in Longview have been a rarity in recent labor disputes.
Labor activists insist that after receiving tax breaks and promising to create well-paying jobs at the new $200 million terminal, EGT initially tried to staff the terminal with nonunion workers. Following a series of protests by the Longshore workers this year, the company announced it would hire a contractor staffed by workers from a different union.
“Today, the ILWU took its criminal activity against EGT to an appalling level, including engaging in assault and significant property destruction,” the company’s chief executive, Larry Clarke, said in a written statement. “This type of violent attack at the export terminal has been condemned by a federal court, and we fully support prosecution of this criminal behavior to the fullest extent under the law.”
© Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Three dead, three wounded in Seattle shootings 
Charlie on September 08 at 8:06 a.m.
Unions at their very best. :-(
jimvw2 on September 08 at 8:20 a.m.
It would be nice to read some background on this incident. Is that likely, coming from the S-R? Let’s all go a-Googling, so we can have our usual fusilade of dualing talking points.
How I miss real journalism, you know, where the story isn’t published until the reporter has gathered all of the who, what, when, where, why and how. Sigh…
Let the uninformed, off-point commentary begin. I’ll check Reuters in a couple of hours to see what actually happened.
Theanticscontinue on September 08 at 8:33 a.m.
Well Jim, if you find something that doesn’t say they broke the law that might be the only alternative to what this reports. As Charlie says, Unions at their very best, what else needs to be said of this story?
wcougars on September 08 at 8:53 a.m.
I don’t agree with the thugsville aproach but I know a couple guys caught up in this mess and the real story has two sides. The middle class races away a day at a time and soon every one will be happy with $10 an hour and the guys running the show will be polishing their yaughts and new Benz’s and talking about the real housewives of Orange County.
botanical on September 08 at 9:04 a.m.
Well, we will be sending home about 20 warehousemen today because “The Brotherhood” decided to take a holiday and strike at the Tacoma and Seattle ports due to the Longview issue. Thanks guys, you can sit on your bums on strike and get paid. Our employees get to go home without pay because you big, pouty overpaid babies are throwing another tantrum.
Squid on September 08 at 9:08 a.m.
And they keep costing their employer more and more money. Keep looting and pillaging themselves out of a job. The union has a right to work there, but no one else does, right?
Longpew makes Kelso smell so. That place stinks in every way. Everything is union in that area, but nothing works. Tolleycraft boats in Kelso went down because of their union. Several breweries did too. Remember Lucky Lager?
BlondeSquawker on September 08 at 9:14 a.m.
I bet their going to have some really fat pigeons around there!
addyh on September 08 at 9:15 a.m.
@jimvw2, this is a wire story that the AP is updating as they get more information. We will continue to update the version that’s appearing on our site.
Addy Hatch, city editor
Kivaari on September 08 at 9:21 a.m.
NO one has a right to work anywhere. Union thugs have cost their members more jobs through such actions that it is never regained in better wages and benefits. The union thugs are your neighbors and they will be the same ones that will take everything you have just because they think it is theirs. I’d rather see a few hundred $10 an hour jobs, then paying union people $40 or more dollars an hour. I worked with longshoremen as a casual. They can do some heavy work, but most are slackers just milking money out of you an me.
BlondeSquawker on September 08 at 9:25 a.m.
As long as they aren’t spilling barley, who cares?
RedCedar on September 08 at 10:18 a.m.
This is really shocking. It’s like reading about when the Verona, loaded with wobblies steamed into port of Everett or when the miners hijacked a train and blew up the Bunker Hill smelter. I thought the days of “hire us or we’ll destroy your business” were long gone, but I guess not.
I hope every man who participated in this vandalism will be fully prosecuted for the crimes that they committed, without any regard for whatever union grievances or political points they might have.They’re no better than the punk kids who smash storefronts just for the hell of it and then claim to be “anarchists” making some political point.
There’s also the matter of violating the restraining order.
As a practical matter, when union workers (using the term “work” generously there) engage in this sort of behavior in an attempt to hold onto the cushy jobs that they thought were owed to them, they usually end up winning 100% of nothing, when the plant closes down or goes non-union. When you demand “all or nothing”, you likely end up with “nothing”. There are many ports on the west coast of North America. Even Canada and Mexico have some.
There was no doubt some point in the union negotiations when the port and the union could have reached an agreement that would have given both sides less than what they wanted, but still more than what the union is getting now. And, if it went like most union negotiations, the people doing the negotiating for the union are paid by union dues, are paid even if there’s no work for the union members, and have very little incentive to negotiate reasonably. They tend to be quick to call strikes, quick to tell the membership to vote down a proposal, and by sticking to impossible demands end up hurting the average worker in the long run. I don’t know what led up to this, but it seems to me that the longshoremen have been badly served by their leaders.
harry61 on September 08 at 10:25 a.m.
I am anti Union. I have watch the unions close more business and lose more jobs than they will ever create. The Union officials are just top business people like CEO’s out to line there pockets. Unforunately unions are a neccesory evil to keep some balance.
WHS on September 08 at 10:32 a.m.
RedCedar, we may not always agree, but that was well put.
As far as the comment regarding $10 an hour employees… I guess we can just all follow the “poverty ain’t so bad” mantra now being championed by the radical right. The bottom line, when America starts trying to compete with third world economies, guess what… We become a third world economy!
WHS
CougarGold on September 08 at 10:43 a.m.
What strikes (pardon the pun) me about this is that the fight is apparently between two different unions. The Longshoremen feel they have the representation rights versus another union. This is a fight within the brotherhood that is being taken to the employer. What’s really driving this? Tell me it isn’t just plain old greed….is it? Will be interesting to see how all this plays out.
hersfeld on September 08 at 10:57 a.m.
This is purely one union intimidating another union with the employees, employer and railroad caught in the middle. This has nothing to do with improving the rights of the workers - just improving the finances of one union at the expense of another union. So much for “union brotherhood.”
steptoe_fan on September 08 at 11:56 a.m.
let the state send 2000 nat guard types with LIVE ammo and the authority to use it - that’s what the longshore thugs deserve.
oh wait, Chris would lose the votes that bought her re election, well, she’s not running, just spending tax money going on official visits, so, lock and load !
MrBloggy on September 08 at 12:18 p.m.
about time unions push back against the union busting record profit taking nobody hiring big business interests screwing the common man over.
the class war begins.
SMARTGUY on September 08 at 12:48 p.m.
Lots of republican comments about unions, but nothing about Perry cutting the fire fighting budgets, then asking for federal tax dollars to put them out. Where are all the states rights, keep the federal government out of the state business, no more federal aid complainers now.
RedCedar on September 08 at 1:04 p.m.
I think you landed on the wrong topic, SMARGUY. There’s nothing about (Rick?) Perry or (Texas?) fires anywhere in this article, which might explain why nobody mentioned your preferred topic here.
valleyman on September 08 at 1:06 p.m.
This story isn’t about big business, corporate interests, or Republican candidates. It is about criminal acts by union members. I see at minimum two seperate criminal violations of law: unlawful imprisonment/kidnap and malicious mischief.
I, as a taxpayer, and a consumer of goods carried on railroad cars demand criminal charges be brought.
CougarGold on September 08 at 2:07 p.m.
Here’s a related story that identifies the competing union, Local 701 of the Operating Engineers. This is going to get ugly as the brotherhood cannibalizes itself over approximately 25-50 jobs.
http://tdn.com/news/local/article_41453e7a-b26d-11e0-838a-001cc4c002e0.html?oCampaign=hottopics
Seems greed goes beyond just the suits in the corporate offices….who da thunk?
SpokyDaBear on September 08 at 2:15 p.m.
Union = mafia…
This a just another shakedown by the union mafia to keep their cushy jobs and overly abundant benefits…
Thanks guys,,, for showing your true non-American colors!
wobble506 on September 08 at 2:24 p.m.
Following the thread from CougarGold -
gotta love this statement -
Dan Coffman, president of the longshore union’s Longview-based Local 21, said he doesn’t know what happened at the terminal Thursday morning, but he denied Duscha’s claim that union longshoremen were detaining security guards.
Another president that has no idea what’s going on.
Notice he did not deny the vandalism, trespassing, property destruction, etc. only the claim of kidnapping.
What a bunch of thugs. Did you also notice that one of the other trains was routed to Canada? I guess they got the work these to unions monkeys are fighting over. What a bunch of morons.
MrNatural on September 08 at 2:50 p.m.
Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man’s made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that’s a-weak and a back that’s strong
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin’ when the sun didn’t shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said “Well, a-bless my soul”
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin’, it was drizzlin’ rain
Fightin’ and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol’ mama lion
Cain’t no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
If you see me comin’, better step aside
A lotta men didn’t, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don’t a-get you
Then the left one will
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
Squid on September 08 at 3:51 p.m.
It’s hard for me to understand how these people can justify their lack of respect for the business that pays the rent and puts food on the table for their families. A business should be able to make decisions that are best for the company.
I can’t help but think of the Lazy K. I think the Mead plant would still be operating today if there wasn’t the ridiculous strike of something so trivial. And, of course, all of the beds they set up, prostitution ring, and growing operation…. etc, etc… How many families lost their jobs on that strike? How many Harley’s were repossessed?
johnclarke on September 08 at 4:47 p.m.
Whoa, I drove by those strikers a bunch of times and totally missed the prostitutes ! Next time I’ll slow down.
gonefishin1 on September 08 at 4:49 p.m.
All the more reason to be rid of unions, they have had their place and served the purpose but, now unions like this, the IAFF, police Guild, teamsters ect….. have gone too far
dataxman on September 08 at 4:57 p.m.
It is funny listening to people try to defend the actions of these thugs and try to compare someone making $150,000 a year with the union workers of old. These guys are fat, dumb and lazy and know if they lose this gig they are going to be working the drive-thru window at McDonalds…
liberal_in_right_wing_land on September 08 at 6:29 p.m.
While what these few people did, I find it funny listening to people bash unions while defending non-union companies that pay their employees less money, less benefits and makes them work more while that CEO makes hundreds of millions of dollars.
The people who bash unions are just jealous they are not a part of one and instead work for a corporate master who screws them on pay, screws them on benefits, screws them on hours and screws them however else they can so they can make sure to give themselves multi-million dollar bonuses.
mtharves on September 08 at 6:30 p.m.
As a long time union member, I cannot condone the actions in Longview. Nor can I condone the actions of Gov. Walker in Wisconsin. Cooler heads need to prevail in both places.
dataxman on September 08 at 6:57 p.m.
Hey lib - I am in a union
The_Seer on September 08 at 6:58 p.m.
Yes!!!!!!!!!!
It’s on, folks!
Workers of the world, Unite!
My only thought is what has taken so long?
jddavis on September 08 at 7:12 p.m.
Liberal—I’m a proud Union member and I don’t condone the actions of the ILWU in this incident—shameful!
The_Seer on September 08 at 7:20 p.m.
The only reason any of you have a forty hour work week, health benefits, vacations, etc. is because of brave men and women like those depicted as “thugs” in this story. This is nothing compared to what our brothers and sisters have done in the past and the time has come to fight back and say enough is enough. We aren’t giving back, ANYMORE! What’s going to happen is the ones who drain billions from the workers are going to pony up more or else.
The_Seer on September 08 at 7:22 p.m.
Organized labor was smart to not let control of ports be ceded to non-union employers. They have the power to widely disrupt the economy and let the powers that be know exactly who has the real power!
dataxman on September 08 at 7:26 p.m.
seer - the union rioted and vandalized and took hostages when they were replaced by another union…
misjustice on September 08 at 8:10 p.m.
I dunno, I read somewhere, or maybe I heard somewhere, or maybe I imagined something somewhere that someone said, or might have said that “A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS” and the picture that accompanies this story shows a cop with his hand around the throat of another person…
another person that isn’t a cop…
So, I dunno, unions may be infiltrated with thugs or thugs may have had their rank infiltrated by unionists but my lyin’ eyes say that cops that put their hands on/around the throats of either union members or thugs are pigs…
What a field day for the heat.
A thousand people in the street,
Singing songs and carrying signs, Mostly say, “Hooray for our side.”
It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound, everybody look what’s goin’ down…
(by Stephen Stills)
Just sayin’…
: 0
D Statler on September 08 at 10:07 p.m.
@ SQUID, Kaiser Aluminum is still reeling in plenty of money while we the taxpayers pay their pension liabilities. There is also a superfund waste site buried beneath the MEAD site. We the taxpayers will pay for that also. KAISER should have been shuttered, sold and the money from the sale kept to fund pensions and hazardous waste clean-ups at Mead and the Spokane River. Another company would have purchased KAISER if it hadn’t already been refinanced twenty times. I failed to mention the Bonneville fiasco where KAISER resold our electricity back to us. This was a total lack of common sense at BPA. It was about the same time AVISTA and ENRON were caught manipulating power supplies in the NorthWest. Don’t think for a second that unions shut down the Mead smelter.It was a very cold buisness decision from Charles Hurwitz that saddled the taxpayers with millions in legacy costs while it’s Trentwood rolling mill is still rolling in the dollars. Federal Bankruptcy judges allowed this to happen.Not the Steelworkers Union.
D Statler on September 08 at 10:13 p.m.
Sometimes the only thing these big buisnesses understand is loosing money. I do not condone violence at the Ports. I do condone all the Longshoremen banding together to shut down the west coast till a honest,legal settlement is reached. Different unions work side by side all the time in America. I am sure we are not hearing the whole story here.
Squid on September 09 at 12:14 a.m.
Undooly, I think we are both correct. Neither side was innocent. Both sides were guilty of the failure. If there wasn’t so much monkey business on all three sides, it would still be running.
I thought the power was sold to California?
It was all a very complicated situation that few understand.
RedCedar on September 09 at 6:38 p.m.
Yeah, that’s what the Teamsters, the UAW, and the Steelworkers used to say, too. You know who has the real power? The government. They have this thing called the Army. They’ve used it in labor “disputes” before, and they’ll use it again whenever things escalate to the point of serious organized violence. Meanwhile, the grain brokers can just ship their wheat to Canada or Mexico.
arroyoribera on September 09 at 9:36 p.m.
Well, I don’t know who Red Cedar is (and neither do you) but he talks a big gun-totting line about state violence against workers. I think we can go there again if Red Cedar and the government want to but I am not sure it will work out that well this time either. Soldiers shot students down at Kent State and elsewhere in the early 70s and that, in part, brought an end to the war in Vietnam, when the ruling class — losing its war against the Vietnamese people, realized that it could engage in full scale warfare against its own citizens at home and decided to fold instead. There are all sorts of other examples of state violence against the people and regardless of the outcome, they are history that informs us as to the true and ruthless nature of power and money in this country, not to mention its nameless supporters like Red Cedar.
Now once again we have class warfare waged against the people — workers, families, the poor, the middle class — by this country’s elite, wealthy class, whose two wholly-owned political parties have bailed them out to the tune of some $20 trillion of the people’s money since 2008. The ruling class can take Red Cedar’s advice and startia military and police-state war on workers if they want and they will see the social peace they depend upon for their excess profits, country club lifestyles and two-party ruling class consensus on capitalism and imperialism seriously shattered. Right now it is just a lot of chest thumping by Red Cedar. But let the elite try it.
Workers of the world are uniting! What people don’t get is that as this country moves further into the Great Depression of 2008-2024, people will not just go die in a corner. At some point the inner cities burn, the youth rebel and the ruling class has a decision to make. That is what history tells us. They call off their class warfare at some point and negotiate some sort of social compact, as a way to preserve their power and control. In otherwords, they maybe as ruthless and heartless as Red Cedar’s words make her out to be but they are more intelligent and have more at stake that an anonymous blogger does as they practice the cold, heart realities of preserving their ultimate wealth - control of this country and its corporate-military machine.
David Brookbank
arrow on September 10 at 9:26 a.m.
Did not take long for Obama’s Army per Hoffa to march. Storm Troopers destroy a site they want to work. Folks this is just the start of a Nation that will soon be governed by a one party system. Ask Germans how that worked with the Nazi’s in power.
Lets keep these tactics going till the Republicans, Tea Party and Independents are wiped out. You will be next if you oppose the Union. You fools it not about the average union worker rights it is about the union leaders and power. Do you dare ask where your dues money is going. better not you will be called a trouble maker and a unwelcome knock on your door like the Obama’s Army did at Longview.
RedCedar on September 10 at 12:00 p.m.
My goodness, “arroyoribera”, I certainly seem to have gotten your goat. Nowhere did I say that the government ought to use US Army troops against US citizens on US territory. I only said that they have done it in the past and therefore will probably do it again. Kent State is another good example from the left, along with the Everett Massacre, and the Coeur d’Alene mining wars, but so was the Waco massacre (not sure if tha’s “right” or “left”, though). I was only trying counter some previous big talk from another poster who claimed that the unions “have the power”. We can argue about whether or not they should have the power, but the fact is they don’t. They have some power, but not the power, and the UAW, Steelworkers, and Teamsters have a lot less power than even the Longshoremen, who also don’t have the power.
This social protocols of these internet comment boards still surprise me. People say really nasty things to each other that they would never say in person. In this case, you’ve set me up as the embodiment of everything you despise, when I’m really just another schmoe like yourself, though perhaps more of a student of history. I’d post my real name, phone number, and email address so you could talk to your enemy in person if you like, but I’m pretty sure that’s not allowed here. If I was a troll, I would be delighted to have gotten your goat so successfully, but I’m not. Peace.
Sincerely,
David
P.S. to “arrow”, it’s already a one-party system, which is why all the arguments between “Obama’s a left-wing not job” and “the tea party are right-wing nut jobs” don’t interest me much.