Judge warns Wash. union to halt illegal tactics

Judge warns Wash. union to halt illegal tactics after 500 storm grain terminal, trap guards

Associated Press
September 8, 2011

TACOMA, Wash. - 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 said he now wants to hold a hearing 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 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. 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."

Police from several agencies in southwest Washington, the Washington State Patrol and Burlington Northern Santa Fe responded to the violence to secure the scene that followed a demonstration Wednesday.

One sergeant was threatened with baseball bats and retreated, Duscha said. "One officer with hundreds of Longshoremen? He used the better part of discretion."

Oh Golly Gumdrops! I'm so surprised at this.

Hoffa's words in action. Who are the people who truly commit acts of violence? Tea Partiers or these thugs? This is good reason to bust this group of thugs and replace them with people who want to work. I think the unions are shooting themselves in the foot. You're not going to get much sympathy or support from me (and most other Americans) when you start assaulting people and damaging others property.

And yet again, another reason to loath unions, public and private, they are nothing more than thugs. They are criminal enterprises no better than the Mafia.

Wash. union held in contempt for terminal raid

Associated Press
Sept. 15, 2011

TACOMA, Wash. — A federal judge found a union in contempt of court Thursday, a week after police said hundreds of its members raided a grain terminal in southwestern Washington, smashed windows and menaced security guards.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton said he wants the operator of the Longview grain terminal, EGT, to provide him an accounting of the damage for purposes of gauging how much he should fine the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Locals 4 and 21.

Leighton had issued a temporary restraining order before last week's actions, demanding that the union not block entrances to the grain terminal. But the union's members, upset that EGT has hired a contractor staffed with workers from a different union, repeatedly blocked a train carrying a grain shipment there, then stormed the terminal and dumped some of the grain. One longshoreman faces assault and other charges, and a woman was arrested for trespassing after being accused of blocking the train.

The judge mused Thursday about whether it would helpful to set out a schedule of fines should the union violate his orders again, but decided against it.

"It's like asking the parent of a juvenile delinquent to predict your client's behavior," he told attorneys.

The Longshore union has an agreement with the Port of Longview entitling it to work at the port, but EGT claims it is not a party to that agreement and need not follow it.

Leal Sundet, of the union's coast Longshore division, said the company hasn't been held to account for hurting the community with its employment decisions.

"If union members stand on a train track exercising their First Amendment rights, it is a crime," Sundet said. "But, if a major corporation plunders an entire community, it matters not."

Leighton's decision to hold the union in contempt followed lengthy testimony about what happened during the protests and the raid. Security guard Charlie Cadwell, employed by Columbia Security for patrols at the Longview grain terminal for the past two months, told the judge of the harrowing experience: Every protester he saw that night was carrying a weapon - baseball bats, lead pipes, garden tools.

"I didn't see a longshoreman who didn't have something in his hands," he said.

He was was pulled out of his car by one longshoreman, and another man swung a metal pipe at him, he said.

"I told him, 'You have 50 cameras on you and law enforcement is on its way,'" Cadwell said. "He said, '(expletive) you. We're not here for you, we're here for the train.'"

In the meantime, someone drove off with his car and eventually ran it into a ditch. Cadwell said about 40 to 50 people were throwing rocks at him, and that he was hit between his eyes and in his knee.

When asked how he knew the men who attacked him were Longshore workers, he said he recognized them from previous encounters. Before working at the grain terminal, he worked at Weyerhauser for five years, where he also worked with longshoremen.

Another employee of Columbia Security, Kenneth Sharpe, said he was also threatened with a baseball bat. He was inside a guard shack when a glass window was broken.

A police officer and other security guards testified about other verbal threats, and one man said he heard what sounded like air hoses being cut on a train.

Federal labor authorities suggested a fine of $25,000 for any and each future violation of the restraining order.

Union members acting like common criminals using extortion and mob violence to get their way.

If I were the judge I'd throw the book at the whole lot of them. Just fucking despicable how these unions behave.