Inside
Official
Meeting Notices
See
Page 4
Volume 113
Number 2
January 21, 2012
Portland
ILWU showdown
in Longview near
A crowd estimated at 1,000 gathered at Pioneer Courthouse Square Jan. 8 before marching through the streets of
downtown Portland to rally in support of saving postal services. In a notice posted in the Federal Register, the USPS
has proposed to revise its service standards to eliminate overnight delivery of First-Class mail, change next-day
delivery to two days, and two-day delivery to three days. The Postal Service proposes shuttering 3,700 post offices and
252 mail processing centers.
Portland area postal workers rally
to save jobs, Saturday delivery
An estimated 1,000 Portland-area
postal workers, their families, and al-
lies marched through the streets of
downtown Jan. 8 to call attention to
tax-free solutions before Congress that
will save America’s postal service from
massive cuts.
The march and demonstration were
coordinated by the National Associa-
tion of Letter Carriers Branch 82,
which represents 1,200 letter carriers in
the greater Portland area. It started at
Pioneer Courthhouse Square and ended
on the front steps of the Main Post Of-
fice on Northwest Hoyt. Signs calling
for saving 6-day delivery, door-to-door
and curbside delivery, community post
offices, and family-wage jobs dotted
the blocks-long procession.
“Oregonians know about the
USPS’s financial crisis, but few know
what caused the crisis or that there are
solutions before Congress that won’t
cost the taxpayer a dime,” said Branch
82 President Jim Cook. “In fact, by
subjecting the USPS — unlike any
other agency or company in the country
— to a pre-funding obligation starting
in 2007, Congress itself has caused the
bulk of the red ink.”
Cook was referring to a requirement
imposed by Congress in 2006 that
forces USPS to massively prefund the
cost of retiree health benefits (to the
tune of $5.5 billion a year) over the
next 75 years in just 10 years’ time.
This cost covers not only current em-
ployees, but employees who have yet
to be hired — and it is on top of the
cost for health benefits for current re-
tirees. No other company or agency in
America is required to prefund future
retiree health benefits.
Some 19 postal-related bills have
been introduced in Congress. Some of-
fer to help the agency, while others try
to destroy it.
At the rally, letter carriers talked
about two bills in particular that postal
unions and the AFL-CIO support —
HR 1351 and S. 1853.
S. 1853, introduced by Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-VT) and co-sponsored by
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), would elim-
inate the pre-funding requirement,
along with making other changes
aimed at saving the Postal Service.
HR 1351 addresses a decades-old
accounting error that led the Office of
Personnel Management to overcharge
the Postal Service by as much as $75
billion for payments into the Civil Serv-
ice Retirement System. It also would
return a $10.9 billion overcharge in the
postal portion of the Federal Employ-
ees Retirement System pension fund;
HR 1351 has bipartisan support
(Turn to Page 5)
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
LONGVIEW, Washington — A
showdown is coming in Longview.
Some time in late January or early Feb-
ruary, the first ship will come down the
Columbia River to be loaded at a
brand-new grain terminal — and will
be confronted by union members, fam-
ilies, supporters, and Occupy Wall
Street activists from Longview, Seattle,
Portland, and Oakland.
The ship reportedly will be escorted
by the U.S. Coast Guard. That inter-
vention by the U.S. military in a do-
mestic labor dispute drew a strongly
worded resolution of condemnation
Jan. 9 from the San Francisco Labor
Council. Meanwhile, at the terminal,
Port of Longview Berth 9, it’s expected
that local police from multiple jurisdic-
tions will stand guard.
Officially, the employer in the dis-
pute is EGT, which is registered in Ore-
gon as a limited liability corporation
with offices at 101 SW Main St, Suite
1800, Portland. But EGT (Export Grain
Terminal) is a stand-in for Bunge, an
agribusiness giant with operations in 40
countries. Bunge, valued at $8.5 billion
on the New York Stock Exchange, has a
51 percent controlling interest in EGT,
alongside two co-investors: ITOCHU
Corporation of Japan and STX Pan
Ocean Co. of South Korea.
EGT’s $200 million facility, con-
structed with nonunion workers, is on
public land leased from the Port of
Longview. The Port says its lease
agreement with EGT requires the com-
pany to employ members of Longview-
based International Longshore and
Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 21.
But EGT is disputing that in federal
court.
For a time, EGT met with Local 21,
but negotiations broke off in early
2011: Local 21 would not agree to 12-
hour shifts at straight-time pay, and the
employer would not agree to use the
union hiring hall to staff the terminal.
After EGT broke off negotiations
with Local 21, it hired a construction
contractor — General Construction —
to staff the terminal under an agreement
with Operating Engineers Local 701.
ILWU picketed Local 701’s Gladstone,
Oregon, office, but since has returned
its focus to targeting EGT.
Now, Local 21 and the central labor
council are calling on working people
to support their struggle when the ship
arrives.
The Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Central
Labor Council, AFL-CIO, passed a res-
olution Jan. 2 calling on “friends of la-
bor and the 99% everywhere to come
to the aid of ILWU Local 21, and to
support them in any way possible in
their fight against multinational con-
glomerate EGT.”
“This is the time for workers every-
where to take a stand,” declared
Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Central Labor
Council Secretary-Treasurer Kyle
Mackey, in a letter accompanying the
resolution. “We are imploring all able
working class people … to come to
Longview, Washington for a historic
protest.” Mackey is a member of ILWU
Local 21.
Labor activists and participants in
the Occupy movement are taking up
that call. Occupy Wall Street in New
York has made available $12,000 to
help Occupy groups mobilize in Oak-
land, Portland, and Seattle. And ac-
tivists are meeting in all three cities to
plan rapid response for when the ship
arrives. A multi-city working group of
Occupy has been formed, and set up a
web site, occupytheegt.org, where sup-
porters can sign up for notifications by
e-mail or text message, and coordinate
rides and housing.
The plan of response is still being
worked out, with talk of actions on land
and water, but also concern about legal
consequences. Kari Koch, a spokesper-
son for the working group, said that for
legal reasons, the Occupy effort can’t
coordinate directly with the ILWU. But
inasmuch as participants will be mobi-
lizing in Longview in support of local
workers’ struggle against EGT, Koch
said participants will follow the lead of
the local workers when the time comes.
ILWU itself is facing tremendous le-
gal pressure. More than 200 people
have been arrested in connection with
protests over the terminal, and a federal
judge has fined Local 21 $315,000 for
conduct on the picket line.
In a Jan. 3 letter to all longshore lo-
cals, ILWU President Robert McEllrath
(Turn to Page 5)