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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 2012)
ILWU #21 ratifies 5-year contract at EGT in Longview LONGVIEW — The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) signed a five-year collective bargaining agreement with EGT, LLC Feb. 10 covering land-side and ship- side operations at the multinational corporations new grain terminal at the Port of Longview. The agreement, covering both pro- duction and maintenance work, estab- lishes guidelines for a regular Long- shore workforce at the facility for day-to-day operations and creates a se- lect pool of employees who will work as needed to service incoming vessels, barges, trains, and other operations at the facility, the ILWU said. Neither side would disclose any other details about the contract. Thus ends a bitter year-long, high stakes battle — in court and on the docks — between the union and com- pany over whether EGT would employ ILWU members at its new $200 mil- lion grain terminal. It all started Jan. 23, when Washington Governor Chris Gregoire announced a settlement after secretly meeting with the two sides on more than a dozen occasions. Since that announcement, Long- view-based ILWU Local 21 opened up its hiring hall to EGT, which hired a group of ILWU members — 25 to 35 of them, according to the Longview Daily News. Then on Jan. 30 and 31, the union submitted cards signed by a majority of the workers saying they want to be represented by ILWU Lo- cal 21. An arbitrator verified that the cards were authentic on Feb. 1, at which point EGT “voluntarily” recog- nized ILWU Local 21 as the workers’ bargaining representative. All this appeared to satisfy legal concerns EGT had expressed when it sued the Port of Longview last year in federal court. A clause in the Port’s lease with EGT said that the company was obligated to observe the Port’s working and wage agreement with Q UOTE OF THE W EEK is just a game being perpetrated in Washington to maintain the status quo of wealth for the few.” “Folks in this country have to begin to ask themselves whether democracy is still working, or, as I believe, that we have fallen into a plutocracy. Gridlock A RLENE V IOLET F ORMER R HODE I SLAND AG H AVE W E B ECOME A P LUTOCRACY ? V ALLEY B REEZE , F EB . 7, 2012 PAGE 2 ILWU, but EGT argued that was a “pre-hire” agreement, which would run afoul of the National Labor Rela- tions Act. Under the terms of Gregoire’s set- tlement, the Port agreed to drop that clause from the lease, and ILWU and EGT agreed to drop unfair labor prac- tice charges before the National Labor Relations Board. Over the course of the last year more than 200 union members and activists were arrested for blocking EGT-bound trains and for clashes with police. ILWU also agreed to call off a massive protest it was plan- ning for when the first ship arrived to export grain. On Feb. 7, Hong Kong-flagged MV Full Sources became the first ship to dock at the EGT terminal, to be loaded with wheat bound for Korea. The two sides were still negotiating details of the collective bargaining agreement when it arrived, but ILWU agreed that members would begin loading the ship in a show of good faith. Three days later, a five-year collective bargaining agreement had been ratified. In a joint press release, EGT’s CEO Larry Clarke called the agreement “unique on the West Coast,” adding that it “provides us the dedicated work- force and the flexibility to run this 21st century facility efficiently and safely.” NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS ILWU President Robert McEllrath said, “The men and women of the ILWU have crafted hundreds of col- lective bargaining agreements over the past several decades that have made many companies profitable while also providing family-wage jobs for com- munities like Longview. This agree- ment was crafted with the goals of safety, productivity, good jobs for the community, and stability for the grain industry in mind.” FEBRUARY 17, 2012
