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