NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
March 2, 2018 | PAGE 7
... Shipyard vote to strike
From Page 1
of working on weekends for
straight time. It’s a family qual-
ity-of-life issue for our mem-
bers. They want to be with their
families on the weekends, and
if they’re not, they want to be
compensated for it.”
The multi-union master
agreement falls under the direc-
tion of the Metal Trades De-
partment of the AFL-CIO. It
covers more than 700 workers
at Vigor Marine Portland, Cas-
cade General Portland, Wash-
ington Marine Repair Seattle,
Vigor Marine Seattle, and
Vigor Shipyard Seattle, all of
which operate as a single com-
pany and are subsidiaries of
Vigor Industrial LLC. Side
agreements are bargained sep-
arately by the Metal Trades
Council of Portland and Vicin-
ity, the Puget Sound Metal
Trades Council, and Boiler-
makers Local 104. The metal
trades councils are comprised
of 10 unions. For the Portland
shipyard, those include
Plumbers and Fitters Local
290, Operating Engineers Lo-
cal 701, Boilermakers Local
104, IBEW Local 48, Laborers
Local 737, Painters District
Council 5, Sheet Metal Work-
ers Local 16, Teamsters Local
162, Machinists District Lodge
W24, and Insulators Local 36.
After members rejected the
second contract offer, the union
coalition proposed further
meetings with the company, as-
sisted by a federal mediator, but
had not heard back from Vigor
as of when this issue went to
press.
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