Union Longshoremen "Storm" Port of Longview, Cause Mass Destruction, Say Police

[The Northerner]

A long-simmering standoff between International Longshore and Warehouse Union workers and the Port of Longview turned destructive this morning, police say, when hundreds of striking workers "stormed" the port, smashing windows, cutting brake lines, spilling grain and holding security guards hostage.

Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha tells Seattle Weekly that the incident happened about 4:30 a.m. this morning at the port's EGT terminal.

"At this point we know they pushed private security truck into ditch, broke windows in a guard shack, cut brake lines of a rail car and dumped grain," Duscha says. "We have investigative teams working right now. We certainly hope there will be arrests."

Other reports tell of the workers overpowering security guards and holding several hostage for a couple hours.

No injuries were reported and no arrests have so far been made.

Read more: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/09/union_longshoremen_storm_port.php

[0rganism]

1. let's call it the Longview Tea Party

hell, this action has a lot more in common with Boston 1773 than anything the Koch brothers or Dick Armey's PR machine ever came up with, but somehow they get to lay claim to the name? This is an opportunity to reclaim the "tea party" for real patriots.

[hack89]

2. It is a union versus union dispute. nt

[0rganism]

4. try ILWU vs non-union scabs and a shifty holding company looking for cheap labor

from the article: "The workers have been on strike for months now ever since the port contracted out with non-union and other union members for labor."

more in depth: "EGT Development, a consortium of three companies, wants to operate its new $200 million grain terminal in Longview using non-ILWU labor, despite a contract with the port requiring it to do so. When the ILWU protested, the company signed up with an Operating Engineers local." (emphasis mine)

http://labornotes.org/2011/09/longshore-workers-dump-scab-grain-protect-jobs

[hack89]

6. "The company signed up with an Operating Engineers local" . Local = union to me. nt

[backscatter712]

18. Sounds to me like a fake "union" engineered to fulfill the letter of the contract...

while still fucking the workers.

[hack89]

19. Operating Engineers Local 701 established in 1918 - here's their web site. nt

http://www.iuoe701.com/

[hack89]

8. ILWU vs Operating Engineers, Local 701. nt

[0rganism]

11. yeah, EGT broke its port contract to go with another union

if you want to argue this makes it a "union vs. union" dispute, go right ahead. FWIW, I agree there is another union involved, which obviously complicates things. However, I don't see this primarily, or even secondarily, as the ILWU taking on OE701. I'd bet money OE701 is only in the mix because EGT needed someone to run the heavy equipment and couldn't find qualified non-union scabs on the cheap.

Anyway, I'm done kicking a thread with the anti-labor slant article on top.

[ChandlerJr]

12. Since when are the Operating Engineers non-union scabs?

I resent the hell out of that.

[0rganism]

13. yep, there's a spin that turns this into a union vs union sideshow

Here's how I see OE701's involvment playing out:
EGT was contractually obligated to work with the ILWU
They broke that contract to outsource via a 3rd party contracting agency
Who couldn't hire qualified non-union scabs to run the heavy equipment
So they contracted with OE701 for people who knew what they're doing

I see this as a conflict between ILWU and EGT primarily, ILWU and the outsourcing agencies secondarily. Deflecting this into a dispute between ILWU and OE701 is a lame attempt to make the ILWU action look like nothing more than an over-reaction to a territorial squabble when it's really about whether a holding company can make an end run around one contract and set up another one to break a union. Inserting this inter-union conflict into the narrative diminishes the possibility of solidarity between OE and ILWU.

[backscatter712]

21. The way I see it after reading a bit more, the OE is scabbing for EGT.

Yes, occasionally, unions will go scab.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. But Hoffa was only speaking metaphoriclly! He meant votes -- VOOOOOTES!

Or so I'm told.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Yes he did

But this is part and parcel of the union struggle...

You might want to read a few history books on this.

For the record the Boston Tea Party is one of the earliest actios in the broadest of the word.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

20. So as long as people can cite history to justify their violence you're OK with that

got it

Ever hear the term "cycle of violence?" It's generally considered a bad thing even though it's based on the belligerent's perceptions of "history." The RW uses citations of "history" to justify war on Islam. And when they make claims about union "thuggery" they're making appeals to history.

Obama is campaigning as hard as he can to elect a republican in 2012 and progressives seem determined to make sure future President Perr-ach-ney has all the justification they need to gut the NLRB/harrass unions with criminal indictments.

My dad was union for more than a decade and a half. He still speaks highly of his apprenticeship, time as a journeyman and how his wages allowed him to make his own way, feed and school 2 kids and start his own business. His story is everything both democrats and republicans should admire as a story personal success helped by fair wages and safe working conditions.

But this nonsense will destroy all of it. Look at the public employee unions across the US. They are being gutted and no one is using Pinkertons to do it. It's happening by legislation. People who counter law with violence (think: abortion clinic bombers) continue to lose elections (think: independents won't vote for rabid, rancid anti-abortioners). In fact, the reason the Pinkertons were used in the old days is because the unions had the political winds at their backs and the consent of the governed had to be overturned by brute force. The unions in those days were only fighting to protect what they had already won at the polls.

We have to save the unions! But making the non-union members of the voting public fearful of them -- especially in a political paradigm focused on terrorism -- will undue everything those who struggled in the past. We cannot concede the narrative to the other side by providing them the pictures they will splash across every newspaper and evening broadcast.

[sharp_stick]

3. Excellent talking point

for the next Unions are Thugs GOP punditothon. You can bet every dime that no matter what happens BillO and that asshole Sean Hannity will carry this all night at least.

in an add on: the ILWU spokesman Roy San Filippo say's that there was no breakage or hostage taking. I certainly hope he's right and they can get ahead of this in a hurry.

[blindpig]

7. Fuck them, who cares what they think?

Or the Republicans or even any Democrats who wish to criticize this union action. Workers have their own agenda.

[leftstreet]

10. Sitting on your ass listening to Rush vs standing in solidarity with Labor

I'll take #2

Oh, and I didn't mean 'you' sitting - I meant the audiences listening to these teevee freaks

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Union thuggery has been along range talking point

Precedes Sean and the rest. They hate people who fight back.

[TeamsterDem]

9. Solidarity, sisters and brothers. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. It is starting

Them few who know a tad of labor history see this is starting.

[backscatter712]

16. GOOD!!! Hope none of them get caught. n/t