I was reading this article and would be interested in any on the ground comments:
Northwest grain terminal lockout would pit longshoremen against strikebreakers
By Richard Read, The Oregonian on December 22, 2012 at 9:00 AM, updated December 22, 2012 at 8:50 PMTwo of three fully-crewed non-union tugboats wait on the Willamette River in Portland to dock ships in case of a lockout of longshoremen at Northwest grain terminals. Strikebreakers dispatched by J.R. Gettier & Associates are also standing by on high alert. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian
Scores of out-of-state strikebreakers wait on high alert in Northwest hotel rooms, ready to replace longshoremen in case of a lockout at grain terminals.
Three fully crewed, non-union tugboats protected by armed guards stand by, prepared to keep grain ships docking. In a provocative move, a California company has moored the tugs on the Willamette River near longshore Local 8's Northwest Portland union hall.
Quietly, owners of Portland, Vancouver and Puget Sound terminals have spent months preparing for a battle royal on the waterfront, lining up troops and assets like chess pieces. The agribusiness giants have laid legal groundwork for a lockout, which could occur anytime after a Monday noon deadline.
Key developments
Labor dispute unfolds
Jan. 23: A longshore union local grants big concessions to end a bitter contract dispute at the Export Grain Terminal, or EGT, in Longview, Wash.
August: Contract talks begin between the longshore union and a group of four companies owning six Northwest terminals that compete with EGT. The employers want the same deal EGT got to cut labor costs.
Sept. 30: Grain-terminal contract expires, union members keep working at the terminals in Portland, Vancouver and the Puget Sound. Talks continue.
Oct. 15: Federal mediator is called in.
Nov. 16: Terminal owners make "last, best and final" offer.
Nov. 28: Offer deadline extended.
Dec. 8: Deadline extended again.
Dec. 11-12: Federal mediators convene further last-ditch talks.
Dec. 17: One coalition company, Temco, defects from the employers' group without explanation. The other three reject a union offer and say they're done talking.Friday, Saturday: Members of four Northwest locals vote on the employers' "final" offer, which union negotiators oppose. Results have not been announced.
Monday: Employers have set a noon deadline to hear the union's verdict. The terminal owners, who have replacement workers and tugboats standing by, have not yet said whether or when they'll lock out longshoremen.
If Columbia Grain Inc., United Grain Corp. and Louis Dreyfus Commodities lock out dockworkers, Portland will become the new front line in a war between unions and a shadowy industry of strikebreaking companies that send tough guys across picket lines.Confrontations can last months and turn violent.
But with billions of dollars of grain exports at stake, President Barack Obama could intervene, as President George W. Bush did in 2002, when he invoked the Taft-Hartley law to send West Coast longshoremen back to work.
One thing that probably won't happen, according to a national expert on lockouts and strikes, is permanent replacement of dockworkers, given labor laws and the tightknit, tenacious nature of the San Francisco-based International Longshore and Warehouse Union."The companies would be subject to picketing constantly, and these folks would never go away," said Michael LeRoy, a University of Illinois labor law professor. Longshore workers, he said, "can be aggressive about asserting their rights."
Longshoremen displayed that resolve last year when some were arrested for trying to block a train from entering a grain terminal in Longview, Wash. They showed it last summer, slowing Port of Portland operations in pursuit of jobs, and again in Portland and Los Angeles by making employers provide job security for guards and clerks.
Before dawn Friday, longshoremen began pulling up in large pickups at Portland's Local 8, and at other union halls in Vancouver, Seattle and Tacoma, to vote on the companies' "last, best and final" contract offer.The companies want concessions similar to those the union made at a competing Longview grain terminal, saving the elevator millions of dollars in labor costs. But a "no" vote is all but certain, given the union bargaining team's unanimous thumbs-down recommendation.
I'd like to show that to all the excited Occupiers talking about how "we helped them win!" Definitely interesting that one of the companies left the employer's group. Seems like good news anyway, but I suppose we'll see.
Between this and the potential of an East coast wide strike by the ILA (International Longshoremen's Association), things might be pretty interesting on the waterfronts in the coming months.