Thread: Unions - Teamsters - And Justice for All ....

Longshoremen storm Wash. port over labor dispute
By MIKE BAKER - Associated Press | AP – 1 hr 40 mins ago

LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — Hundreds of Longshore workers stormed the Port of Longview, overpowered security guards, damaged rail cars and dumped grain at the center of a labor dispute that also stopped work at four other ports on Thursday, officials said.

Six guards were detained for a couple of hours after at least 500 Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, said Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha. He called the detained guards "hostages."

No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested. Most of the protesters returned to their union hall after cutting brake lines and spilling grain from a car at the EGT terminal, Duscha said. They also pushed a private security vehicle into a ditch.

A court hearing was scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Tacoma, in which a judge was expected to consider whether the actions by the union violated a previous restraining order.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union believes it has the right to work at the facility, but the company has hired a contractor that's staffing a workforce of laborers from another union, the Portland-based Operating Engineers Local 701. Representatives of the engineers union did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

In Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and Anacortes, hundreds of Longshore workers failed to show up or walked off the job Thursday in apparent solidarity with the Longview activists, halting work at those ports. Union leaders said they had not called for any such actions.

"It appears the members have taken action on their own," said ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees from union headquarters in San Francisco.

He said some workers maight have been motivated by a photograph circulating on the Internet of ILWU President Bob McElrath in police custody in Longview. Police arrested 19 protesters as they blocked railroad tracks on Wednesday night.

The protesters in Longview have portrayed themselves as being on the front line in the struggle for jobs and benefits among American workers in an economic downturn. But while union strife has flared up around the country — most notably in Wisconsin — the aggressive tactics seen in Longview have been a rarity in recent labor disputes.

Labor activists insist that after receiving tax breaks and promising to create well-paying jobs at the new $200 million terminal, EGT initially tried to staff the terminal with nonunion workers. Following a series of protests by the Longshore workers this year, the company announced it would hire a contractor staffed by workers from a different union.

"Today, the ILWU took its criminal activity against EGT to an appalling level, including engaging in assault and significant property destruction," the company's chief executive, Larry Clarke, said in a written statement. "This type of violent attack at the export terminal has been condemned by a federal court, and we fully support prosecution of this criminal behavior to the fullest extent under the law."

Police from several agencies in southwest Washington, the Washington State Patrol and Burlington Northern Santa Fe responded to the violence to secure the scene that followed a demonstration Wednesday.

One sergeant was threatened with baseball bats and retreated, Duscha said. "One officer with hundreds of Longshoremen? He used the better part of discretion."

The train was the first grain shipment to arrive at Longview. It arrived Wednesday night after police arrested 19 demonstrators who tried to block the tracks. They were led by McEllrath, who said they would return.

The blockade appeared to defy a federal restraining order issued last week against the union after it was accused of assaults and death threats.

http://news.yahoo.com/longshoremen-s...152446496.html

Comments

no comments attached to this article .... hmmmm

[b]Judge warns Wash. union to halt illegal tactics[b]
By MIKE BAKER - Associated Press | AP – 3 hrs ago

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Union activists aren't backing off demands to work at a new Washington state grain terminal after hundreds of Longshore workers stormed the facility, overwhelmed guards and dumped grain.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton issued a preliminary injunction to restrict union activity, saying there was no defense for the aggressive tactics used in recent days.

Workers have been battling for the right to work at the new terminal in Longview. Protesters twice blocked the pathway of a train carrying grain to the terminal at the Port of Longview on Wednesday, and on Thursday hundreds of carried out the aggressive raid, police said.

The dispute halted work at four other Washington ports, including Seattle, on Thursday as hundreds of longshoremen refused to show up or walked off the job.

Scott Mason, president of the ILWU Local 23 in Tacoma, said some of his members have joined in the Longview effort, but he doesn't believe they were involved in illegal activity. He blamed the company for provoking the response and warned that more activity could be coming.

"How long this fight has to go on is really in their court," he said.

Leighton said he felt like a paper tiger because the International Longshore and Warehouse Union clearly ignored a temporary restraining order he issued last week with similar limits. He scheduled a hearing for next Thursday to determine whether the union should be held in civil contempt.

"The regard for the law is absent here," the judge said. "Somebody is going to be hurt seriously."

Six guards were trapped for a couple of hours after at least 500 Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha said. He initially referred to the guards as "hostages," but later retracted that after the guards clarified no one had threatened them.

"The guards absolutely could not get out," Duscha said. "They feared for their lives because of the size of the crowd and the hostility of the crowd."

No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested — although Duscha said that could change if police are able to use surveillance video or other means to identify the protesters.

Most of the protesters returned to their union hall after cutting train brake lines and spilling grain from a car at the EGT terminal, Duscha said. They also pushed a private security vehicle into a ditch.

The union believes it has the right to work at the facility, but the company has hired a contractor that's staffing a workforce of laborers from another union, the Portland-based Operating Engineers Local 701. Representatives of the engineers union did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

In Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and Anacortes, hundreds of Longshore workers failed to show up or walked off the job Thursday in apparent solidarity with the Longview activists, halting work at those ports. Union leaders said they had not called for any such actions.

"It appears the members have taken action on their own," said ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees from union headquarters in San Francisco.

He said some workers might have been motivated by a photograph of ILWU President Bob McElrath in police custody in Longview on Wednesday.

McElrath was not arrested, but an Associated Press photo showed him being grabbed by several police officers before union activists intervened and grabbed him back.

Police arrested 19 protesters as they blocked railroad tracks on Wednesday night, allowing the train to finally arrive at the terminal.

The protesters in Longview have portrayed themselves as being on the front line in the struggle for jobs and benefits among American workers in an economic downturn. But while union strife has flared up around the country — most notably in Wisconsin — the aggressive tactics seen in Longview have been a rarity in recent labor disputes.

Labor activists insist that after receiving tax breaks and promising to create well-paying jobs at the new $200 million terminal, EGT initially tried to staff the terminal with nonunion workers. Following a series of protests by the Longshore workers this year, the company announced it would hire a contractor staffed by workers from a different union.

"Today, the ILWU took its criminal activity against EGT to an appalling level, including engaging in assault and significant property destruction," the company's chief executive, Larry Clarke, said in a written statement. "This type of violent attack at the export terminal has been condemned by a federal court, and we fully support prosecution of this criminal behavior to the fullest extent under the law."

http://news.yahoo.com/judge-warns-wa...222911055.html

[b]

I used to be Union and nothing about there actions in Wasghington State surprises me. We used to take pictures of scabs and remind them we knew where they lived. I left the Union after i was kicked out of meetings for disagreeing with there contract ideas. A real communistic organization these Unions are. When all else fails they result to terror tactics.

~~

You can tell which side the AP is backing. A better headline would be, "Union Thugs Violate Restraining Order, Engage in Wanton Violence". This is the same union that staged an illegal strike to protest the Iraq war. Must be nice to break the law with impunity. Way to go

~~

Dont' you just love the thug tactics of unions, and this is odumers major backers, can't wait to see when odumer is ousted from the white house, I bet the union will storm that and burn it down. The union leaders, hoffa especially need to be held libel for any damages as he as worked up to a frenzy, The caused 7.5 million in damages in Wis, and the taxpayers got stuck with that. Time to make them pay for any and all damages done. All longshoremen should be forced in a mandatory layoff without pay, then use non-union workers at the ports until all damages are paid in full and that business restored and those responsible are in custody,

~~~

Unions had a purpose in the 50's as they helped protect the workers rights. The Federal Courts now protect all the workers rights and the Union s only purpose is to take 10% of their workers money and fund it to the Democrat Party, they wash it and give it back in Stimulus Money. Am I the only one who sits back and wonders how we got so ridiculous in the Country?

~~~

this violent activity is typical of union mentality, and new media and the judicial branch in Washington State is typical of how the government tolerates it. If this activity had been instigated by the Tea Party, It would be bigger news than Obie's little entitlement speech last night. Since its union, it is a minor footnote. America, you must ask yourself ... when was the last time you saw TEA Party folks behaving like this? And they say WE are the terrorists and criminals.

Hoffa at Obama rally: "We need to take these tea party sons of britches out..."
posted at 3:43 pm on September 5, 2011 by Allahpundit
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/09/0...f-*****es-out/


Via Breitbart TV http://www.breitbart.tv/hoffa-to-lab...f-*****es-out/ this is Labor Day the way it should be — with a guy named Hoffa threatening his political enemies while a union-stooge Democratic leader sits by and smiles. Honestly, I can’t decide how seriously to take him. On the one hand, this sort of salty tough-guy “we don’t take sh*t from no one” garbage is par for the course for labor leaders when addressing the rank and file, and all the more so when it’s the head of the Teamsters speaking. Sure, he makes $300,000 a year on the backs of his working-class constituents, but he knows conservatives are sons of britches so his “authenticity” is secure. Plus he’s a Hoffa; this sort of rhetoric may be congenital. On the other hand, so filthy was the the left’s demagoguery of the right’s “tone” after the Giffords shooting that this sort of verbal excess by one of their own will never, ever be allowed to pass again without their faces being ground in it. So here you go. Start grinding, please.

A Twitter pal http://twitter.com/#!/ExJon/status/110770173539139584 argued that this could have been a “Sistah Souljah moment” for Obama if he had challenged Hoffa on what he said. Interesting point, but I think O had other priorities today — like, for instance, noting how “proud” he is of Hoffa and other union leaders. http://biggovernment.com/publius/201...ns-of-*****es/ Oh, and also questioning the patriotism of congressional Republicans who might object to his new jobs plan. That’s the second clip below, which doubles as a sneak preview of Thursday night. How rude it was of Boehner in hindsight to ask Obama to wait a day before accusing them of not caring about America on national television.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/09/0...f-*****es-out/

Longshoremen storm Wash. state port, damage RR
AP – Thu, Sep 8, 2011

LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — Hundreds of Longshoremen stormed the Port of Longview early Thursday, overpowered and held security guards, damaged railroad cars, and dumped grain that is the center of a labor dispute, said Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha.

Six guards were held hostage for a couple of hours after 500 or more Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, he said.

No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested. Most of the protesters returned to their union hall after cutting brake lines and spilling grain from car at the EGT terminal, Duscha said.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union believes it has the right to work at the facility, but the company has hired a contractor that's staffing a workforce of other union laborers.

Thursday's violence was first reported by Kelso radio station KLOG.

Police from several agencies in southwest Washington, the Washington State Patrol and Burlington Northern Santa Fe responded to the violence to secure the scene that followed a demonstration Wednesday. "We're not surprised," Duscha said. "A lot of the protesters were telling us this in only the start."

One sergeant was threatened with baseball bats and retreated, Duscha said. "One officer with hundreds of Longshoremen? He used the better part of discretion."

The train was the first grain shipment to arrive at Longview. It arrived Wednesday night after police arrested 19 demonstrators who tried to block the tracks. They were led by ILWU International President Robert McEllrath, who said they would return.

The blockade appeared to defy a federal restraining order issued last week against the union after it was accused of assaults and death threats.

EGT chief executive Larry Clarke said it was unfortunate that law enforcement needed to make arrests.

http://news.yahoo.com/longshoremen-s...144921214.html

comments

EGT chief executive Larry Clarke said it was unfortunate that law enforcement needed to make arrests.

WTH ? Detruction of property, tresspassing, kidnapping, assault, vandalism ... why shouldn't they make arrests ?

~~~

Unions are full of thugs and criminals. There numbers are falling faster then a shooting star and they are panic stricken. They are itching for a fight but to damn stupid to understand that the majority of this country is sick of their bullsheet and when that fights comes.. They are going to lose big time. Mr. Hoffa should keep talking like he does because it only helps to rile up the country against these thugs and speeds up their eventual implosion. Oh they are going to lose, make no mistake about .. starting with the teachers unions who's days are numbered.. Can you imagine that our children are going to get decent educations because private schools are on the move. Just the beginning !

~~

they all should be arrested.

how is it fair that we are forced to give tax money to groups that can turn around and use said money to support politicians I may not support? there is a huge conflict of interest when unions take tax money to support politicians that support unions.

thats like jails selling drugs so there are more arrests and they get more tax money for each inmate.

~~

This goes on every single day all over this country, this union thuggery. Intimidating people, threatening people, holding vicious and vile signs with their demonstrations and protests, even inciting and doing violence, etc. The mainsteam media does not want to cover this union thuggery instead the mainstream media wants to tell us how "awful" and "dangerous" the Tea Party is.

~~~

Jimmy Hoffa's fiery rhetoric the other day has led to this violence, right liberals?

~~

More antics of the blood sucking unions...If the union big shoots want more for their workers why don't they give up some of their pay checks, retirement bennies, health care plans, travel allowences and on and on and on...Sky high wages and bennie packages no wonder jobs are heading into the sunset China, Japan...Less pay more profit what CEO in his right mind would not take ADVANTAGE OF THAT?...Cut back on the unions and a heavy import tax on American products produced over seas and imported to this country...I was at a swapmeet this weekend saw a joke sign that read made in America, when you turned it over it said made in China it was funny but also sad...

~~

Oh but wait...I thought it was only the right side of the political spectrum, you know...those dreaded tea-party types...that were the violent racists out to string up anyone that disagreed with them (never mind that not once has there been any instance where any Tea Party member or group has done anything remotely violent). The left side of the isle never does this sort of thing right? Right?

This subject is also addressed here : http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-inf...otests-11.html

More Big Labor-induced misery: The looming port strike
By Michelle Malkin • November 19, 2012 10:14 AM

I’ve been reporting since September on the potentially catastrophic port strike in the works, and have been tracking the Occupy-supported and manufactured chaos at our ports for the past year.

Things are about to come to a head.

On the West Coast: The Port of Portland (Oregon) is bracing for a strike by longshore workers on Nov. 25 “that would tie up millions of dollars worth of freight at three terminals.” http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/n...es-for-strike/

Representatives of the Port and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union say the strike could still be averted. But Port officials believe cargo ships may begin bypassing Portland because of the uncertainty created by the failure of last-ditch contract talks Friday.

Separately, owners of Northwest terminals handling a quarter of the nation’s grain exports said Friday they’d presented a final offer to the longshore union. Failure of those talks could lead to a strike or lockout at six grain terminals in Portland, Vancouver and the Puget Sound.

The simultaneous actions are the most extreme developments in months of labor turmoil at the Port, where yet another dispute involving the same union led ships to bypass Portland last summer, clogging cargo and slowing Oregon’s economy. Closure of the three Port terminals, let alone a crisis at the grain elevators, would wreak far greater economic havoc and could cause container shipping lines to pull out for good…

Coincidental breakdown of the security officer talks and the grain negotiations could close a total of seven Portland-area terminals, although the grain elevator owners plan to hire substitute workers — or scabs, in union parlance. In addition, last summer’s separate container terminal dispute is boiling over in the courtroom, as a federal judge ponders whether to find the union in contempt and stop it from allegedly coercing shipping lines.

Port of Portland managers won’t say whether they would bring in workers to replace striking security guards and their fellow longshore union members at terminals 2, 4 and 6. But Port officials are about to contact shipping lines with vessels heading toward Portland and warn them of the problems.

In Oakland, Calif., a strike is planned next Monday and Tuesday. SEIU is leading the way: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_2...ay-and-tuesday

Port of Oakland workers who say they have gone 16 months without a new contract plan to go on strike Monday and Tuesday in Oakland. The Service Employees International Union Local 1021 has announced plans for a 24-hour strike starting at 9 p.m. Monday.

On the East Coast and Gulf Coast, companies are re-routing their shipments in anticipation of a long-threatened walkout.

Negotiators had been silent for the past few months, but the ILA is now flexing its muscle publicly: http://www.americanshipper.com/Main/...pecialCoverage

Harold Daggett, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, has broken weeks of silence during contract negotiations to complain that employers “want to grab more money away from the ILA and its members by placing a cap on container royalty.” The union also said its negotiators “would not budge” on their opposition to eliminating the 8-hour guarantee and overtime provisions during negotiations in September with U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX)…

As I explained two months ago, an estimated 14,500 union workers at 14 ports are prepared to tip the economy back into recession over productivity and efficiency rules changes. ILA’s main beef is with container royalty caps to target port corruption: http://michellemalkin.com/2012/09/10...t-strike-next/

Via NLPC’s Carl Horowitz: http://nlpc.org/stories/2012/09/10/l...haic-practices

In 2011 these royalties amounted to $232 million or about $15,500 per worker at Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports. This arrangement was established in 1960 when New York Longshoremen sought to protect themselves against job losses resulting from the introduction of automated cargo container weighing. It’s been a ticket for inefficiency. The USMX web site reads: “The initial reason for implementing container royalties…has long been forgotten. Today, thousands of workers who were not even born in 1960 – or in 1968 when container royalties were first distributed – continue to receive payments.” The employer group wants to cap royalty payments, not roll them back or eliminate them. ILA President Daggett is adamant about maintaining the system. His union is demanding that carriers pay all royalty fees. “I want a scale on every pier,” he said. Daggett also stated that if an ILA local discovers a shipping container exceeds highway weight limits, the union will insist that the trucks be prevented from leaving the port and that the containers should be emptied and reloaded into other containers. “If they want to play games,” he said, “we’ll play games.”

Even if the container royalty system were scrapped, there are still numerous work rules that hamper productivity and invite participation by organized criminals. A special report issued this past March by the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor to the governors and legislatures of New York and New Jersey shows how these rules have evolved from a deeply ingrained and corrupt patronage system. Based on extensive public hearings conducted during October 14-December 2, 2010, the commission concluded:

Certain hiring practices, achieved primarily through calculated provisions of collective bargaining agreements, illogical interpretations of other provisions, and claims of “customs and practice,” have created with the Port (of New York & New Jersey) no/low-work, no/low-show positions generally characterized by outsized salaries. The privileged few that are given these jobs are overwhelmingly connected to organized crime figures or union leadership.

Among abuses, the report cited policies forcing shipping companies to pay salaries exceeding $400,000 for jobs that “require little or no work.” In addition, dockworkers work in much bigger groups (or “gangs”) than needed. This explains why three dockworkers are paid to operate a crane that only one person can operate at a time. Even more absurd, work rules are structured so that workers can be paid for 24, even 27 hours of work in a given day, even if the actual work they do amounts to only eight hours and sometimes far less.

Think the Mafia no longer casts a shadow upon this union? Think again. The commission revealed the ILA has put a good number of relatives of organized crime figures on the payroll – and has rewarded them generously. The spirit of the late godfather of the Genovese crime family, Vincent “the Chin” Gigante, for one, lives here. One of Gigante’s nephews, Ralph Gigante, is a shop steward for an ILA local, which provides him with an annual income of at least $400,000. And two of Gigante’s sons-in-law, Joseph Colonna and Robert Fyfe Jr., serve as stewards in the same union. Colonna’s predecessor, John Bullaro, was the Chin’s brother-in-law. In all, the late Genovese boss has nine relatives working for the union.

The sum of these archaic rules, to say nothing of mob influence, says USMX’s Capo, has cost port operators billions of dollars.

As always, these strikes aren’t about protecting and improving workers’ lives. They are about protecting entrenched Big Labor power.

SEIU flashback: “[W]e prefer to use the power of persuasion, but if that doesn’t work we use the persuasion of power.”
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/21...of-corruption/

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/11/19...g-port-strike/

Is a nationwide port strike next?
By Michelle Malkin • September 10, 2012 12:37 PM

Who’s next? Chicago public school teachers walked off the job today, leaving 350,000 children and their families in the lurch. Close behind, an East Coast and Gulf Coast port shut down could soon follow — wreaking havoc on U.S. retailers and costing American businesses billions in lost revenue and trade. An estimated 14,500 union workers at 14 ports are prepared to tip the economy back into recession over productivity and efficiency rules changes. http://www.foxbusiness.com/industrie...ll-be-at-stake

Yes, really: http://www.just-style.com/news/appar..._id115503.aspx

According to the Journal of Commerce, attempts to negotiate a new six-year contract bogged down over management’s insistence on productivity and efficiency improvements, especially at the Port of New York and New Jersey, which U.S. Maritime Association chairman and CEO James Capo said has become the most expensive in the group. Capo said he was “disappointed with the uncompromising stand the ILA leadership is taking in the negotiations” by defending what he called “archaic” practices, such as New York-New Jersey work rules that provide round-the-clock pay for a few hours’ work.

Also at issue: Container royalties paid to union members that have morphed into a corrupt system of patronage tied to organized crime.

Background on the breakdown, and on port union workers’ wages and benefits: http://www.cargobusinessnews.com/news/082312/news1.html

The ILA and USMX re-engaged with their on-again, off-again negotiations in Florida in late July as both sides at that time claimed to their respective members that there had been “significant discussions” on “critical items of importance” and that “substantial progress” had been made over what each have referenced publically as the central issues that include terminal automation, chassis pools, wages, and benefits.

In the USMX’s latest statement regarding the broken-off negotiations, the employer group referred to ILA workers being “among the most highly compensated workers in the country, on average receiving $124,138 a year in wages and benefits, which puts them ahead of all but 2 percent of all U.S. workers.”

“[ILA members] earn an average hourly wage of $50, more than double the $23.19 average for all U.S. union workers. They also pay no premiums and minimal co-pays and deductibles for a healthcare plan that is better than most U.S. employers provide their workers,” the USMX statement said.


“At the Port of New York and New Jersey, 34 ILA members make over $368,000 a year in wages and benefits; one of every three makes over $208,000 a year – not including annual bonuses based on the weight of container cargo. These ‘container royalties’ totaled $232 million in 2011 – or an average of $15,500 for ILA workers on the East and Gulf coasts,” the employer group said.

Remember, this is how the Occupy protests originally kicked off. Not on Wall Street. But at the ports. Chaos, not work, is the progressive Luddites’ goal. Power and protectionism are what they covet. And Occupy is standing by to help foment and agitate.

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/09/10...t-strike-next/

Port Whine: Big Labor’s Occu-punks
by Michelle Malkin
December 2011: http://michellemalkin.com/2011/12/14...rs-occu-punks/

Scruffy progressive protesters locked themselves together across railroad tracks, blocked traffic and shouted profanities at police on Tuesday in a coordinated “West Coast Port Shutdown.” Truckers lost wages. Shippers lost business. This is what the Occupy Wall Street movement calls “victory.”

Aging Big Labor bosses toasted one another from the sidelines as they declared the “rebirth of the labor movement.” What’s really going on? It’s an old-school power grab by a decrepit union wrapped in self-deluded social media do-goodism.

Peace-loving agitators wielding guitars and iPhones may earnestly believe they stood up to corruption and stood up for workers this week. A socialist website promoted the port shutdown as an expression of “solidarity” for the workers’ “struggle.” One Oakland, Calif., agitator decried “exploitation by capitalism” as the shiftless busily divided their work blockages into what they called — chortle — “shifts.”

In reality, it’s the young Occupiers who are being exploited as human shields for the economy-strangling agenda of the violence-prone International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). These ignorant punks are putting the “front” in “waterfront.”

Few remember now that the left’s three-month-long “Day of Rage” festivities kicked off in September at the Port of Longview, Wash. — a far cry from Goldman Sachs and the rest of New York’s financial district. Unionized longshoremen stormed the port there and took a half-dozen guards hostage. They damaged railroad cars, dumped grain, smashed windows, cut rail brake lines and blocked a train for hours while the ILWU and AFL-CIO cheered them on.

The violence followed a similar outburst in July, when longshoremen tore down a chain link fence on EGT’s private property and blocked railroad tracks to prevent a grain delivery — a clear violation of the 1946 Hobbs Act, which makes it a crime to employ robbery or extortion to impede interstate commerce.

Despite breaking federal law, violating a judicial restraining order and committing systematically planned sabotage and trespassing, most of the union thugs got away with wrist slaps. The ILWU received a $250,000 fine to cover damages from the vandalism — a fine that will be paid with rank-and-file workers’ hard-earned dues money.

So, what’s their beef? No, it’s not about the “right” of unions to “organize.” It’s not about the welfare of the “99 percent.” It’s about one union losing its seven-decade-old grip on West Coast port operations. It’s about six-figure-salaried union suits at the ILWU, established by bloody radical Marxist Harry Bridges, throwing a lawless tantrum against economic efficiency and technological progress.

The ILWU is trying to break the will of EGT Development, a multinational agribusiness that recently built a $200 million grain terminal in Longview. It’s a state-of-the-art facility with unprecedented automation features that will speed unloading, increase shipping capacity and bring in tens of millions of dollars in lease and tax payments alone to the region.

EGT needs a nimble 21st-century workforce. The entitled overlords of the ILWU, who have ruled West Coast ports since the 1930s, are demanding a monopoly on the company’s master control system, control over the work hour structure, excessive mandatory breaks and extortionist man-hour “premiums” to bail out the union’s underfunded pension. “We’ve worked these elevators since 1934, and we’ve always been in that master console,” local ILWU President Dan Coffman told public radio.

EGT refused and instead brought in an outside contractor with a different union to fill about 50 jobs. But the ILWU water-carriers in the Occupy movement don’t care about those workers. Or the American farmers who have been hurt by the port saboteurs. Or the independent non-union truckers who were forced to forgo work in the name of worker empowerment. Trucker Hai Ngo of San Leandro, Calif., told the San Francisco Chronicle: “The Occupy people handed out flyers to us, but never asked what we thought before they planned this. I will lose about $350, and at holiday time that hurts. It’s just a waste of our time and money, and won’t accomplish anything.”

Unfortunately, Ngo and blue-collar workers like him are collateral damage in the ILWU’s ruthless battle for Big Labor survival. Coffman, who has stoked violence for months, vowed earlier this year that “we will fight to the end to secure what is rightfully our turf.”

And now the gasping longshoremen’s union has a whole new set of Occu-tools to do the dirty work for them.

Twitchy founder and CEO Michelle Malkin has been meticulously documenting the looming threat of strikes at our nation’s ports, and now, we’re on the verge of watching it all come to fruition. http://michellemalkin.com/2012/11/19...g-port-strike/

An SEIU strike is planned for tonight at Oakland International Airport: http://www.contracostatimes.com/brea...-begins-monday

The strike will start with a rally outside of the airport’s Terminal 1 at 9 p.m. Monday and continue at noon Tuesday. Workers will also picket beginning 5 a.m. Tuesday morning at the harbor in Oakland. Union officials said they have no plans to disrupt travel.

Absolutely ridiculous. The sole purpose of the strike is to garner attention by disrupting travel. http://www.contracostatimes.com/brea...-begins-monday

SEIU 1021 and the port have been trying for months to negotiate a new contract to cover just over 220 workers. Those workers include, among other staff, electricians, clerical, security and janitors.

According to the Contra Costa Times, an end time for the strike has not been set. http://www.contracostatimes.com/brea...-begins-monday

Port #Strikesgiving isn’t limited to Oakland, however. SEIU is also supporting a strike at Fort Lauderdale International Airport:
http://twitchy.com/2012/11/19/seiu-w...ional-airport/

Port strike update: L.A.’s busiest pier shut down by ILWU
By Michelle Malkin • November 28, 2012 12:10 PM

Here’s the latest development in the manufactured Big Labor chaos at our ports. Loyal readers know I’ve been tracking the union-fomented, Occupy-supported agitation on the East Coast, West Coast, and Gulf Coast over the past year. Today, striking clerks shut down the busiest Port of Los Angeles pier: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-...s-angeles-pier

About 70 clerical workers struck Tuesday against APM Terminals, which operates Pier 400. Other dockworkers are honoring the strike, and the pier remains shut down Wednesday morning.

Port police say there’s some picketing but there’s been no violence and no arrests.

Other port operations continue normally.

The clerical workers are from International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63. Their previous contract with APM Terminals expired in June of 2010.

The Maersk shipping line company sent out the following bulletin this morning:

At noon pacific time the Office Clerical Union (OCU) workers established pickets at Pier 400. At 12:30 PM APMT Pier 400 was notified that the ILWU would honor the pickets. All operations have stopped at Pier 400 – this includes both vessel and rail operations. Truckers are not being allowed into the terminal.

Right now, APMT Pier 400 remains the only terminal impacted. APM has put their Business Continuity Plan in motion. An arbitrator has been called and the grievance process is underway, with a decision estimated to come down prior to 8 PM Pacific Time. We anticipate that the night shift, like the afternoon shift, will be canceled. If the arbitrator rules labor back to work we anticipate Pier 400 to reopen for first shift tomorrow.

The Los Angeles/Long Beach Employers Association sent out the following press release laying out the facts and refuting Big Labor’s hysterical claims:

The negotiating teams representing employers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach released the following statement regarding the status of negotiations with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit (“OCU”):

In a disappointing development, the OCU once again initiated a strike today, picketing at one harbor employer’s terminal facilities, despite the harbor employers’ offers of complete job security, increased wages and pensions, guaranteed pay, and maintenance of all generous health benefits.

Statements released by the OCU attempt to justify the strike by claiming that the employers are trying to outsource jobs, but the facts do not support this claim. Consider the following:

• The employers have offered complete protection against outsourcing by providing an absolute guarantee that no OCU workers will be laid off for the term of the new agreement. Every regular OCU worker has a guaranteed job under the contract offered by the employers.

• The employers have also offered the OCU guaranteed pay of 40 hours a week (37.5 hours for six of the employers) for 52 weeks a year, whether there is work to do or not. The employers have no incentive to outsource OCU work when they are obligated to pay OCU employees whether there is work to do or not.

• Not one OCU job has been sent overseas, or anywhere else. The OCU claim that the employers outsourced “over 51 permanent positions … in recent years,” but the truth is that the 51 employees they identify are individuals who retired with full benefits, quit, or passed away during the past three years. Not one of the 51 job positions they identify has been given to a non-union employee or sub-contracted away; there simply has not been a business need for replacing these workers.

• The expired contract provides a grievance procedure that the OCU can use any time it feels that employers are diverting union work through technology or any other means. The employers’ proposed contract keeps these grievance procedures completely intact, giving the OCU powerful protections against diversion of union employees’ work. For example, employers must give an OCU worker 4 hours of pay any time a non-union employee performs union work (no matter how small the task), unless the non-union employee is training an OCU worker or there is an operational emergency. When a technical violation occurs, the employers have a proven track record of acknowledging the mistake and paying the contractual penalty.

The OCU’s tactics are really designed to protect and promote “featherbedding”—the practice of requiring employers to call in temporary employees and hire new permanent employees even when there is no work to perform. These unacceptable demands encourage and reward absenteeism, reduce efficiency, and succeed only in requiring payment to OCU employees when no work exists.

In the wake of the 2008 global economic crisis and its devastating impact on the container shipping industry, OCU leadership agreed to terms that would restrict the historic featherbedding, allowing the employers to hire new employees or call in temporary employees only when there was a genuine business need to do so. The OCU now insists that any new contract reinstate all of the old featherbedding practices, giving them complete control over employer staffing levels. For example:

• The OCU enjoy extremely generous paid time off benefits (with average absenteeism from vacation, sick leave, holidays, and other leaves totaling over 29%, or three and one-half months, of the year). In the face of this absenteeism, the OCU demand that when employees are absent, for whatever reason, the employers must call in a temporary employee to fill the vacancy on the first day and for the duration of the vacancy.

• The OCU also insist that the employers hire a new employee every time an employee retires or quits, even if there is no work for the new employee to perform.

• The OCU’s last written proposal before the strike includes an unlawful demand that employers convert some managers to union-represented clerks as a reward for giving the OCU misleading and/or false information that the OCU sought to use against the employers during contract negotiations.

During recent negotiations, the employers agreed to relinquish their proposal to control whether and when temporary employees are called in to work, a position they had sought to maintain since the beginning of negotiations in April 2010. The employers offered the OCU three different options for a compromise on the issue of filling temporary vacancies, but the OCU rejected all of these proposals, demanding complete control over staffing.

The OCU has refused to address the needs of the employers; instead, they are pressing demands that would weaken competitiveness of the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports while rewarding and sustaining absenteeism and inefficiency. The OCU are already the highest paid clerical workers in America. The employers’ latest proposals would increase OCU annual compensation packages to over $190,000 in wages and benefits by 2016, including:

• Average annual wages up to approximately $90,000;

• Pensions of up to $75,000 per year;

• Maintenance of all benefits in the OCU’s extremely generous health plan, for which the OCU pay nothing (benefits include, e.g., $0 co-pay for generic drugs; $0 for x-rays, diagnostics, and lab tests; $5 office visit co-pays; 90% coverage for infertility; and more);

• Maintenance of all other employment benefits (an average of 12 weeks of paid time off every year; meal and transportation allowances; early retirement with full benefits; education reimbursement; etc.).

The OCU’s demands are difficult to grasp in the midst of a struggling economy, particularly in the Los Angeles / Long Beach harbor community, with Los Angeles County unemployment totaling 10.5 percent in October 2012. The OCU’s actions reinforce perceptions held by shippers, retailers and other trade partners across the globe that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are being held hostage by union self-interest-in this case, the interests of 600 office clerks.

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/11/28...-down-by-ilwu/

Port strike update: SoCal at a standstill, shippers moves to Mexico, retailers beg Obama for help
By Michelle Malkin • November 30, 2012 11:24 AM


In case you missed it last week during the holiday, I discussed the port strike chaos on the Cavuto show and pointed out that shippers were redirecting traffic to Mexico. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FkAY...6&feature=plcp As the L.A./Long Beach port strike drags on this week, southern California is losing even more business. http://www.latimes.com/business/mone...,1632793.story

One container ship laden with goods to be imported into the U.S. has already been diverted to Oakland because of the strike, which that has idled 10 of the 14 cargo terminals at the nation’s busiest seaport complex, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California.

A second ship that was also bound for San Pedro Bay has been diverted to a port in Mexico, said Capt. Dick McKenna, executive director of the Marine Exchange, which tracks local ship movements.

Three more container ships that were expected to arrive at either Los Angeles or Long Beach but are significantly overdue are presumed to have also been diverted to other ports, McKenna said.

This means that a strike that began at just one cargo terminal Tuesday and spread to nine more on Wednesday is already resulting in lost work for product supply chain employees such as truck drivers, railroad workers, warehouse workers and logistics employees, among others.

I am going to continue to post and re-post the FACTS about the striking ILWU clerical workers because pushback against Big Labor’s false narratives is vital. The rest of America’s workers (and those seeking work) need to know what these goons are really up to as they monkey-wrench the economy.

The OCU [clerical workers' union] enjoy extremely generous paid time off benefits (with average absenteeism from vacation, sick leave, holidays, and other leaves totaling over 29%, or three and one-half months, of the year). In the face of this absenteeism, the OCU demand that when employees are absent, for whatever reason, the employers must call in a temporary employee to fill the vacancy on the first day and for the duration of the vacancy.
• The OCU also insist that the employers hire a new employee every time an employee retires or quits, even if there is no work for the new employee to perform.
• The OCU’s last written proposal before the strike includes an unlawful demand that employers convert some managers to union-represented clerks as a reward for giving the OCU misleading and/or false information that the OCU sought to use against the employers during contract negotiations.
…The OCU are already the highest paid clerical workers in America. The employers’ latest proposals would increase OCU annual compensation packages to over $190,000 in wages and benefits by 2016, including:
• Average annual wages up to approximately $90,000;
• Pensions of up to $75,000 per year;
• Maintenance of all benefits in the OCU’s extremely generous health plan, for which the OCU pay nothing (benefits include, e.g., $0 co-pay for generic drugs; $0 for x-rays, diagnostics, and lab tests; $5 office visit co-pays; 90% coverage for infertility; and more);
• Maintenance of all other employment benefits (an average of 12 weeks of paid time off every year; meal and transportation allowances; early retirement with full benefits; education reimbursement; etc.).

Retailers have asked the White House for help. http://www.americanshipper.com/Main/...tar_52026.aspx Good luck with that.

The National Retail Federation has urged President Obama “to use all means necessary” to restart stalled contract negotiations between management and striking union workers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit has placed pickets outside a majority of terminals at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and other longshoremen are refusing to cross the picket lines. As a result, ships are not being loaded or unloaded and trucks and trains cannot move containers on or off 10 terminals.

The Los Angeles Times reported that two ships have been diverted to other ports, one to Oakland and another to an unnamed port in Mexico.

“A prolonged strike at the nation’s largest ports would have a devastating impact on the U.S. economy,” read a letter from NRF President and Chief Executive Officer Matthew Shay to the president. “We call upon you to use all means necessary to get the two sides back to the negotiating table.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

NRF noted that in 2002 a 10-day lockout at West Coast ports led to significant supply chain disruptions, which took six months to remedy, and cost the economy an estimated $1 billion a day

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/11/30...ves-to-mexico/

Six figure salary, guaranteed job security, 11 weeks’ paid vacation — NOT GOOD ENOUGH
Darleen Click

But but it’s the nasty 2% that are the problem, not hardworking union guys, right?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...465,full.story

The small band of strikers that has effectively shut down the nation’s busiest shipping complex forced two huge cargo ships to head for other ports Thursday and kept at least three others away, hobbling an economic powerhouse in Southern California.

The disruption is costing an estimated $1 billion a day at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, on which some 600,000 truckers, dockworkers, trading companies and others depend for their livelihoods.

“The longer it goes, the more the impacts increase,” said Paul Bingham, an economist with infrastructure consulting firm CDM Smith. “Retailers will have stock outages, lost sales for products not delivered. There will be shutdowns in factories, in manufacturing when they run out of parts.”

Despite the union’s size — about 800 members of a unit of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union — it has managed to flex big muscles. Unlike almost anywhere else in the nation, union loyalty is strong at the country’s ports. Neither the longshoremen nor the truckers are crossing the tiny union’s picket lines. [...]

In Los Angeles and Long Beach, the 800 clerical workers have been able to shut down most of the ports because the 10,000-member dockworkers union is honoring the picket lines. Work continues at only four cargo terminals, where the office clerical unit has no workers. [...]

Stephen Berry, lead negotiator for the shipping lines and cargo terminals, said the clerical workers have been offered a deal that includes “absolute job security,” a raise that would take average annual pay to $195,000 from $165,000, 11 weeks’ paid vacation and a generous pension increase.

http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=45683

Port strike update: L.A./Long Beach shutdown heads to federal mediation
By Michelle Malkin • December 4, 2012 01:54 PM

Here’s the latest update on Big Labor’s long-planned manufactured chaos at our West Coast ports. The two sides are headed toward federal mediation after 8 days of ILWU-sponsored havoc on the economy:

Both sides in the strike that has crippled the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have agreed to federal mediation, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Tuesday at a news conference.

Villaraigosa said the agreement was an encouraging sign and could help bring an end to the strike, now in its eighth day. He said the parties negotiated throughout the night and there had been some recent movement.

“I’m hopeful that the mediator will be here today,” Villaraigosa told reporters. “We’ve got to get a deal and get a deal as soon as possible.”

Workers belonging to the 800-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit have been on strike since Nov. 27 against a 14-employer group of shipping lines and terminal owners. The picket lines are being honored by the 10,000 regional members of the ILWU. Add in local truckers, and some 20,000 workers are affected, Villaraigosa estimated.

The strike has shut down 10 of the 14 cargo container terminals at the nation’s busiest seaport complex. The clerical workers had been without a contract since June 30, 2010.

The shutdown is costing $1 billion a day in lost wages and trade while empty ships pile up. http://www.redstate.com/2012/12/04/s...90000-package/ The striking union clerk workers rejected a deal that would guarantee their jobs and “bring the average annual OCU wage-and-benefits package to more than $190,000 over the next three and one-half years.”

But as you know full well, it’s not about workers. It’s about anarchy, agitation, and protecting entrenched Big Labor power.

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/12/04...ral-mediation/