Negotiators avert ILWU longshore lockout, but union members walk out after president convicted

Negotiators avert ILWU longshore lockout, but union members walk out after president convicted

Published: Friday, September 28, 2012, 6:48 PM     Updated: Friday, September 28, 2012, 10:03 PM

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2012/09/negotiators_avert_l...

 By Richard Read, The Oregonian 
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View full sizeDon Ryan/The Associated PressRobert "Big Bob" McEllrath (second from right), president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, stands with attorney Tom Phelan (right) and other supporters before surrendering to authorities last month. On Friday, McEllrath was found guilty of blocking a train at a grain terminal in Longview, Wash.
No sooner had negotiators averted a lockout threatened Monday at Northwest grain terminals than longshoremen walked off the job Friday to protest the conviction of their union president for blocking a train. 

Northwest grain handlers announced that contract talks facing a Sunday deadline would extend into mid October, avoiding a lockout of longshoremen at Portland and Puget Sound terminals that handle almost half the nation's wheat exports. 

But almost simultaneously Friday, longshoremen walked out at the Port of Portland's container Terminal 6 and perhaps some other West Coast ports, protesting a guilty verdict for union President Robert " Big Bob" McEllrath. A Cowlitz County, Wash., jury found McEllrath guilty of obstructing a train last year during a protest in Longview, Wash. 

"Many workers walked spontaneously after hearing about the guilty verdict," said Jennifer Sargent, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based International Longshore and Warehouse Union. "I don't yet know the magnitude." 

It wasn't clear whether the longshoremen plan to return to work Saturday.

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Continuing coverage of the contract talks between longshoremen and Northwest grain terminal operators.

Continuing coverage of turmoil at the Port of Portland's Terminal 6.
Together the events underscore pressure on the powerful dockworkers' union and its leaders, who face difficult grain contract talks as some members criticize them for caving in to employers. If anything McEllrath's misdemeanor conviction bolsters his reputation among union members whose walkout displays unity consistent with their slogan: "An injury to one is an injury to all." 

But employers emboldened by increasing legal restrictions on organized labor are pushing unions harder than ever in contract talks, said Chris Rhomberg, an expert at Fordham University in New York. Rhomberg, a sociology professor who wrote a book on a Detroit newspaper strike, cites a decreasing number of strikes nationwide. 

"It used to be the two sides came to the table to reach a deal and the last resort was a strike," said Rhomberg. "Nowadays one side comes to the table trying to reach a deal," he said of unions, "and the other side comes to the table trying to get rid of the table." 

Both the walkout Friday and controversy over the current grain talks have roots in Longview, Wash., where longshoremen held protests that turned violent last year. Managers of the first new U.S. grain terminal built in 25 years tried to hire workers from another union instead of longshoremen. 

Prosecutors accused McEllrath of directing a large crowd of dockworkers and supporters to protest the hirings by blocking the arrival of a grain train last year at Longview's Export Grain Terminal, or EGT. In June, a jury failed to reach a verdict on the charges of obstructing a train. But on Friday after a retrial, another jury found McEllrath guilty. 

McEllrath, a longshoreman from Vancouver, told the judge he wasn't sorry, according to the union.

"I have no regrets for leading my men and women against corporate greed," McEllrath was quoted as saying. "What's happening in this country against the middle class is wrong." 

District Court Judge Edward Putka sentenced the union boss to one day in jail and 89 days suspended, plus $543 in fines and court costs, the Longview Daily News reported. 

After the train protest and other demonstrations last year, longshore leaders negotiated a contract with EGT that included major concessions, allowing the company to bypass the union hiring hall. The concessions infuriated some union members, who called McEllrath and other leaders "business unionists" who had more in common with employers than workers. 

Now the grain terminal owners want the same concessions in their next contract. 

Not so fast, said Leal Sundet, a coast committeeman co-chairing the longshore negotiating committee. In statements posted Friday on the union Web site, Sundet described the grain handlers' contract as a mature agreement built on 80 years of negotiations with highly profitable companies. 

"The EGT contract will build in subsequent negotiations," Sundet said. "The industry moguls are mistaken in thinking they can take advantage of a new competitor to downgrade their own successful contract."