ILA 2047 Longshoremen walk off job at Port of Lake Charles, issue ignited over OSHA health and safety issues

ILA 2047 Longshoremen walk off job at Port of Lake Charles, issue ignited over OSHA health and safety issues

ILA 2047 Longshoremen walk off job at Port of Lake Charles, issue resolved over OSHA health and safety issues

Posted: Nov 15, 2012 12:11 PM PSTUpdated: Nov 15, 2012 1:31 PM PST

By Theresa Schmidt - bio | email

http://www.kplctv.com/story/20109927/longshoremen-walk-off-job-at-port-o...

LAKE CHARLES, LA (KPLC) -
Local longshoremen walked off the job Thursday at the Port of Lake Charles where three ships are being loaded. 

About 200 union members stopped working because they said Lake Charles stevedores brought in a gang from Houston when there were local longshoremen in need of work. They said that violates their contract with the stevedoring company.
The longshoremen got in their cars and drove from the port to their local union hall where union officials were on the phone trying to resolve the dispute. 

Isaac Goins is the president of Local 2047 who said the gang was brought in retaliation for a worker calling OSHA about an unsafe crane. OSHA is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration which regulates safety in the workplace.
"We did not call in OSHA. One of our workers called in OSHA concerning a crane that the stevedores owned and it was operating. The crane was malfunctioning, wasn't operating properly. It was unsafe. But he's blaming us because OSHA came in," Goins said.

No word yet as to OSHA's findings. The work stoppage ended in less than two hours when the Houston gang was apparently let go from the docks and the local longshoremen went back to work. 

Lake Charles Port Director Bill Rase said the port never wants to see a work stoppage ever -- but that he's pleased all parties handled themselves professionally and that work resumed immediately once the problem was resolved.

Owner of Lake Charles Stevedores Tom Flanagan said there was no retaliation for calling OSHA and the work stoppage has been resolved. And Flanagan said OSHA found no problem or safety issue with the crane. 

Flanagan also said it was an illegal work stoppage.