Union protest ends without incident
By Matthew Henderson - October 4, 2007, Daily Democrat
A union protest in front of the Yolo County Courthouse broke up around 9:30 a.m. Thursday without any reported incidents. Members of the local International Longshore and Warehouse Union arrived from the Bay Area around 8:30 a.m. to make a series of statements about the alleged attack on two black longshoremen with mace as well as their subsequent jailing for trespassing near the Port of Sacramento.
Membership of the ILWU Local No. 10 has accused West Sacramento police and private security guards of attacking the two longshoremen.
The protest brought in union members from as far away as Portland, Ore. However, most were bused in from the Port of Oakland by union organizers.
Union officials said two members, Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison, were returning from lunch to a terminal near the port when private security guards asked to search their car. The members responded by asking to see the regulation the guards were entitled to search under, and called a business agent from the union.
The guards were "enraged," according to the union's Web site, and called police. the union workers then were "assaulted, dragged from the car, maced and jailed," the site stated. A hearing in the matter is scheduled for later in October