The biggest labor dispute in Washington state — spawning one of the more militant union campaigns in decades — is happening right now in Longview. About 100 union members were cited and arrested earlier this week, and yesterday hundreds more crowded onto railroad tracks to block a mile-long train.
Here’s what’s going on.
EGT Development, a joint venture of Japan-based Itochu Corp, South Korea’s STX Pan Ocean and St. Louis-based Bunge North America, is using non-union labor to handle grain in the testing phase of its new $200 million facility at the Port of Longview. All other grain export terminals from the Columbia River to the Puget Sound have successfully and profitably worked with unionized labor for decades.
“We’re all together. We’re all going to jail as a union.”
-Dan Coffman, Local 21 President
Talks between EGT executives and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 21, which has a contract for all longshore work on Port property, about becoming signatory to the area standard contract broke down months ago and the company has refused to return to the table. Instead, EGT has sued the Port in federal court, arguing that the company was not bound by the contract with Local 21 to hire union labor on its leased site. The company claims that keeping the facility’s 50 full-time workers non-union will save EGT $1 million a year.
Now, after months of picketing and attempts to pressure EGT to return to the table, the ILWU members are angry.
“We are going to fight for our jobs in our jurisdiction. We have worked this dock for 70 years, and to have a big, rich corporation come in and say, ‘We don’t want you,’ is a problem,” ILWU 21 President Dan Coffman told the (Longview) Daily News. “We’re all together. We’re all going to jail as a union.”