- Cowlitz County sheriff continues traumatizing union members’ families with “made for TV” arrests
ILWU Local 21 Vice President (in black sweatshirt), attempting to facilitate a peaceful orderly arrest outside the Cowlitz County Hall of Justice at 2 PM on Friday, September 16. The sheriff, Mark Nelson, ignored the offer, instead sending four law enforcement officers to pursue and arrest Whiteside two hours later in a church parking lot as he picked up his children from day care. Several children witnessed the arrest. (Photo by Dawn DesBrisay)
LONGVIEW, WA (September 18, 2011) — Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson on Friday rejected the peaceful surrender of 200 union longshore workers who waited for 45 minutes outside his office, and instead has continued his campaign of pursuing and arresting union members in front of children and families. At least one of the workers arrested today was forced to leave two minors unaccompanied at home while he was led away by law enforcement.
“Sheriff Mark Nelson watched from his office window as 200 union members offered themselves up for peaceful surrender, and instead prefers to waste taxpayer dollars on made-for-TV arrests in front of children,” said Dan Coffman, President of Local 21. “The sheriff’s actions are an unnecessarily heavy-handed and costly handling of misdemeanors for citizens who were exercising their First Amendment rights by peacefully standing on rural railroad tracks on the afternoon of September 7.”
Two hours after standing front and center at the Cowlitz County Hall of Justice offering peaceful arrest on misdemeanor charges, ILWU Local 21 Vice President Jake Whiteside was chased by four law enforcement officers and arrested in a church parking lot, handcuffed and led away in front of several children. Longshoremen Cary Brister and Lowell Lovegren were arrested this morning after having also presented themselves at the courthouse for arrest on Friday.
Leal Sundet, ILWU Coast Committeeman, said, “the Sheriff’s dramatic, costly arrests of union members are designed to support EGT’s aggressive
and misleading public relations campaign that is being waged to discredit local workers. EGT appears to have the sheriff acting as the foreign
corporation’s private army at local taxpayer expense.”
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s Coast Longshore Division represents 4,000 men and women in the Northwest’s six major grain
terminals in Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver and Portland, and on all Northwest docks. Last week, the union reached a tentative agreement with the other grain terminal operators in the region with whom they have worked without interruption for 80 years.