Logistics workers use supply chain power to win
Two hundred workers at Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics in Tacoma join ILWU with grit, determination, and solidarity
“Our union makes us strong!” After paralyzing their employer with a massive strike in February, almost 200 workers at Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) in the Port of Tacoma organized around this central message for a sweeping victory in an NLRB union election. On March 21, employees overwhelmingly voted to become certified as members of ILWU Local 23. “Once we stood up and saw what power we had,” said Jessica Roberson, a lead distribution driver, “we knew we could stick together and win big.”
Signatory sweatshop
In 2018, WWL signed a 30-year lease with the Port of Tacoma and opened a Vehicle Processing Center (VPC) directly across from the East Blair waterway, while the Northwest Seaport Alliance also signed a ten-year vessel services agreement with Wallenius to manage cargo-handling operations. The car transport operation began to escalate in volume and velocity, as Local 23 members moved hundreds of thousands of automobiles annually off the ships into the processing facility, where VPC workers install accessories and load vehicles into railcars for domestic transport.
But as the non-union VPC got up and running, it became abundantly clear WWL was degrading standards for processing employees and running a sweatshop operation. “Since this place opened, we have seen workers chewed up and spit out,” said Jon Nino, an installer inside the shop. “There is such a basic lack of respect for people from managers that they regularly lose employees and must constantly do hiring events.”
“They refused to follow any kind of fair and transparent rules here, whether its regular raises, promotions, or consistent schedules,” said Jose Camacho, a distribution driver. “As for health and safety, managers regularly encouraged us to speed up our driving and break limits so they can move more vehicles for greater profit.”
Churn and burn
Over the last two years, several workers had begun meeting and talking about getting together to confront the dire conditions facing Wallenius employees.
“We are not paid what we should be getting, doing this kind of heavy, dangerous job loading railcars,” said Rob Zacapu, a rail loader. “There was no question we had to step up before the company pushed us out.”
“There were so many people getting fired or leaving an unworkable situation,” said Tammie Bredeson, another driver in distribution. “It took a bunch of starts and stops over months to get people showing up regularly.”
Eventually, in late 2023, meetings started growing, as things went from bad to worse. “So many of us were thinking ‘it’s now or never—either we go union or we go work somewhere else,’” remembers Jessica Roberson. Workers faced ever-worsening health and safety conditions, including constant injuries from employer negligence; forced overtime; imposition of 10 and 12-hour schedules; pressure to violate speed limits; lack of adequate equipment; failure to train and certify drivers and forklift operators; all combined with severe workers’ rights violations by managers and drastically substandard compensation.
Worker heat finds union hammer
So at the end of January 2024, workers marched on the boss to demand respect for health and safety, presenting a petition signed by most employees. The general manager and supervisors then immediately violated federal law by threatening to fire marching workers; unlawfully interfering with workers distributing union gear on break; and illegally telling employees they could not engage in protected action, among other unlawful acts.
On February 7, more than 150 workers walked off the job on an Unfair Labor Practices strike, disrupting car ship offload operations for an entire day. “What an incredible moment it was when we all realized longshore workers were in solidarity with us,” said Ladda Hilyard, a distribution van driver. The following morning, employees returned to work and resumed their jobs after having been successfully reinstated.
Busting the busters
Later that day, workers demanded recognition as Local 23 members. Instead of recognizing the workers’ union, WWL began holding captive union-busting meetings, committing many further illegal acts against employees, and eventually filing for an NLRB election on February 21. Over the next month, workers fought intense battles to overcome incessant union-busting while advancing mass support.
WWL flew in corporate union-busters from at least five states; brought in anti-union employees from other WWL sites; tried to impose a different union on employees; forced workers to attend more than 20 captive meetings to bombard them with misinformation; and committed more than 15 additional violations of federal law over which Unfair Labor Practices charges were filed, including discriminatory surveillance, write-ups, demotions, suspensions, and terminations.
“It was unbelievable how the union busters would say anything to try to get people to vote ‘No,’” said Juanita Garrido, an accessories installer. “They kept trying to fool employees into thinking ‘the union’ is some outside, third party—but we are our union, and those shameless corporate busters they flew in from everywhere to mess with us are the outsiders.”
With unyielding supply chain solidarity from Local 23 leadership and members, workers re-centered coworkers day and night around a strategic vision of union power while dismantling the distortions, misinformation, and lies rolled out every day in meetings, memos, and daily management texts to all employees. “After each round of busting, we could look over at the ships and remember how strong we are and how scared they were,” said Milton Turner, a warehouse worker.
Messages of solidarity poured in from the Maritime Union of Australia, the Maritime Union of New Zealand, and the International Longshoreman’s Association, whose members work at Wallenius-owned job sites. MUA’s message to workers highlighted Local 23’s strong stance to back up Australian longshore for victory in their fight against WWL in previous years, and MUA’s readiness to do the same in return. Meanwhile, workers from P&B Intermodal just down the road in the Port of Tacoma shared with WWL employees their experience of striking to shut down their job site, winning a union through Local 23, and the incredible, transformative gains they secured in their first union contract.
Locking down the count
After multiple weeks of illegal manager misconduct and targeted busting, employees finally made it to election day on March 21, 2024 and voted 104 to 56 to become members of Local 23. WWL could find no legal objections to the election win, and the NLRB certified the new bargaining unit on March 29. “We were overwhelmingly excited,” said Richard Booth Jr, a distro driver. “We put it all on the line and won.”
This landmark victory in organizing with sweatshop logistics workers comes through ILWU’s Supply Chain, Logistics, and Transport (SCLT) program. Rooted in the March Inland campaign, through which tens of thousands of warehouse workers backed by longshore power organized through ILWU after the Great Strike of 1934, the SCLT program focuses on combining union hammer (ability to use supply chain power) with worker heat (readiness to fight), and works in partnership with the International Transport Workers Federation.
“Every day since we won the election, we have backed each other up to deal with unfair discipline and other issues,” said Ramo Natalizio, a quality control inspector. “And we’re locking arms as we go get that first contract.”
After effectively using strategic power to organize and win, logistics workers are now moving ahead to secure protections and respect on the job. “Our strength does not come just from our collective bargaining agreements, dispatch halls, or any other formal designation,” said Jared Faker, Local 23 President. “Our strength comes from our solidarity and organizing the unorganized, uplifting standards in our community, and making lives better for all working people. We could not be more proud to be a part of that for nearly 200 new members.”