Attacks on ILWU pensions, health care threaten America’s farmers and stability of industry, say sponsors of Grain Standards Reauthorization Act
Grainhandlers from ILWU Locals 4, 8, 19, 21 and 23 have been united for decades in their fight for good jobs in the Pacific Northwest’s export terminals, and ILWU solidarity remains strong as we continue to fight for a fair contract.
Two U.S. Senators directed harsh words at foreign-owned grain company officials during the AgricultureCommittee’s markup of the Grain Standards Reauthorization Act in Washington, D.C. on June 24.
The grain companies – Marubeni, Mitsui and Louis Dreyfus – are failing to negotiate in good faith with ILWU grainhandler locals in the Northwest, while U.S.-based TEMCO reached an ILWU agreement more than two years ago.
Ranking Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) said, “I have hear troubling reports that certain foreign-owned grain companies may be failing to make good-faith efforts to reach an agreement with their workers. These protracted and contentious negotiations ultimately harm the workers, the American farmers who want certainty, and the American company that has already put in the work to come to an agreement. I would urge all parties to engage in the process in good faith. If left unresolved, these negotiations will undermine certainty for everyone involved in the grain trade, which is the purpose of our meeting today.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) echoed Sen. Stabenow’s comments,
adding, “I am deeply concerned by what is happening to the workers at some of our nation’s largest grain export terminals in the Pacific North-west. It is my understanding that six terminals, owned either by Louis Dreyfus, a Dutch firm, and two Japanese conglomerates, have refused to negotiate in good faith with the men
and women who have worked at these ports for 70 years.”
American company reaches agreement
The grain multinationals that Brown called out in fact allowed their collective bargaining agreement with ILWU grain locals to expire in May of 2018, while U.S.-based TEMCO broke away from their fellow employers to reach an agreement with the ILWU at its three export terminals in Tacoma, Kalama and Portland. The foreign companies include Louis Dreyfus, operating in Portland and Seattle; Mitsui-owned United Grain in Vancouver, and Marubeni-owned Columbia Grain in Portland.
“These companies, with annual revenue in the tens of billions, are asking skilled workers to give up their pensions and their healthcare,” said Sen.
Brown. “As this Committee knows, the value of the Grain Standards Act is that our trading partners can count on the quality and integrity of U.S. grains. If we allow this Act to be undermined, whether by future privatization of inspectors or by the undermining of the skilled workforce at these terminals, we will ultimately hurt the very farmers that count on us.”
Attacks on benefits
“All three of the foreign grain companies began the bargaining pro-
cess by demanding ILWU workers
forfeit long-standing health and welfare benefits and work rules that took decades and much sacrifice to negotiate,” said Coast Committeeman Cam Williams. “Company officials have
refused to budge on their takeaway demands while remaining profitable and putting the stability of the entire grain export industry at risk.”
Concessionary demands from the grain conglomerates include:
• Removing ILWU members from a healthy “green zone” pension plan with over 100% funding and trying to force workers into an inferior retirement plan.
• Cutting health benefits and shifting cost onto workers and family
members.
“Our families cannot and will not give up living standards that American workers have fought so hard to win,” said Jared Smith, a grainhandler at the United Grain terminal and President of ILWU Local 4. “Our families deserve a secure present and future from these foreign-owned companies that are highly profitable and control much of the world’s grain supply. They’re supposed to negotiate, not dictate.”
A Christmas lump of coal
The foreign companies’ “take-it-or-leave-it” approach has effectively ended meaningful negotiations since
the spring of 2019. Marubeni tried and failed to use heavy-handed legal tactics last year against more than 100 grain workers in Portland by filing a specious law- suit the week of Christmas in 2018 and serving legal papers at employees’ homes that demanded up to $250,000 in damages from each family.
A U.S. District Court subsequently dismissed the employer’s harassment lawsuit, but Marubeni has appealed in an apparent attempt to make the ILWU waste money on legal fees. Such suits have long been considered illegal “unfair labor practices” by the National Labor Relations Board.
ILWU stands in good faith
ILWU grainhandlers remain committed to reaching a fair agreement with the companies, noting that the TEMCO agreement they reached in 2018 protects working families, assures no disruptions in grain exports, and maintains a highly skilled workforce in export terminals that benefit farmers, workers and the U.S. economy.
“We won’t allow big foreign corporations to bully workers into giving away long-established pension and health-care benefits earned by 3,000 American workers in Oregon and Washington,”
said ILWU International President Willie Adams. “We’re committed to working with America’s farmers to ensure that grain exports get the government inspections needed by overseas customers. But we can’t allow foreign corporations to attack the health, welfare and pensions of American workers and then receive a government seal of approval for their exports. It’s time for these ‘big three’ conglomerates to bargain in good faith for the benefit of American workers and farmers.”
“These workers have been on the job without a contract for the past two years,” said Sen. Brown. “It’s past time for these terminal operators to come back to the negotiating table and hash out a fair and amicable agreement with workers. It is my hope that my colleagues will join me in prioritizing these workers over the profits of these foreign-owned corporations.”