ILWU Longshoreman Occupy Terminal (2011)
Mon Jul 11, 2011
On this day in 2011, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and other dock workers were arrested for occupying the Port of Longview's new, highly automated terminal that was about to open with non-union labor. This was just one use of direct action by longshoremen in Longview, Washington that year.
Sheriff's deputies and city cops from Longview and neighboring city Kelso arrested the protesters, who did not resist. "We have worked this dock for 70 years", said Dan Coffman, President of ILWU Local 21, "and to have a big rich company come in and say, 'We don't want you' is a problem. We're all together. We're going to jail as a union."
Three days later, six hundred dock workers and supporters seized the railroad tracks that serve the Port. At 1:30 am, they stopped a train, 107 cars hauling corn, originating in Split Rock, Minnesota, headed for the Longview elevators.
On September 7th, 2011, a massive picket line of some 700 longshoremen and their supporters blocked another train from entering EGT's (a large shipping conglomerate) terminal. When cops started pepper spraying, the picketers pushed back.
The next day, longshoremen from the major Northwest ports, Seattle, Tacoma and Portland, seeing images of the ILWU president being manhandled by cops, stopped work and began destroying EGT property.
According to news reports, the cyclone fence was torn down, grain was dumped from the train cars, and the terminal was briefly occupied by angry longshore workers. Millions of dollars were lost in shipping, warning employers how far ILWU members were willing to go to protect their jobs.
- Date: 2011-07-11
- Learn More: libcom.org, www.counterpunch.org.
- Tags: #Labor.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org