Unions: Winning friends and influencing people

[hypocritexposer]

Language warning.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFHBGGvuQhA

This occurred at International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU Local 21)
617 -- 14th Avenue
Longview, WA 98632
Dan Coffman, President

Original video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzoMNgDMELo

Hundreds of Longshoremen stormed the Port of Longview early Thursday, overpowered and held security guards, damaged railroad cars, and dumped grain that is the center of a labor dispute, said Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha.

Six guards were held hostage for a couple of hours after 500 or more Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, he said.

No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested. Most of the protesters returned to their union hall after cutting brake lines and spilling grain from car at the EGT terminal, Duscha said.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union believes it has the right to work at the facility, but the company has hired a contractor that's staffing a workforce of other union laborers.

http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1702809

 

[Mike]

The Longshoreman guy in the video seems nice enough. :roll:

 

[Tam]

Washington State: Longshoremen Get Old-School With Trespassing and Train Blockage

"We see labor being attacked all over this country, with it starting in Wisconsin and spreading all over the U.S. Now it is coming to the west coast and to Longview Washington. ILWU is not going to stand for this," Coffman said. "We are going to do whatever we can to take protect our jobs."
The storming of the port terminal happened spontaneously during the protest of nonunion labor and was not planned by the leadership of the union, Coffman said. However, the port invasion represents the type of anger many rank and file union members feel about what is happening across the country in the assault on union employees.

AND WHY DID THEY GO OLD SCHOOL

Longshore Workers Thresh Grain Shipper, Block Train
The following is excerpted from a Labor Notes article written by Evan Rohar, a former casual in Tacoma:

As Dr. King wrote in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, "There are two types of laws: just and unjust. One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
EGT started the fight by suing the Port of Longview to void the stipulation in its lease that requires EGT to hire Local 21 members. The trial is set to begin next year and could drag on for years. In the meantime, EGT has broken off negotiations with the ILWU and is operating its terminal as if it had already won the case.

Besides the company's legal obligation to hire ILWU members, union workers argue for the benefits of the longshore dispatching system, which allows members to choose which job they want to perform each day. This flexibility eases the monotony of physical labor, which, some say, saves lives in one of the most dangerous jobs in the country. Any breach of the union's jurisdiction could damage that system.

In the ILWU's eyes, EGT's actions amount to a declaration of war; success for the company would create an opening for other employers to hire outside the union. Every other major grain terminal on the West Coast is under ILWU contract.

EGT is bound by contract to use Longshore labor—yet Local 21 must turn to civil disobedience to protect its members' jobs.

Maybe more unions should take a page out of civil rights movement history. Tear up Taft-Hartley and light up Landrum-Griffin. Workers protecting their jobs answer to a higher moral authority than the legislative bodies that squawk about trespassing laws.

UNIONS THINK THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW.

With this union mindset it can't help but make Hoffa's little "take them out" comment even more worrisome. If the thugs go Old Hoffa Union style there will be blood on OBAMA's hands, as old "Bring a GUN to a Knife fight" Obama stayed silent while Hoffa was whipping up the "We are above the law" union thugs to go old school on the TEA PARTY.

 

[MsSage]

WOW now the longshoremen control the multibusiness parking lot. I am sure the other businesses will not stand up to these thugs ...too scared they will be hurt. Hail he admitted he would coldcock someone if he wanted to.

 

[Tam]

WOW now the longshoremen control the multibusiness parking lot. I am sure the other businesses will not stand up to these thugs ...too scared they will be hurt. Hail he admitted he would coldcock someone if he wanted to.

Biden called Democrat opponents BARBARIANS and Hoffa called them SOB's and told his member to TAKE THEM OUT and Obama says NOTHING. So I can see an orange jumpsuit and bars in the future of the guy in the video along with A LOT more union members. I feel sorry for anyone that has to clean up the country after Obama is gone. He has done more to destroy unity in the US than I ever thought one guy could do. :roll:

 

[MsSage]

Sorry I see alot of black bags in the future. I know I for one will not back down but I also dont have to deal with goons. LOL the only gang bangers i have to deal with are already behind bars.


People better wake up and the "powers" that be better see where this is going and STOP it. Our nation has gotten very violent and lost alot of regard for the individual.

 

[flounder]

http://www.njweedman.com/cowboy_bush.gif



what a bunch of hypocrites, it would take Obama, or anyone else, 8 years, or longer, to fix what gw bush screwed up...


[/img][/url]http://www.njweedman.com/cowboy_bush.gif

 

[MsSage]

So flounder you agree with getting the rabble rouser all worked up and encouraging them to "take them out" ...........WOW

 

[Larrry]

what a bunch of hypocrites, it would take Obama, or anyone else, 8 years, or longer, to fix what gw bush screwed up...

Well I dang sure wissh he'd start improving things instead of taking what Bush had and making it worse. He has already used up three years making it worse....when will he ever start on his promises

 

[tumbleweed_texn]

Wow, Im impressed. An eight word vocabulary. It's a good thing we have unions to hire the stupid. Even the immigrants working at McDonalds have a better command of the english language.

 

[Steve]

The storming of the port terminal happened spontaneously during the protest of nonunion labor

this is wrong.. the protest is not against nonunion labor, but against another union..

Talks between the union and EGT broke off in January, and EGT this summer hired union workers from the International Operating Engineers local 701, based in Gladstone, Ore., to operate the terminal.

 

[Steve]

"It was a very, very ugly situation," Nelson said, adding that he fears the conflict could escalate.

Police said a throng of protesters pushed against them, forcing them to beat them away with clubs and pepper spray. Union officials say they worried police were going to arrest Robert McEllrath, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, for trespassing, so they moved to protect him.

The train was operated by union engineers, BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said.

After warning protesters twice to clear the tracks, police formed their own line, donning riot helmets and brandishing rifles with rubber bullets. Protesters urged them to stop, and one man yelled, "We stood with you!" at the union police officers.

After a three-hour standoff, union leaders urged members to relent — for now.

"You can get Maced and tear-gassed and clubbed (today)" or wait for longshore support from all over the West Coast when the next train tries to enter the EGT terminal, McEllrath told protesters after he met with police. "If we leave here, it doesn't mean that we gave up and quit. It means we're coming back," added McEllrath, who is based in the union's home office in San Francisco.

After McEllrath's announcement, the majority of protesters left, but at 6 p.m. 16 of them sat on the tracks until the train started moving toward the grain terminal at 7 p.m. Police arrested all of them.

Dan Coffman, president of the ILWU's Longview-based Local 21, said at least two union members were hit with pepper spray in the face and another was clubbed. No one was taken to the hospital, but they were treated by other ILWU members with medical expertise, he said.

"It's totally unbelievable that our police force in our county is protecting a multi-national corporation. They're the thugs, and our guys acted to protect our president," Coffman said.

ILWU members traveled from Portland, Vancouver and other cities to take part in the protest. Nelson said he doesn't expect tensions to lessen.

"If the pattern holds true, I'm going to say it's going to get worse," he said. "We haven't had these kinds of issues with our local people."

http://tdn.com/news/local/article_573cb9f8-d9b2-11e0-9dee-001cc4c002e0.html

interestingly not a word on the national news....

Union efforts to block grain deliveries are in apparent violation of a federal court order issued last week, according to Rich Ahearn, director of the National Labor Relations Board's Seattle office.

Last week, a federal judge ordered a temporary restraining order against ILWU Local 21 in Longview and Local 4 in Vancouver barring illegal picketing against EGT. Union members have harassed and threatened EGT workers numerous times during the dispute, according to the NLRB.

Businesses must abide by the NLRB rulings, yet the unions do not have to ..

 

[flounder]

in this cartoon, take the head of GW, and add in Perry's head with all that pretty hair, and you would have 4 more years of the same YEE HAW, ROOTEN-TOOTEN, red neck mentality as President. i don't think the United States of America can handle that...

http://www.njweedman.com/cowboy_bush.gif



what a bunch of hypocrites, it would take Obama, or anyone else, 8 years, or longer, to fix what gw bush screwed up...


[/img][/url]http://www.njweedman.com/cowboy_bush.gif

 

[hypocritexposer]

in this cartoon, take the head of GW, and add in Perry's head with all that pretty hair, and you would have 4 more years of the same YEE HAW, ROOTEN-TOOTEN, red neck mentality as President. i don't think the United States of America can handle that...

http://www.njweedman.com/cowboy_bush.gif



what a bunch of hypocrites, it would take Obama, or anyone else, 8 years, or longer, to fix what gw bush screwed up...


[/img][/url]http://www.njweedman.com/cowboy_bush.gif

You'd rather have the opportunity to vote for Palin, wouldn't you?