A Port of Portland official says the longshoremen’s agreement with Export Grain Terminal (EGT), Longview, WA is setting a precedent that could influence cargo handling agreements with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), whose contract ends July 1st. Sam Ruda, chief commercial officer, Port of Portland told participants at the March TPM (Trans Pacific Maritime) Conference at Long Beach, CA that the EGT provisions are being demanded by other Columbia River grain exporters. They undermine ILWU manning provisions established over many years. The ILWU refused to extend the EGT provisions to other grain exporters and has been locked out of two grain terminals-the United Grain Corp terminal at Vancouver, Washington and the Columbia Grain Inc. terminal at Portland, Oregon since 2013. At the same time, the ILWU has been accused of engaging in a work slow down at the Port of Portland that could adversely impact the Hanjin container service, which accounts for the bulk of Portland’s container business. The dispute between International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI), the Portland terminal manager and the ILWU is forcing local shippers to go to the Washington ports of Seattle and Tacoma for their container business, according to press reports. The ILWU signed an agreement with EGT at a reduced cost relative to standard ILWU agreements, according to a maritime labor expert who asked not to be identified. The expert said the concessions made by the ILWU with EGT encouraged grain terminal operators at Vancouver and Portland to seek similar concessions: “The ILWU refused, and this was a factor in the two terminal operators locking the ILWU out of their facilities. There were other activities and allegations that precipitated the lock out, but it stems from the grain terminals asking for essentially the same deal as the EGT deal, and the ILWU refusing.” Ruda said, “Nobody is talking about” the concessions made by the ILWU at EGT and what they could mean not just for grain exporters but for container handling at Pacific coast ports. Ruda noted that concessions “could have an explosive impact” and have an impact on the contract talks between the PMA (Pacific Maritime Association) and the ILWU that will begin this summer. The EGT-ILWU agreement was criticized by a group of retired ILWU members and former officials in a June, 2012 open letter posted on the internet in which they charged that longshore jobs had been compromised: “This was not an agreement. It was an EGT dictate agreed to by the International (ILWU) and left to local officers to sign,” and “The historic gain of the ’34 Big Strike, the union hiring hall, was gutted. This contract completely surrenders a fair order of dispatch and allows the employer to establish their own lists, one for the ship and one for shoreside, and to fire any worker without cause…For the first time ever this contract allows employers to do our work with superintendents and sub-contractors, i.e. scabs during 1) stop work meetings, 2) health and safety beefs, 3) bona fide picket lines! And to top it all off, 4) Bloody Thursday which we commemorate every year for the labor martyrs of the 1934 Maritime Strike…” The retirees refer to the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen’s strike which established the ILWU as the recognized bargaining agent for longshore workers on the West Coast and encouraged unionization in the Western United States. There was no reference to the grain export dispute by PMA President Jim McKenna, representing terminal managers. McKenna told TPM participants that while a contract might not be reached by the June 30th expiration date that he remained guardedly optimistic. He expressed the hope that the PMA and the ILWU would reach a new longshore contract agreement without a strike or lockout. Jurisdictional Challenges In response to the Columbia River problems, ILWU President Robert McEllrath sent a letter announcing “ILWU Disaffiliation” to AFL-CIO president, Richard Trumka. In the letter sent last August, he blames the AFL-CIO for encouraging a rival union to take work away from the ILWU. He cited the EGT dispute at Port of Longview, Washington. “A particularly outrageous raid occurred in 2011, when one affiliate slipped in to fill longshore jobs at the new EGT grain facility in the port of Longview, Washington and then walked through ILWU picket lines for six months until we were able to secure this critical longshore jurisdiction.” In his letter, McEllrath told Trumka: “Your office added insult to injury by issuing a directive to the Oregon State Federation to rescind its support of the ILWU fight at EGT, which threatened to be the first marine terminal on the West Coast to go non-ILWU.” McEllrath cited other offenses: “Throughout the Pacific Northwest, we are daily seeing still other affiliates blatantly cross the picket lines of ILWU members who have been locked out for months by the regional grain industry.” At the Long Beach TPM conference, participants heard from a representative of the International Association of Machinists who argued that his organization would be willing to handle technical waterfront jobs in closer cooperation with employers than the ILWU. Donald Crosatto, senior area director for the International Association of Machinists (IAM) based in Oakland, California, said that IAM members went through apprenticeships and training that qualified them for the maintenance and repair of cranes and other cargo handling equipment. Crosatto emphasized the importance of trained machinists and their ability to maintain and operate increasingly automated and larger scale cargo handling systems. He said his members continue to upgrade their technological skills and have a strong interest in the economic health of their employers for long term job security and economic growth on the waterfront. The Ilk of the Mysterious Vandalism Finally, there was a big mystery along the Columbia River waterfront in March involving an unusual case of vandalism inflicted on the car of a United Grain manager. United Grain is the company that locked out the ILWU in Vancouver, Washington last year. Press reports show the video of a hooded figure emptying containers of a fluid onto the United Grain manager’s car. The liquid was identified as elk urine. Charges have been flying back and forth between the ILWU and United Grain as to who is responsible. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office is seeking leads in the case.