Vancouver pickets disrupt trade

Mitsui said that it took the action because one union worker had sabotaged company equipment and that it would employ replacement workers to fulfil its loading duties.

Meanwhile, the International Longshoremen’s Workers Union (ILWU) said that this was no justification to lockout the whole work force and has since filed an unfair labour practice charge with the National Labour Relations Board. Meanwhile, Vancouver police are investigating the sabotage allegations.

The Port of Vancouver is suffering some fallout because of the dispute. It says that picketing is still taking place at the port’s Gate 2, the gate reserved for United Grain Company (UGC) business.

Theresa Wagner, Port of Vancouver, said to Port Strategy: “There is no picketing at the port’s other gates, allowing business for neutral parties to continue. The port is not a party to the negotiations. Our priorities, which we’ve communicated to both UGC and ILWU, are keeping people safe, protecting property, and allowing neutral parties to continue to do business.”

The ILWU has worked under the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers’ Agreement since the 1930s. The agreement covers six grain terminals: Japan-based Mitsui (United Grain in Vancouver), Japan based Marubeni (Columbia Grain in Portland), Netherlands based Louis Dreyfus Commodities (elevators in Seattle and Portland), US based Cargill and CHS (TEMCO elevators in Tacoma, Kalama and Portland).

The trouble began when the grain handlers’ collective bargaining agreement expired on 29 September 2012. All the terminals, except TEMCO, then imposed what the ILWU says was a “substandard contract” in its place three months later.

As well as Mitsui’s United Grain, the union is also at loggerheads over labour with Japan based Marubeni (Columbia Grain in Portland) and Netherlands based Louis Dreyfus Commodities (elevators in Seattle and Portland).