NW grain terminal lockout pits ILWU against strikebreakers(private sector leverage)

The Oregonian ^ | 12/23/12 | Richard Read

[Be Careful]

Scores of out-of-state strikebreakers wait on high alert in Northwest hotel rooms, ready to replace longshoremen in case of a lockout at grain terminals.

Three fully crewed, non-union tugboats protected by armed guards stand by, prepared to keep grain ships docking. In a provocative move, a California company has moored the tugs on the Willamette River near longshore Local 8's Northwest Portland union hall.

Quietly, owners of Portland, Vancouver and Puget Sound terminals have spent months preparing for a battle royal on the waterfront, lining up troops and assets like chess pieces. The agribusiness giants have laid legal groundwork for a lockout, which could occur anytime after a Monday noon deadline.

[Be Careful]

Read about these private contract companies that are protecting business......Watch this strike by ILWU(San Francisco-based) and East Coast Strike.....private sector's response to 'Enemies-Both Foreign and Domestic'.

Private Labor Companies and Shipping should bring in Laborers by the bus-load....Documented and Un-Documented both....... what Obama would do?

[2banana]

I have become so sick of unions - both public and private.

I hate their entitlement mentality, their destroy anything they don’t like attitudes and their near 100% support for democrats and socialists...

I hope this union gets crushed.

[traditional1]

Yup!

Unions and their thuggery are going to be met with people who will actually WORK, without accommodating slackers with "seniority", and will work for REASONABLE/NON-INFLATED/EXTORTIONIST wages. No money-laudering of Dues to the DCN from non-Union workers, which is why handouts of tax money are constantly flowing from Democrat-dominated regimes.....

Let's just watch as the future plays out between the Haves and the Have-Nots, in ALL areas of the country....my money is on the Haves.

[traditional1]

DCN=DNC

[griswold3]

I'm sure the unions won't cause any problems. I mean, they've never resorted to violence in the past, right?

[Spktyr]

Videotape everything and repulse union assault attempts with live rounds, IMHO.

[Enterprise]

Obama won’t bother invoking any petty Taft Hartley act. He is more likely to send in armed Federal Officers to arrest the strike breakers.

[BBell]

The strike companies deploy hardened workers derided by union members as scabs, mercenaries and worse. Strikebreakers often leave home abruptly without knowing their destinations until a boss hands them plane tickets

I once knew a guy who took a job as a strike breaker. He never knew where he was going and his first job landed him in W. Virginia. I should also mention he was as big as a house. He played a lineman in College ball until he could not keep his grades up.As a strike breaker he was paid well.