A Tidewater employee said ratchets used to hold the barge in place appeared to have been intentionally loosened, according to a Coast Guard news release. A longshore union spokeswoman said the union had nothing to do with it.
“Intentionally causing damage to a vessel or its cargo is a crime punishable by a fine and imprisonment for up to 20 years,” the Coast Guard release said.
Jennifer Sargent, a longshore union spokeswoman, said strikebreaking companies often try to malign workers during labor disputes. “The manner in which the barge broke free from the dock is pure speculation until the investigation concludes,” Sargent wrote in an e-mail, “and the employer’s private security and strikebreaking firm should be as closely examined as anyone else during that process.”
Sargent noted that last week, a Clark County prosecutor declined to press charges against Vancouver longshore local official Todd Walker, who was accused by United Grain in March of sabotaging operations at the terminal. The prosecutor concluded that the company’s video failed to prove a crime had occurred, she said.
“The company had used that one fabricated allegation to justify locking out an entire local workforce,” Sargent said.
