The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office won’t file charges against a longshore worker accused of sabotaging operations at United Grain Corp. during a labor dispute in December. The company locked out 44 union workers Feb. 27 based on its private investigator’s conclusion that union worker Todd Walker had purposely damaged the company’s machinery.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Jeff McCarty said in a letter to Vancouver police Det. Carole Boswell that he agreed with her conclusion that it’s impossible to identify the person captured on the video or to be certain “that the person in the video is actually damaging the machine.”
In a statement issued to the Columbian on Thursday, Jennifer Sargent, spokeswoman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said: “It’s a monumental relief for Mr. Walker and his family to be able to move on from what we’ve said all along was a false allegation from the company.”
“Mitsui-UGC” — a reference to United Grain’s Tokyo-based parent Mitsui & Co. — “used this false allegation as an excuse to lock out dozens of local workers, and the whole community has suffered for it,” Sargent said. “The union would like to reach a fair agreement and get local union members back to work where they belong.”
