The building of the new Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power plant in Northern California has been seen as a boost to the local economy, but on Tuesday, local longshoremen were picketing over the out-of-town labor being used to move the plant’s massive engines. Members of ILWU Local 14 voiced concern over who was moving the 10 300-ton engines and 10 100-ton generators from the Schneider Dock on the Eureka Waterfront to the a nearby boat repair yard dock. ”None of the people are local,” said ILWU Local 14 President Damien Mooney. Mooney said 12 non-local workers are doing the work the Local 14 has jurisdiction over — work that longshoremen here need badly since the Samoa pulp mill shut down. Mooney said that Bragg Crane is using its own labor force, union teamsters, iron workers and operating engineers from out of the area.
