As Dr. King wrote in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, “There are two types of laws: just and unjust. One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
EGT started the fight by suing the Port of Longview to void the stipulation in its lease that requires EGT to hire Local 21 members. The trial is set to begin next year and could drag on for years. In the meantime, EGT has broken off negotiations with the ILWU and is operating its terminal as if it had already won the case.
Besides the company’s legal obligation to hire ILWU members, union workers argue for the benefits of the longshore dispatching system, which allows members to choose which job they want to perform each day. This flexibility eases the monotony of physical labor, which, some say, saves lives in one of the most dangerous jobs in the country. Any breach of the union’s jurisdiction could damage that system.
In the ILWU’s eyes, EGT’s actions amount to a declaration of war; success for the company would create an opening for other employers to hire outside the union. Every other major grain terminal on the West Coast is under ILWU contract.
EGT is bound by contract to use Longshore labor—yet Local 21 must turn to civil disobedience to protect its members’ jobs.
Maybe more unions should take a page out of civil rights movement history. Tear up Taft-Hartley and light up Landrum-Griffin. Workers protecting their jobs answer to a higher moral authority than the legislative bodies that squawk about trespassing laws.
