UA Local 290 members showed support for ILWU Local 21's juridsiction.
On August 19, the members of UA Local 290 passed a resolution called “Resolution condemning Operating Engineers Local 701 for scabbing at the Port of Longview” in support of ILWU Local 21’s jurisdiction, specifically with regard to the EGT grain terminal. EGT recently made motions to subcontract with Operating Engineers Local 701 from Gladstone, Oregon, in a smoke-and-mirrors attempt to evade its responsibility to hire union longshoremen at the Port of Longview.
The UA’s resolution, as passed, mirrors the resolution passed by the Executive Board of the Oregon AFL-CIO on July 29. Read the entire resolution here.
The Plumbers’ resolution goes one step further by mandating that the union notify the Oregon AFL-CIO and the Washington State Labor Council that the membership passed the resolution. An excerpt:
Whereas, EGT Development, a joint venture of multinational corporations Bunge, Itochu and STX Pan Ocean agreed to hire union longshoremen when accepting millions in taxpayer funds to build a massive grain exporting terminal at the Port of Longview and is now trying to avoid following its contract with regards to labor, and
Whereas, longshoremen and their supporters are being wrongfully arrested by the hundreds in their defense of this lifetime jurisdiction from EGT’s attacks, and have gained public support in the process, and
Whereas, the only way that EGT could neutralize this public demand to honor its agreement to hire union ILWU longshoremen was to find another union to collude with the employer to create window dressing to trick people into thinking the union issue had been resolved, and
Whereas, EGT found said willingness to undermine ILWU longshore standards among the leadership of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 701,
Be it resolved that UA Local 290 condemn in the strongest way possible the scab labor actions of OE Local 701.
UA is the acronym for the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada.