EGT’s CEO Larry Clarke ran a pulic letter in a local newspaper thanking local cops for defending EGT’s business interests in face of union protests. Dawn Des Brisay photo.
Longshore workers have winterized their picket tents and continue to staff picket lines 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They have installed propane heaters and added storm flaps in the two tents set up along the fence near EGT’s front gate.
Picket lines went up in June. They are staffed by ILWU members from four locals: Local 21 in Longview; Local 8 in Portland, Ore.; Local 4 in Vancouver, Wash.; and Local 40, the ILWU clerks’ union for the local region, based in Portland. The Port of Longview has limited the number of pickets on port property to eight.
“The ILWU cannot lose this fight; we are in it to win it,” Dan Coffman, ILWU Local 21 president told the Militant.