Owners of Northwest terminals that handle a quarter of the nation’s grain exports appear poised to lock out longshore workers. But not Saturday.
Representatives of companies holding contract talks with the West Coast longshore union had said their “last, best and final offer” would expire at 5 p.m. Saturday. But on Friday afternoon, the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association issued an extension without a deadline.
The brinkmanship occurs as tensions rise and rumors fly concerning a strike or lockout at six terminals in Portland, Vancouver and the Puget Sound. The grain handlers appear fully prepared, having hired an out-of-state strikebreaking company that provides replacement workers and security guards.
The employers are apparently taking steps to prove the talks are at impasse, meaning that if longshoremen ultimately return to work after a lockout, the companies could legally impose the contract offered Nov. 16. Union negotiators, meanwhile, may be laying groundwork for a federal unfair-labor-practices claim in which they’d contend the terminal owners acted before talks reached impasse.
