From the Northwest Labor Press:
The talks ended Dec. 12 with no agreement, and ILWU reported that members voted to reject PNGHA’s final offer Dec. 21 and 22 by 93.8 percent. At that point, three PNGHA employers announced they would impose their terms: Louis Dreyfus Commodities, a Dutch company that owns grain elevators in Seattle and Portland; Marubeni Corp., a Japanese company that owns Columbia Grain in Portland; and Mitsui & Co., a Japanese company that owns United Grain in Vancouver, Wash.
That provoked a strange kind of standoff. Beginning Dec. 27, union longshore workers at these terminals continued to show up for work, but without a union contract. They’re free to strike at any time, but the employers are also free to replace them, and they’re reportedly prepared to do so, with strikebreakers and nonunion tugboats reportedly at the ready.