Pickets at both the Port of Portland and Port of Vancouver are hammering on how the foreign-owned companies are profiting from local taxpayer investments while ruining local union jobs that pay good wages and benefits.
A flier handed out at Port of Vancouver picket lines says Mitsui, owner of United Grain, “makes huge profits by using Washington’s public ports, highways and railroads.” It points out that a “$275 million West Vancouver Freight Access rail project allows Japan’s Mitsui to export grain shipments for record profits” and the “$178 million Columbia River channel deepening project moves Mitsui’s massive grain ships in and out of United Grain.”
Mitsui & Co. Inc. reported profits of $6.08 billion in 2012.
