ILWU Local 4 Dispatcher Troy Olson has 44 fewer jobs to dispatch to the union’s membership since Mitsui-United Grain locked out workers last year. Photo by Zachary Kaufman, The Columbian.
Two years ago, Marcel DeBord, 61, earned the right to call himself a regular “B man,” a promotion and prideful place in the world of union dockworkers.ILWU member Marcel DeBord says his family has been hit hard by the lockout. He looks for work at the union’s dispatch hall in Vancouver and sometimes travels to other ports in the region in hopes of landing a job. (Zachary Kaufman/The Columbian)
In a nine-month period in 2012, he logged 1,726 hours at United Grain Corp.’s terminal at the Port of Vancouver, driving forklifts and trucks, as well as operating locomotives hauling grain-filled rail cars.
For all of 2013, however, his hours plunged 33 percent to 1,156 hours.
The slashing of his employment — and the resulting impacts on his family’s livelihood — began a year ago today, when United Grain locked out up to 44 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
