The renovation will add new docks, a new shipping system, new rail and barge unloading machinery and new systems for cleaning wheat and other grains, Butters said. Butters said the improved terminal could handle up to 200 million bushels of grain per year, as much as Temco’s Tacoma terminal. Bill Wagner Photo / The Daily News
Before the upgrades, [General Manager Paul] Butters said Temco’s Kalama terminal employed a maximum of 50 to 60 workers depending on the season. When it reopens, Butters expects the operation will provide steady jobs for 120 workers. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union will represent most of those employees under a contract negotiated about a year ago, said former ILWU Local 21 President Jake Whiteside.
“I just believe that we were happy with the Temco agreement,” said Whiteside, who was president at the time of the negotiations. Whitside said he would like to see all of the union’s employees covered by contracts like the Temco agreement.