Railway unionists in Tokyo recently protested a lockout nearly 5,000 miles away, of American dockworkers who load grain onto ships headed for Asia.
With signs calling the aggressive employer a “Merchant of Death,” Japanese workers rallied outside the headquarters of Marubeni, owner of Columbia Grain, which locked out members of Longshore (ILWU) Local 8 in Portland, Oregon, in May.
“If you continue Columbia Grain’s operation in such way,” wrote the railway union Doro-Chiba and a Japanese labor federation in a letter to Marubeni executives, “you will be faced with bitter condemnation and outrage from workers not only in the United States but also all around the world.”
