‘That worked well with EGT didn’t it?’ said Averett, referring to the 2011 labor unrest when the ILWU clashed with EGT over jurisdiction.
Excerpts from an article titled ‘Labor, fossil fuels and taxes take center stage in port race’ in The Daily News:
Port Commissioner Doug Averett is defending his seat against Kent Preston, who has twice run unsuccessfully for the role.
while Preston is critical of the port’s labor agreement with the longshoremen’s union, Averett sees it as vital to the port’s operations.
Preston wants to loosen the port’s ties to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and make it easier for other unions or contracted non-union labor to perform typical longshoremen tasks at the port.
“That worked well with EGT didn’t it?” said Averett, referring to the 2011 labor unrest when the ILWU clashed with EGT over jurisdiction. “(Preston) acts like he doesn’t understand the waterfront. The longshoremen have jurisdiction for cargo activity at public ports coastwide. … If he believes he can somehow (change that), he’s sadly mistaken.”
ILWU International President Robert McEllrath was among the hundreds of union members who were arrested, pepper sprayed, clubbed, and subjected to abuse for standing up for good jobs at the EGT terminal in Longview, WA, in 2011 and 2012. EGT reached a collective bargaining agreement with the ILWU in 2012, and another in 2017. Photo by Dawn Des Brisay, ILWU Local 40.