From an article titled ‘Longshoremen’s union picket lumber company on the North Spit’ in The World:
Longshoremen from up and down the West Coast gathered to support Coos Bay’s own International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 12 on Friday afternoon as the group gathered to picket Southport Lumber on the North Spit. Photo by The World
Southport Lumber owner Jason Smith contracted with Local 12 Longshoremen for several years using their services to load lumber and wood chips onto outgoing shipping containers in Coos Bay, Oregon.
Three years ago the Southport Lumber and ILWU Local 12 were negotiating a new contract when a disagreement between the union and the lumber company caused the contract to be dropped.
According to Gary Alford, a recently retired longshoreman, the union refused Southport’s contract offer because it called for less than one-third of the manpower that the longshoremen were used to. The ILWU Local 12 refusing the contract caused Southport to drop the negotiation.
“One of the things that we’re picketing for here now is to speed up the 10(k) hearing. This is our work and we want this work. We’ve been locked out for three years,” ILWU Local 12 secretary treasurer Gene Sundet said.
“We’d like to get our work back. We want him to hire us back to load his barges, which everybody on the West Coast does,” Sundet said.
