After a three-day trial
in Cowlitz County, Washington Superior Court, International Longshore and Warehouse
Union International President Robert McEllrath was convicted Sept. 28 of a misdemeanor
charge of obstructing a train bound for the Port of Longview’s EGT grain terminal
during a protest last year.
After a six-person jury
found McEllrath guilty, he was sentenced to serve one day in jail, with 89 other
days suspended. He was also ordered to pay $543 in fines.
At the time of the Sept.
7, 2011 protest, which ultimately led to the conviction, ILWU Local 21 had been
in a dispute with terminal operator EGT over EGT’s labor usage. The local had contended
that its contract with the Port of Longview required that the 25 to 35 jobs inside
the terminal go to ILWU workers.
The company, however, said
its lease agreement with the port did not specify ILWU workers. Members of International
Union of Operating Engineers Local 701 had been working at the terminal.
“Fighting for good jobs
in America shouldn’t be a crime,” McEllrath said following his arrest.
He was first tried in District
Court last June, but the two-day trial ended after the six jurists hearing the case
couldn’t agree on a verdict, resulting in a hung jury.
Before being sentenced after
the retrial, he was unrepentant, telling the court he had “no regrets about leading
men and women against corporate greed and helping them fight to protect middle class
jobs in America.”
The labor issue was eventually
settled under an agreement ratified by the port Jan. 27 and signed with the union
in early February. Under it, all labor at the terminal must be dispatched through
the Local 21 union hall.
Although McEllrath, who
is based in San Francisco, is the highest-ranking union member convicted in the
case, the president of the Local 21 chapter and a member of the union’s executive
board both pleaded guilty in March to charges related to last summer’s protests.
ILWU dockworkers at a handful
of Pacific Northwest seaports reportedly walked off the job Sept. 28 in protest
of the conviction, including at the Port of Portland and Port of Longview, where
a handful of union members left after the verdict was read around 4 pm. They then
returned to work one to two hours later and no major disruptions of workflow were
reported.
