Contract talks between the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers
Association and a union representing dockworkers across the Pacific Northwest
have broken down, but both sides say they don’t anticipate a strike or lockout
in the near term.
The owners group had given the International Longshore and
Warehouse Union until the clock struck midnight on Nov. 29 to accept what they said
was their final offer on a deal. But ownership spokesman Pat McCormick has said
no lockout is planned.
The Grain Handlers Association represents four companies:
Columbia Grain, which operates a Port of Portland terminal; United Grain Corp.,
which has an export terminal at the Port of Vancouver in Washington; LD
Commodities, operator of facilities in Portland and Seattle; and TEMCO, which
has facilities in Kalama, Portland and Tacoma.
The association began negotiations with the union involving
Puget Sound terminals and operations on the Columbia River in early September,
weeks prior to the previous contract’s Sept. 30 expiration date.
The owners group has said it wants a contract similar to
what was worked out between management and longshore workers at the Port of
Longview earlier this year for the port’s EGT grain terminal. The contract
includes several cost-saving workplace rules.
However, the union says it won’t budge on some concessions
the owners want, such as 12-hour work shifts, an ability to bypass the union
hiring hall and being given greater control over the ability to fire
dockworkers.
Despite the increasingly contentious negotiations, no labor
disruptions have been reported at any of the affected terminals so far. A union
source however, has said plans are underway to organize boat pickets on the
Columbia and Willamette rivers if a lockout does occur.
