Port of Longview, ILWU and EGT Agree on Settlement

The rank and file members of ILWU local 21 have agreed to a new contract with EGT at the Port of Longview, Wa, after months of brutality by local police (see here) and intransigence by EGT. (For more on the history of the struggle, see here).

According to the new contract, EGT will hire only workers dispatched from the Local 21 hall. However, workers must then vote on whether they wish to be represented by the ILWU, the Daily News Online wrote this week.

While this compromise doesn’t nix ILWU members outright, like EGT’s prior practice of hiring only non-ILWU members, it does leave open the possibility of hiring non-union workers willing to apply for work at the union hall. It prevents an automatic closed shop from existing at EGT, which would have otherwise been the case. And it also opens the door to an employer-led anti-union campaign on the jobsite and threats and intimidation to keep non-ILWU members from joining the union and to prevent a closed shop from emerging.

Ostensibly, this provision was designed to avoid violating federal labor law, which prohibits companies from designating a union before it even hires a work force. However, EGT had made earlier promises to hire Local 21 members and then reneged on the promise, precipitating the conflict in the first place. And if the company really wanted to hire ILWU members, then it would just hire them and they could call it a union after the fact. In reality, it is simply an attempt to weaken or stamp out the union influence, something ILWU members most likely felt confident they could prevent by requiring all new hires to come from their union hall.

The agreement also requires both sides to drop all unfair labor practice claims and other litigation. The ILWU would still be liable for damages from last summer's protests, which a federal judge has placed at more than $300,000. The union is appealing the amount.

One particularly curious and burdensome aspect of the contract requires the ILWU to ask all outside groups, including the Occupy movement, to refrain from picketing at EGT. However, this is not the ILWU’s responsibility. They never asked for OWS to picket or shut down ports and they have no control or jurisdiction over them anyway.

Michigan Attempts to Crush Teachers Unions

A House committee of the Republican Michigan Legislature approved legislation this week banning school districts from deducting union dues from teachers’ pay, according to the Detroit News. If the legislation passes, it will serious hamper union activities by making it much more difficult for the unions to collect dues and amass war chests for organizing, lobbying and attempting to purchase politicians.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joe Haveman, said "I don't believe the schools should be in the business of being the bill collectors for the unions." However, because of the automated payroll systems, it costs the districts virtually nothing to include union dues in the billing. Even Haveman himself admitted that the savings would be nominal.

The real motivation behind the legislation is clearly to weaken the unions. David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers in Michigan was quoted by the Detroit News saying "The goal is to totally undercut the voice of teachers by totally undercutting their unions."

As if any more proof was needed, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, suggested that a "right to teach" bill would be a good idea, undermining the ability of unions to create closed shops in which all employees must become members. While it is true that Michigan and most other states do not have truly closed shops for teachers and teachers can opt out of the union, they still often get some money deducted from their paychecks for union representation and generally get the same contracts as the fully paying members. If a “right to teach” bill were successful, one likely implication would be that all teachers would have to negotiate individual contracts with their districts, without the power and benefits of collective bargaining, most likely resulting in significantly lower wages and benefits.

It should be pointed out that the automatic dues check off, while making it easier for unions to finance themselves, is certainly not necessary for a union to be effective. In fact, it may actually contribute to the bureaucratization, laziness and wimpiness of union officials. Back in the day, there was no automatic dues check off and union organizers had to collect dues from each member in person, giving them the chance to do more real organizing, listening to members’ grievances and suggestions. It forced them to be more accountable to members because they failed to make members happy, they simply refused to pay their dues.