Cargo Business Newswire

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Top Story

ILWU reaches agreement with PNW grain terminal owners, lock-out ends

International Longshore and Warehouse Union dockworkers at Pacific Northwest grain terminals have voted to ratify a new contract with Louis Dreyfus Commodities, United Grain Corporation and Columbia Grain, according to an ILWU statement.

ILWU said the vote included members of ILWU Local 8 in Portland, Ore., Local 4 in Vancouver, Local 21 in Longview, Local 19 in Seattle, and Local 23 in Tacoma, Wash., who collectively voted 88.4 percent in favor of the tentative collective bargaining agreement that will be in effect until May 31, 2018.

Negotiations for the new agreement started in August of 2012, involved 70 separate sessions, and included lockouts at Portland's Columbia Grain and Vancouver's United Grain facilities. Terms of the agreement include work rule changes and wage increases over the life of the agreement, according to the union statement.

ILWU said its members will resume their jobs at the locked-out facilities on Wednesday. All picketing has stopped, and the parties have agreed to drop all pending NLRB and other legal actions associated with the dispute, according to the statement.

Bargaining was difficult, the union said, but in the end, both sides compromised significantly from their original positions, resulting in a workable agreement that "preserves the work of the ILWU-represented workforce and fosters stability for the export grain industry."

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