ITF Keeping Eye on Strike-busting Bulk Carrier
The vessel 'Long Beach' reportedly loaded at Vancouver's Mitsui-UGC terminal where union dockworkers are locked out.
The ITF is keeping the port under close watch. Following the Long Beach incident it will be contacting the vessel’s owners and crew and explaining the situation at the port and what action seafarers are expected to take and not to take in these circumstances: in line with the solidarity clause in their collective bargaining agreement. The vessel’s next stop is Nagoya in Japan, where it is expected to arrive on March 23.
Background
Dock workers from the ITF-affiliated International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) were locked out of their jobs at the Port of Vancouver in Washington, USA by their employer, Japanese conglomerate Mitsui.
Members of ILWU Local 4 have been working to reach a fair agreement with their multinational grain terminal employers for several months after the Grain Handlers’ collective bargaining agreement with the union expired in September last year. But in the early hours of 27 February around 200 workers at Vancouver were locked out.