By Steve Stallone
Four ILWU Northwest longshore locals recently ratified by more than 90 percent a new three-year contract for grain operations to be effective retroactively to Oct. 1, 2006.
The Northwest Grain Handlers Agreement—the second largest contract negotiated by the ILWU’s Longshore Division—is between Locals 4 (Vancouver, Wash.), 8 (Portland), 19 (Seattle) and 23 (Tacoma) and the Pacific Northwest Grain Elevators Operators, a non-Pacific Maritime Assn. (PMA) member employer group that includes Cargill, Inc., Columbia Grain, Inc., Louis Dreyfus Corporation, CLD Pacific Grain, LLC and United Grain Corporation, some of the biggest corporations in the international grain production and distribution business.
The union negotiators went into bargaining Aug. 29 looking to bring the grain agreement up to parody with the master longshore contract negotiated with the PMA.
“That was our focus and that was what we accomplished,” said Northwest Coast Committeeman Leal Sundet, who co-chaired the union’s negotiating team.
At one time the grain agreement had actually been better than the master longshore contract. It had, among other things, provisions for sick leave and a boot and clothing allowance. But in the 1980s the threat of non-union competition from the Gulf region dragged down standards and the grain agreement fell behind.
“It got so bad that at one time workers had to pay part of their own health care premiums,” Sundet said.
But over the last four negotiations the union has brought it up to almost completely mirroring the master Longshore Division contract. Among such gains in the current agreement was bringing the second shift pay up from time and a quarter to time and a third.
“This was a huge issue for us,” said Local 19 President Herald Ugles, who co-chaired the negotiating committee with Sundet. “To me that was one of our big victories.”
The agreement also brought the base wage up to the master contract levels. And although the skill rates are not on a par, there is an across-the-board increase in all skill categories. And in accord with the master contract, the negotiating committee won Lincoln’s birthday (Feb. 12) as a non-paid holiday, meaning those who work that day make time and a half.
Health care and pensions remain in parity with the master contract—even into the unknown changes that may occur in the 2008 contract—with the grain employers contributing 100 percent to the PMA-ILWU welfare and pension plans. But the committee was unable to achieve the one dollar per hour employer contribution to the 401(k) plan.
Still, the committee was able to hold off several changes the employers wanted for their advantage, including shortening the length of the contract so it expired at the same time as the master contract with the PMA. But the union didn’t want to have to negotiate two big contracts at the same time and turned that back.
The employers also wanted to change the contract’s expiration date from its current Oct. 1, when the grain shipping season begins, to June or July when the grain elevators are generally shut down.
“If we went into talks when there’s hardly any work happening, that would take out our bargaining strength,” Ugles said.
The employers also proposed capping their contribution to the welfare plan, making workers pay costs above that out of their wages. But the union would have none of that.
“They complained they have no control over the health care costs since they are not members of the PMA,” Ugles said. “We offered a simple solution—join the PMA!”
Throughout the talks the employers argued that the grain market is unpredictable and that they have to compete with non-union operations in the Gulf as well as internationally with Australia and China.
“We always have to deal with those ghosts in the closet,” Ugles said.
“We’re negotiating with some of the biggest companies in the world that are always trying to squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. But our advantage was our solidarity among locals and that in the short term the grain market is very strong. They’re making money and we’re making money.”
