Twice in the past four months Maersk Line, the largest shipping company in the world, had its Tacoma operations shut down by community activists who say the company is violating the rights of its security guards who overwhelmingly chose to join the ILWU last summer at the sub-contractor Securitas.

     Security guards have faced a manage- ment-run union-busting campaign complete with unlawful threats of mass firings. The guards are organizing with the ILWU to raise their poverty wages, secure affordable family healthcare, and win more respect and a voice on the job.

    One guard, George Twiggs, was fired on February 13 for union activity – a practice that is becoming more common nationwide as employers try to intimidate workers from exercising their right to join a union.

    When Twiggs – who is also a pastor and disabled military veteran – showed up to work on the terminal for his early morning shift, a manager tried to force him to sign an agreement that would stop him from talking to co-workers about “issues” or gathering with them in non-work areas, among other topics. When Twiggs refused the manager’s demand to give up his rights, the manager said Twiggs would be fired by the end of his shift.

    That afternoon, managers called him into the office and suspended him for an entirely different reason – for distributing union information to co-workers. The next day a manager fired Twiggs over the telephone, reading a statement allegedly from Maersk Terminals Security Manager Marvin Ferreira that said, “No matter how many yellow pieces of paper guards or longshore post, the guards will never belong to ILWU.”

    “The public should know when big foreign-owned companies try to take advantage of local employees,” Twiggs told the Dispatcher. “Instead of sitting down with us to solve problems, improve working conditions and services, Securitas continues to break the law by abusing employees.” 

    The community activists who shut down the Port on both occasions were organized by Jobs with Justice (JwJ). In February of 2008, JwJ staged a loud and lively picket line at the port during the evening shift. Concerned that crossing the picket line might be unsafe until it ended, port workers called for a neutral arbitrator to evaluate the situation. 

    In November of 2007, an arbitrator decided that a similar JwJ picket line was unsafe to cross, and ruled that management must pay longshore
workers while they waited for the picket to end.

    Many security guards at the Maersk terminal earned about $10 per hour when the organizing drive started.  For years, Maersk has undercut security guards’ rights by using a system of sub-contracting and “company unions.”  This form of union-busting has spread like a virus throughout the Port of Tacoma.

    Craig Dameron, statewide co-chair of Jobs with Justice, explained that the group was sending a message to Maersk and other operators that the community will not tolerate companies “that continually disrespect the rights of workers at Port of Tacoma terminals.”

    Hundreds of low-wage guards at Tacoma and other ports are watching this precedent-setting organizing drive waged by the Maersk terminal guards to see if jobs with justice can be won. 

    Maersk is the largest Danish corporation and the largest container shipping company in the world, with 110,000 employees worldwide and $44 billion in revenues in 2006.  Both Maersk and Securitas (based in Sweden) have generally good labor relations with unions in their home countries. But when operating abroad, Maersk and other global shipping corporations hire security contractors like Securitas to insulate themselves from the responsibility of providing union living wage jobs espoused in their own corporate policies. 

    Until recently, Securitas workers were technically under the International Union of the Security, Police & Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA).  When Congress weakened federal labor laws decades ago, they compromised the rights of security guards to join strong unions, organize and honor picket lines, and to strike over basic worker issues.

 Companies then helped unions like SPFPA, the California Security Officers’ Union (CSOU), United Federation of Special Police and Security Officers, Inc. (UFSPSO) and the United Government Security Officers of America (UGSOA), to prevent guards from joining stronger unions like the ILWU.

    Last month, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint charging that Securitas managers had violated federal labor laws by repeatedly threatening employees who wanted to join the ILWU. 

    Adam Hoyt, Co-Chair of the JwJ Pierce County Organizing Committee vowed to “work with other Jobs with Justice local coalitions and their allies nationwide to confront Maersk for
violating worker rights.  If management thought tonight was a headache, they don’t know the migraine that’s coming.” – Jennifer Sargent