United Grain terminal strike

Longshore protesters lay protest signs on the windshield of a van transporting security officers across the picket line at United Grain Corp., the Vancouver company that has locked out union members for a year. The NLRB accuses the company of unfairly locking out workers and unjustly discharging some, and alleges longshoremen threatened to rape or harm United Grain managers' children.

(Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian)

The National Labor Relations Board accused longshoremen this week of assaulting United Grain Corp. security officers and threatening to rape a manager's daughter and harm a boss's children.

In a separate but related filing, Ronald Hooks, NLRB regional director in Seattle, accused United Grain of unfairly locking out union members and unjustly discharging longshoremen who wouldn't operate equipment they considered unsafe. Both cases involve the Vancouver company's year-long lockout of dockworkers at its grain export terminal.

The most shocking accusations are contained in Hooks' case against International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 4 in Vancouver.

After investigating charges filed by the company, Hooks alleged longshore picketers shone spotlights into vehicles entering and exiting United Grain's terminal, blocking drivers' vision and causing permanent eye injury to a security officer. Hooks alleged locked-out workers recklessly pursued company vans, threatened to harm Columbia River pilots and pinned a security officer's leg under a moving vehicle.

Hooks alleged that Local 4 members “threatened to rape the daughter of one of the employer’s managers,” and implied threats to harm a manager’s children by telling him they would “see his children at school” and asking, “are (his) children okay today?”

The NLRB charges are the most recent developments in a lockout that began Feb. 27, 2013, and later included Columbia Grain Inc. in Portland and Louis Dreyfus Commodities in Portland and Seattle. Sporadic contract negotiations continue between the longshore union and the companies, which are using non-union workers to load Northwest grain on ships for export.

Hooks’ cases against the union and United Grain result from unfair-labor-practices charges each party filed last year. He scheduled hearings on the cases before an NLRB administrative law judge in Portland this summer.

Hooks dismissed several of the union charges and found merit in some others, which he consolidated and converted into a nine-page complaint dated Feb. 28. Hooks incorporated charges by United Grain in a nine-page complaint dated the same day.

NLRB attorneys will essentially act as prosecutors during the hearings, presenting the cases originally advanced by United Grain and Local 4.

Parties in labor disputes such as the grain handlers’ lockout routinely file such cases, sometimes merely for tactical reasons including publicity. The cases can take years, and may be appealed to an NLRB Office of Appeals and beyond. Often cases are dropped if the underlying labor dispute is settled.

In Hooks’ case against United Grain, he alleged the company shut out workers without providing an offer listing conditions they would have to meet to avoid a lockout. He also alleged the company discharged workers who refused to operate equipment they believed was unsafe. In both instances, he said, United Grain didn’t enable the union to bargain over the company’s actions.

Pat McCormick, a spokesman for United Grain, said Thursday the company believes the NLRB’s allegations on the lockout and terminations are not supported by current law. In some NLRB cases, labor lawyers say, agency attorneys make arguments that the board can use to set new precedents and change regulations.

In Hooks’ case against Local 4, he listed numerous alleged incidents, including an assault on a vendor’s truck, rocks thrown at a security guard and racial slurs made against United Grain’s African American security officers.

Jennifer Sargent, a longshore union spokeswoman, said Thursday the NLRB complaint was “merely the beginning of a legal process that we believe will eventually clear these workers of the company's allegations."

"Mitsui-UGC," said Sargent, referring to United Grain's Japanese parent company, "has made these allegations against individual workers to distract from the fact their illegal lockout that's impacted hundreds of local families and hurt their ability to support local businesses and public services."

The grain handlers' lockout and dispute with the longshore union is separate from the union's feud with the Port of Portland and ICTSI Oregon Inc. over conditions at the Port's container terminal.

That North Portland terminal reopened Thursday after an arbitrator ordered longshoremen back to work, ruling that union members faced no immediate danger Wednesday when they called a work stoppage because of an altercation. Arbitrator Jan Holmes ruled the dispute was legitimate under the dockworkers' contract, but said longshoremen would not be paid for their time during the stoppage.

- Richard Read