The HQ of the Longshore Union has fired off a howler to the Cowlitz County Sheriff over his handling of the violent labor dispute in Longview, Washington.

PHOTO CREDIT VICTORIA TAFT SHOW

Six more longshoremen and their supporters were arrested overnight for the first of two violent confrontations at the EGT Company in Longview over the past two months. 

In the three page letter, Leal Sundet, a committee member of the San Francisco based Longshore Union HQ, called Sheriff Mark Nelson, “drama[tic],” “dishonest,”

twice calls him a “propagandist,” and “unprofessional,” for his handling of several protests which grew more and more violent from July on.

The beef is over EGT hiring another union to unload grain at the Columbia River facility. The Longshoremen’s union believes it has rights to all work at the Port facilities. EGT disputes that claim.

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That issue is being battled in court, but the union members recently upped the ante by staging  protests blocking trains loaded with grain from getting to the EGT facility.

The protests have progressively grown more violent leading to last Thursday’s melee in which 500 longshoremen, some armed with baseball bats, ax handles and pipes, raided the company vandalizing, assaulting, cutting brake lines of trains, and holding six guards hostage.

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The company sought a court order and twice now has cracked down on the Union–first ordering no aggressive picketing and then holding members in contempt for violating the order. Fines are apparently forthcoming.  Even the Obama NLRB has told the Longshoremen to knock it off.

In his letter Sundet laughably blames law enforcement for the violence:

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I’d sure like to know the previous relationship between law enforcement and the union because Sundet appears to be saying here that it’s the cops’ job to cover for the union’s bad behavior:

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 Then Sundet doubles down on the use of the word “propagandist” because the cops have been sending out press releases telling the public about the union member’s bad behavior:

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And, of course, the childish retort to the cops about how the authorities aren’t telling the truth about ax handles, pipes, assault, battery, intimidating a witness, storming the the facility. Apparently all that is made up!

PHOTO CREDIT VICTORIA TAFT SHOW

PHOTO CREDIT VICTORIA TAFT SHOW