[See also: ILWU will challenge this morning’s unjust reward]
The amount was $43,000 less than attorneys for the National Labor Relations Board had requested to cover damage at the terminal, law-enforcement overtime costs and attorney fees. Attorneys for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union said they will appeal, arguing that the damage estimates were “general, unsubstantiated and inflated.”
But U.S. District Court Judge Robert Leighton said acting quickly to impose a fine was more important than determining the precise amount of damages. He said he rounded down from the NLRB’s original $293,000 request because he considered parts of it inflated.
In a written statement, union spokesman Leal Sundet called Leighton’s imposition of the fine “rough justice.”
“What the court engaged in here is back-of-the napkin guesstimates. There is no attempt to distinguish events arguably connected with what the union is accused of doing on the 7th and 8th of September 2011 and those events that are unrelated to any alleged union conduct,” Sundet said.