An International Longshore and Warehouse Union local branch has begun what it says is an informational campaign against an Oregon lumber company that has hired non-union labor to work at a new barge facility.
Members of ILWU Local 12 picketed the Southport Lumber Co.’s mill on the North Spit in the Coo’s Bay area on July 9 in response to the company hiring workers who are not union members to load and unload barges.
Southport bought the barge slip from the Port of Coos Bay in 2004 then rehabilitated it, thanks in part to a public subsidy. The ILWU claims the protest is against “the company’s bid to undercut wages and cut staffing at a newly renovated barge slip that received $500,000 in public funds.”
