Fusao Ohori

Fusao Ohori, right, a Japanese union leader visiting from Tokyo, joined union dockworkers Friday outside the United Grain Corp. terminal at the Port of Vancouver. Brianna Loper photo/The Columbian

Excerpts from the Columbian:

Fusao Ohori, a representative of the All-Japan Seamen’s Union, which represents the crews of ships at sea, flew from Tokyo this week to walk picket lines with locked-out longshore workers in Vancouver and Portland.

Along with Ohori’s visit, the All-Japan Seamen’s Union contributed 1 million yen to the ILWU. That translates to an estimated $10,400. When Ohori announced the amount Friday, outside the port gate, about 18 union dockworkers who’d gathered there clapped their approval.

Longshore workers from Kalama, Longview and Seattle were among the 18 union members who picketed in Vancouver, according to Jennifer Sargent, a spokeswoman for the ILWU.

Ohori visited two picket lines: one at the Port of Vancouver, where United Grain — owned by Tokyo-based Mitsui & Co. — operates a facility, and another at the Port of Portland, where Columbia Grain Inc. — owned by Japan’s Marubeni Corp. — runs a grain elevator.

In Vancouver, Ohori read a letter to ILWU workers from Yasumi Morita, vice president of the All-Japan Seamen’s Union.

The ILWU faces difficulties “due to unjust treatment and demands by terminal companies in the Pacific Northwest,” Ohori said, reading from the statement.

Ohori said he was in town to express solidarity with longshore workers. And the ILWU, he said, gave plenty of support and encouragement after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami battered Japan.

“We always support each other,” Ohori said.

More at the Columbian: