Commenting on developments in the Port of Vancouver, Washington, USA, ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) acting general secretary Steve Cotton said:
“The lockout of workers by Mitsui-United Grain will soon be entering its tenth week. The company choice of this tactic over honest negotiation has gained them nothing except local and international opprobrium.”
He continued: “The recent spectacle of 12 carloads of police arriving to oversee a peaceful protest outside the Mitsui-owned United Grain Corporation terminal shows how the company’s intransigence is harming the local community – and the company’s reputation. If Mitsui insist on playing with fire they shouldn’t expect the Vancouver police department to have to don asbestos gloves on their behalf.”
He concluded: “This situation demands a solution. The company can no longer evade that fact.”
For more details of international trade union support for the locked out dockworkers, please see www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1795.
ENDS
For more information contact ITF press officer, Sam Dawson.
Direct line: + 44 (0)20 7940 9260.
Email: dawson_sam@itf.org.uk
International Transport Workers' Federation - ITF:
HEAD OFFICE
ITF House, 49 - 60 Borough Road, London SE1 1DS
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7403 2733
Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7375 7871
Email: mail@itf.org.uk
Web: www.itfglobal.org
