According to JOC’s Peter T’s tweet: “The ILWU was invincible when I covered it as SF bureau chief in the mid-1990s. No longer, as rulings like this show: http://www.joc.com/port-news/us-ports/port-portland-ore/federal-labor-board-affirms-ruling-against-ilwu-coercion-portland-terminal_20151204.html.”
“Federal labor board affirms ruling against ILWU for coercion of Portland terminal,” makes great copy and sounds impressive, if you don’t know anything about the Maritime Industry.
ILWU coercion is nothing new, and Elvis’s Company is not the first to win a Court Case against the Union, but they may be the first to try and enforce their Award.
More than a few PMA member companies have won Court Cases against the ILWU, but none ever actually enforced them; they were smart enough to understand that they still had to do deal with the ILWU if they wanted to stay in business.
Take the Grain Company that won all sorts of Court Cases against Big Bob and the ILWU during their “negotiations,” the first item in the MOU was that all the Court Cases would be dropped.
Is Elvis going to figure it out, or is he going for the WIN that puts his Company out of business for good?
The ILWU is going to be fine either way, and just as invincible.