The state Department of Public Safety said Wednesday it has spent more than $281,000 during the past month to guard the State Ports Authority’s Columbus Street Terminal against protesters from the International Longshoremen’s Association.
The DPS expenses bring the overall cost of protecting the downtown terminal to nearly $500,000, including $200,000 spent by Charleston Police and nearly $13,000 by the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office.
As many as 600 state and local law enforcement officers from across the state were dispatched to the terminal after the ILA protested a Danish shipping line’s move to use non-union dockworkers.
State troopers have made up one of the largest contingents in the massive security details. According to figures provided to The Post and Courier:
City of Charleston officials recently said the security efforts cost Charleston Police at least $200,000 and have asked the SPA to help defray the cost.
The Charleston County Sheriff’s Office spent $12,849 in overtime and also hopes to recoup some of that money, said Mitch Lucas, sheriff’s spokesman.
The state Law Enforcement Division, which also sent a large group of officers, has not yet tallied its expenses.
The SPA, which is coordinating the security details, has no overall estimate of what the efforts have cost.
The ILA protests began in December when a small shipping line, Nordana Line of Denmark, started using non-union longshoremen to load its ships.
Tension escalated with each ship’s visit, culminating in an early morning riot Jan. 20 between police and ILA dockworkers that sent at least 10 people to the hospital.
Before the melee, ILA workers said they felt provoked by the massive show of police force. ILA leaders have since said that there would be no more violence.
Meanwhile, a judge has issued an order prohibiting more than 19 ILA members from picketing in the future.
Nordana sends its container and Roll-On, Roll-Off vessels to Charleston every two weeks.
The ILA did not protest the most recent arrival in early February.
ILA officials declined to comment on the expense issue.
Ports authority officials, ILA leaders and representatives from the Danish line have been trying to hammer out a long-term resolution to the standoff.
“Negotiations are still ongoing, ” said SPA president and chief executive officer Bernard S. Groseclose Jr.
