International Longshoremen’s Association members picketed a State Ports Authority terminal Thursday night to protest a Danish shipping line’s use of non-union labor on local docks. The gathering marked the ILA’s first organized demonstration against the Nordana Line since Jan.20, when union dockworkers rioted in Charleston. That early morning melee sent at least 10 people to the hospital, including police officers.
No incidents were reported Thursday night.
Nordana’s Stjerneborg vessel arrived at the SPA’s Columbus Street terminal shortly before 6 p. m. Thursday. ILA protesters carrying signs emerged from their Local 1422 union hall on Morrison Drive about an hour later and marched to the nearby terminal entrance.
“ILA, ILA,” the demonstrators chanted.
“We built the port,” one said. “Why can’t we work the port?”
Organizers initially planned to dispatch groups of 19 to the SPA’s Columbus Street, Union Pier and North Charleston terminals, Robert Ford, vice president of Local 1422, said Thursday afternoon.
“That’s what the law says,” Ford said, referring to a recent court order that limited to 19 the number of union members who can picket a SPA facility at a given time. The ruling stemmed from last month’s waterfront clash.
Actually,20 demonstrators showed up at the Columbus Street terminal. They were greeted by concrete barricades, the local media and about 60 police officers wearing helmets and holding riot shields.
The police made a point of documenting the initial number of protesters with a video camera.
One union member left the gathering about 15 minutes after arriving, when organizers realized they had one demonstrator too many.
No longshoremen showed up to picket the Union Pier and North Charleston terminals.
An hour into the Columbus Street demonstration, protesters alternately chanted slogans and joked among themselves in small groups. They did not speak with reporters or identify themselves.
All the while, non-union workers from Georgetown-based Winyah Stevedoring unloaded cargo off the Stjerneborg. The ship was expected to shove off by early today.
“I see them exercising their rights,” said Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon, who watched the protest with Charleston Police Chief Reuben Greenberg. “We’re not going to do anything to provoke them. They have a right to demonstrate. That’s what they’re doing.”
Two officials from the International Longshoreman & Warehouse Union in San Francisco addressed the local dockworkers with a bullhorn.
“You’re fighting a just cause. We support what you are doing,” said Jack Heyman, an executive board member of the ILWU. “Ten thousand longshoremen on the West Coast are saying we stand solidly with you.”
Lawrence Thibeaux, president of ILWU Local 10 in the Bay Area, told demonstrators that workers in Nordana’s homeland are heavily unionized.
“When you go to their country, it’s all union. . . What’s good for them is good for us,” Thibeaux said.
Meanwhile, ILA and Nordana representatives are now trying to reach a settlement to resolve their dispute.
“We’re working with them trying to get a deal worked out,” said Kenneth Riley, president of Local 1422. The two sides are making “progress, but a deal. . . hasn’t been consummated yet,” Riley said,
“We have learned that you keep up the protests until the name is on the dotted line,” he added.
Tensions between the ILA and Nordana started mounting after the small shipping line teamed up with Winyah Stevedoring. Together, the companies explored local alternatives to using the higher-paid union workers and SPA facilities.
At one point, the line considered sending its vessels to a pier at the former Navy base. SPA leaders persuaded Nordana to sign a three-year contract to use their docks - a decision some port officials have said privately they regret.
Winyah Stevedoring started working the Danish ships in December with non-union help. While Nordana is considered a small player within the state port system - it sends just two vessels to Charleston a month - it was the first time an established container line had challenged the powerful ILA. That chain of events led to the union protests.
Perry Collins, who runs Winyah Stevedoring, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
