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ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) president Paddy Crumlin today described Australian rail freight operator Aurizon’s lockout of 200 freight train drivers in New South Wales as “totally unacceptable”.
Crumlin, who is also national secretary of the MUA (Maritime Union of Australia), was speaking in his capacity as president of the ITF global union federation, which represents over 700 transport trade unions worldwide, including the RTBU (Rail, Tram and Bus Union). He said: “Aurizon’s lockout is a stunning misjudgement. Lockouts usually are: the only thing they achieve is to send both labour relations and the company’s reputation into a tailspin.
“This looks like an act of desperation, and of revenge against a workforce that took lawful, protected industrial action backed by 94 percent of the workforce at a ballot supervised by the Australian Electoral Commission.”
He continued: “The ITF, along with its member unions stretching across the world’s transport networks and supply chains, wholly condemns the practice of locking out workers. Our unions are on standby to see what support the RTBU needs. We would strongly advise Aurizon to step back from...
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ILWU Local 4 Dispatcher Troy Olson has 44 fewer jobs to dispatch to the union’s membership since Mitsui-United Grain locked out workers last year. Photo by Zachary Kaufman, The Columbian.
From the Columbian:
ILWU member Marcel DeBord says his family has been hit hard by the lockout. He looks for work at the union’s dispatch hall in Vancouver and sometimes travels to other ports in the region in hopes of landing a job. (Zachary Kaufman/The Columbian)Two years ago, Marcel DeBord, 61, earned the right to call himself a regular “B man,” a promotion and prideful place in the world of union dockworkers.
In a nine-month period in 2012, he logged 1,726 hours at United Grain Corp.’s terminal at the Port of Vancouver, driving forklifts and trucks, as well as operating locomotives hauling grain-filled rail cars.
For all of 2013, however, his hours plunged 33 percent to 1,156 hours.
The slashing of his employment — and the resulting impacts on his family’s livelihood — began a year ago today, when United Grain locked out up to 44 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
Read the rest at the Columbian
Two workers were reportedly injured in an explosion at a grain facility just south of Warren, Illinois.
Jo Daviess County Sheriff Kevin Turner said the blast was reported just before 11 a.m. Tuesday. Two Gavilon employees were reportedly treated at the scene by Warren County EMS. The injured workers were a 33-year-old man from Nora, Illinois and a 49-year-old man from Lena.
The Warren facility is one of 144 grain storage facilities that are part of Gavilon Group. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was investigating the incident.
More at WQAD
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