ILWU Local 28, Protective Service Workers, represents public and private security and public safety professionals in the northwest United States. Presently, our six bargaining groups represent employees of the Ports of Longview, Portland, and Tacoma, the Oregon Convention Center (MERC), and the Kaiser Permanente Medical and health care group.
If you have questions or concerns, please contact the union rep at the email address below.
If you have questions or concerns, please contact the union rep at the email address below.
Local 28 News:
On December 11th, our Port of Portland union members voted to approve our four year collective bargaining agreement. This new contract commenced last July 1, 2011, and will expire on June 30, 2015. Our members succeeded in keeping the Port from privatizing family wage jobs. We acceeded to a second 0% pay raise, but will receive 3% cost of living in the three subsequent years. We continue to pay a portion of the premiums for Port provided health insurance benefits.
While negotiating a settlement with their security employees, the Port was secretly contracting with private security at T5, a marine terminal that includes Columbia Grain, Inc. and Portland Bulk Terminals. This security was placed entirely within ILWU jurisdiction at the entrance to T5. Instead of using their own marine terminal security, the instead brought in private for-profit security from the airport. It was in clear defiance of their contract with local 28, but the Port preferred to breach it newly agreed upon contract to save money by hiring inexperienced private security officers. Our union has filed a grievance and both sides will waste thousands of dollars fighting this case. Why does the Port claim that they honor their employees, while doing the exact opposite? Their hypocrisy and deceit is exactly why we ended up hours away from a strike that could have cost the Oregon economy millions of dollars. But for the Port, business as usual. Possibility. In Every Direction. Consider that a threat.
Background on Port of Portland Marine Security Officers
ILWU Local 28 represents security employees at the Port of Portland. We have no relationship with the longshore/IBEW labor dispute at T6, nor with the longshore grain elevator dispute at T5. Our union members are volunteers who run our own local with one paid employee working 8 hours each week. There are no "union bosses" and all decisions for our group are made by our group. The current president of Local 28 is also unpaid and works for Kaiser Permanente. Port marine security officers primarily come from the military, Coast Guard, and law-enforcement backgrounds, with several having served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Port security officers are not just "guards" as reported in the media. We are not longshoremen, we are protective service workers along with our
brothers and sisters at other Ports, hospitals, and convention centers. Port of Portland security is part of the Port's Public Safety Department, which includes Aviation Police and Fire. It is a highly trained workforce and with our colleagues in the Customs and Border Protection agency, are charged with protecting the seaport from terrorist threats. We are certified through federal regulation, the United States Coast Guard, and Oregon DPSST. Our officers have been involved in life-threatening incidents including one officer who was shot three years ago while patroling a dock where thefts had occurred and still occur to the present day. In the last year, The Portland Police SERT team have twice been deployed to the seaport to handle armed conflicts. We have provided security for a presidential visit and for visits from various state and federal congressional and senate representatives. Aside from those critical functions, our members are charged with issuing Department of Homeland Security DOS protocols to foreign flagged ships arriving at the seaport, interface with their crews, many of whom do not speak english, and we work with the Columbia River Pilots to "berth" ships arriving and departing at the port, which involves assisting the pilot in their river approach to the the dock and locating the ship precisely so that it's cargo can be safely and effectively loaded and unloaded. Each week we inspect thousands of trucks containing shipping containers, automobiles, and breakbulk cargo, to detect threats including explosive devices.
Until September, Port security officers were charged with traffic control and containing all excess trucks in a truck-queue area until they could be processed. That generally kept the trucks off of Marine Drive and the public out of harms way. But ICTSCI decided that they did not want to spend the money for the one patrol officer to assist in performing that task, so they eliminated the position and moved all truck overflow outside of the terminal and onto Marine Drive. That broke their lease but Port management said nothing. The patrol officers that were eliminated from those shifts had more responsibility than just covering the truck back-ups. They also covered patrol officers at the terminals in case assistance was needed including emergency back-up, accidents, medical emergencies, etc. Moreover, the trucks that now park on Marine Drive every day block businesses, Tri-Met buses picking up and dropping off passengers, and create a very serious safety problems for motorists and pedestrians. Both ICTSCI and the Port knew this but dollars over safety is the new way of business at the Port. Since that change, there have been multiple accidents on Marine Drive and at least one involved a mini-van with children. Possibility. In Every Direction.
We honor justice, honesty, integrity, our veterans, and yes our family-wage jobs. The goal of our union is not to rise above others but to raise everyone to a living standard that supports family and ommunity. Pease have a safe and peaceful holiday.
On December 11th, our Port of Portland union members voted to approve our four year collective bargaining agreement. This new contract commenced last July 1, 2011, and will expire on June 30, 2015. Our members succeeded in keeping the Port from privatizing family wage jobs. We acceeded to a second 0% pay raise, but will receive 3% cost of living in the three subsequent years. We continue to pay a portion of the premiums for Port provided health insurance benefits.
While negotiating a settlement with their security employees, the Port was secretly contracting with private security at T5, a marine terminal that includes Columbia Grain, Inc. and Portland Bulk Terminals. This security was placed entirely within ILWU jurisdiction at the entrance to T5. Instead of using their own marine terminal security, the instead brought in private for-profit security from the airport. It was in clear defiance of their contract with local 28, but the Port preferred to breach it newly agreed upon contract to save money by hiring inexperienced private security officers. Our union has filed a grievance and both sides will waste thousands of dollars fighting this case. Why does the Port claim that they honor their employees, while doing the exact opposite? Their hypocrisy and deceit is exactly why we ended up hours away from a strike that could have cost the Oregon economy millions of dollars. But for the Port, business as usual. Possibility. In Every Direction. Consider that a threat.
Background on Port of Portland Marine Security Officers
ILWU Local 28 represents security employees at the Port of Portland. We have no relationship with the longshore/IBEW labor dispute at T6, nor with the longshore grain elevator dispute at T5. Our union members are volunteers who run our own local with one paid employee working 8 hours each week. There are no "union bosses" and all decisions for our group are made by our group. The current president of Local 28 is also unpaid and works for Kaiser Permanente. Port marine security officers primarily come from the military, Coast Guard, and law-enforcement backgrounds, with several having served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Port security officers are not just "guards" as reported in the media. We are not longshoremen, we are protective service workers along with our
brothers and sisters at other Ports, hospitals, and convention centers. Port of Portland security is part of the Port's Public Safety Department, which includes Aviation Police and Fire. It is a highly trained workforce and with our colleagues in the Customs and Border Protection agency, are charged with protecting the seaport from terrorist threats. We are certified through federal regulation, the United States Coast Guard, and Oregon DPSST. Our officers have been involved in life-threatening incidents including one officer who was shot three years ago while patroling a dock where thefts had occurred and still occur to the present day. In the last year, The Portland Police SERT team have twice been deployed to the seaport to handle armed conflicts. We have provided security for a presidential visit and for visits from various state and federal congressional and senate representatives. Aside from those critical functions, our members are charged with issuing Department of Homeland Security DOS protocols to foreign flagged ships arriving at the seaport, interface with their crews, many of whom do not speak english, and we work with the Columbia River Pilots to "berth" ships arriving and departing at the port, which involves assisting the pilot in their river approach to the the dock and locating the ship precisely so that it's cargo can be safely and effectively loaded and unloaded. Each week we inspect thousands of trucks containing shipping containers, automobiles, and breakbulk cargo, to detect threats including explosive devices.
Until September, Port security officers were charged with traffic control and containing all excess trucks in a truck-queue area until they could be processed. That generally kept the trucks off of Marine Drive and the public out of harms way. But ICTSCI decided that they did not want to spend the money for the one patrol officer to assist in performing that task, so they eliminated the position and moved all truck overflow outside of the terminal and onto Marine Drive. That broke their lease but Port management said nothing. The patrol officers that were eliminated from those shifts had more responsibility than just covering the truck back-ups. They also covered patrol officers at the terminals in case assistance was needed including emergency back-up, accidents, medical emergencies, etc. Moreover, the trucks that now park on Marine Drive every day block businesses, Tri-Met buses picking up and dropping off passengers, and create a very serious safety problems for motorists and pedestrians. Both ICTSCI and the Port knew this but dollars over safety is the new way of business at the Port. Since that change, there have been multiple accidents on Marine Drive and at least one involved a mini-van with children. Possibility. In Every Direction.
We honor justice, honesty, integrity, our veterans, and yes our family-wage jobs. The goal of our union is not to rise above others but to raise everyone to a living standard that supports family and ommunity. Pease have a safe and peaceful holiday.
Port Security management and officers meet with Portland Police to determine their strategy after a Port of Portland security officer was shot.
