The existence of union dock workers in Conn. may soon be decided

There are currently no union longshoreman jobs in Connecticut, and a meeting this week will determine if there are any for the foreseeable future.

There are only a few deep water ports in Connecticut, and the state pier in New London has not served as an active port since construction began to modify the port as a staging ground for offshore wind farms.

A company called Gateway was in 2019 granted a 20-year concession agreement to act as port operator in New London, taking over from Logistec.

Logistec did employ union longshoremen, according to Peter Olsen, business agent for International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1411.

“Local 1411 has provided the loading and unloading of cargo down at the state pier since the 1930s,” he said. “We had a presence with Logistec for 20 years.”

Gateway worked with ILA longshoremen for a few months after they took over at the port of New London. But when construction began, halting all shipping activities at the state pier, “Our jobs went away,” Olsen said.

“The local’s role down there is unknown at the moment,” he said. “Gateway has really not talked with us since they left the port and moved back down to New Haven.”

Gateway also maintains a presence at the port of New Haven, but a company spokesman confirmed that the company does not currently employ union longshoremen.

“They’re a non-union company down there,” Olsen said. “New Haven’s only about 40 miles away, and they did not offer us any work down there.”

A meeting scheduled for Jan. 24 involving Gateway, Olsen representing the local office, plus representatives from the International Longshoremen’s Union, could determine if there are any union longshoremen jobs in Connecticut.

The state Port Authority, a quasi-public agency, owns the state pier. David Kooris, Port Authority board president, said their hope was that union workers would be employed.

“We indicated in our concession agreement that that was our hope, that they would work together, but it is Gateway’s discretion, and they are in active negotiation, and were very hopeful,” he said.

When asked if Gateway plans to employ union labor at the port of New London, Matthew Satnick and Philippe DeMontigny, co-CEOs of Enstructure, Gateway’s parent company, said yes.

“We are committed to working with the ILA in New London and look forward to our partnership,” they said in an emailed statement.

The hope, Olsen said, is that union longshoremen would staff all ports handling wind components on the East Coast.

“The international has what they call a ‘master contract,’ he said. “What the international’s been talking to Gateway about is handling wind components — turbines, whatever — at any one of the ports from Virginia to Maine so that all of the union ports would be on parity with wages.”

The local was chartered in the 1930s. Olsen said that when he began as a longshoreman in 1975, it was difficult to get a union job.

“When I started, it was hard to get in. There was nepotism. It was very much like ‘On the Waterfront,’” he said. “You would go down there, and there would be more than 100 people that wanted to work that day, and we’d stand behind the gate, and somebody would point.”

At the time, manufacturing in Connecticut was robust, and many goods and textiles were brought into and exported from the state pier in New London, particularly wood pulp, copper, lumber and hemp for rope.

But the manufacturing base of Connecticut changed over the ensuing decades. One company that had processed copper in the state and been a source of work for the longshoremen “almost overnight, said we can’t afford to do business here anymore and shut their operation down,” Olsen said. “Wood pulp, especially the part of the industry that made the photographic paper that went away almost overnight with digital cameras

When Gateway took over in New London, there were about 40 duespaying union members. Olsen said some have taken work in Providence, R.I., but the presence of union longshoremen jobs in Connecticut is at risk.

“I’d hate to see the longshoremen lose their place down here on my watch,” he said.