Hundreds of union dock workers rallied at the New London State Pier on Wednesday.
It was part of a day of protests at ports across the world, spearheaded by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and its New London chapter.
Protesters held signs with messages aimed at Ørsted, the company currently using the New London Pier as they complete construction on their offshore wind farm.
The ILA said their members should be operating the construction equipment at that site.
Instead, they say the jobs have been given to members of the building trades unions.
Allison Ziogas, Ørsted’s head of U.S. Labor Relations, said the fight is really between two unions.
“South Fork Wind is putting more than 50 local union members across seven unions to work at State Pier, and that includes the local International Longshoremen’s Association that has led the offloading and loadout of offshore wind components for months, including the vessel that arrived this week,” Ziogas said. “As always, our priorities are safety, maximizing roles for local union workers, and keeping South Fork Wind’s schedule on-track."
“Union labor is central to our work to stand up a new American industry and our projects are already creating hundreds of local union jobs," Ziogas continued. "We are working hard to maximize local union job creation in partnership with organized labor for the offshore wind industry.”
Ørsted told WSHU that they have repeatedly offered funding to train ILA workers to operate the equipment through their employer, Gateway, but the offers have been rejected.
The International Longshoremen’s Association rejected those claims in a post.
“Ørsted cannot claim that this is a jurisdictional dispute between unions,” ILA President Harold Daggett said. “It has blatantly entered into a project labor agreement with the building trades unions even after the ILA made Ørsted aware of the scope of longshore work jurisdiction. Ørsted must respect the core work jurisdiction of longshore workers in its wind turbine operations and its failure to do so cannot be tolerated.”
This story has been updated to include a comment from Ørsted.
