C&H Sugar refinery in Crockett<\/a> on Tuesday, where warehouse and dockworkers have been striking for six weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\nSheriff\u2019s office spokesperson Jimmy Lee said the gathering was declared an unlawful assembly after \u201crepeated efforts to gain compliance\u201d and multiple attempts to disperse a crowd protesting outside the facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warehouse workers represented by International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6 walked off the job last month amid stalled contract negotiations. C&H dockworkers, represented by ILWU Local 10, have refused to cross picket lines in solidarity throughout the strike.<\/p>\n
Sheriff\u2019s officials said they responded to the refinery on Loring Avenue Tuesday morning, after receiving multiple reports of rocks being thrown at trucks attempting to enter the facility, and protesters blocking the roadway, preventing workers\u2019 movement in and out. ILWU Local 10 officials denied that members threw rocks at vehicles.<\/p>\n
The Crockett refinery usually processes six million pounds of raw cane sugar per day, but operations have been disrupted since the 90 warehouse employees went on strike June 15 amid bargaining over wages, sick time and retirement benefits.<\/p>\n
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Kendra Sparks is a lifelong Crockett resident and 30-year employee of C&H Sugar. Her father, Greg Soria, retired from C&H after 40 years and would lose healthcare benefits he earned with the company under terms proposed by C&H, she said. <\/p>\n
ILWU Local 6 negotiators previously told KQED that C&H has offered their members a 20% raise over five years, while halving sick days and getting rid of benefits for retired employees. Union members said at the time that the salary increase wasn\u2019t worth the trade-off.<\/p>\n
\u201cRetirees cannot afford not to have benefits at all, we cannot afford as a worker to pay another 30% for our health care, we can\u2019t afford to take a cut in our sick leave,\u201d said Michael Villeggiante, the president of ILWU Local 10, which is not in negotiations, but striking in solidarity.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for C&H told KQED that while the company \u201chas worked tirelessly to resolve the labor dispute and responsibly operate our business, the ILWU has opted instead to engage in unlawful and dangerous activity that has threatened the health and safety of our employees, independent drivers, contractors, Crockett residents and law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have respected the union\u2019s right to strike, but we do not accept this dangerous and illegal behavior,\u201d the spokesperson said via email. \u201cWe are grateful to the Contra Costa Sheriff\u2019s Office and California Highway Patrol who responded yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because dockworkers have refused to cross the picket line, C&H began diverting some operations to the Levin Richmond Terminal, where goods like coal and oil are unloaded, in recent weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Villeggiante said he instructed ILWU members to move, but some protesters remained in front of the driveway. The nine arrested were booked at the Martinez Detention Facility after Villeggiante said law enforcement \u201cmanhandled\u201d multiple union members.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The majority were cited and released, while three remained in custody overnight. The individuals were arrested on various charges, including remaining present at an unlawful assembly after being lawfully ordered to disperse, battery, obstruction and resisting a police officer.<\/p>\n
Four ILWU Local 10 members were arrested, including the three who stayed in custody overnight and were bailed out this morning. He said the fourth member spent the night in the hospital, after he was thrown into glass and cut his face during an altercation with officers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Villeggiante said the others arrested were \u201cspectators or community people or students.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that he believes ILWU Local 6 and C&H were back at the bargaining table, but that ILWU Local 10 would continue to strike alongside warehouse workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last two mediations that they went back to, there wasn\u2019t much given, it was all takeaways,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no bargaining in good faith when you are concessionary bargaining.\u201d<\/p>\n
KQED\u2019s Juan Carlos Lara<\/a> contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Contra Costa County Sheriff\u2019s deputies declared an unlawful assembly and arrested nine protesters on Tuesday. Representatives from ILWU…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-408565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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