Mining firm sues union over picketing actions

MARYSVILLE (3/7/03) -- Western Aggregates Inc. has filed suit in Yuba County Superior Court demanding a labor union pay for damages picketers allegedly caused.

In the suit filed Tuesday Western seeks unspecified damages for losses to business allegedly caused by the activities of Operating Union Local 3 picketers at the Yuba goldfields last year.

The company also asks in the suit that the court order the union restrain itself from further picketing.

Western mines surface deposits of aggregates in the goldfields. The company and union have been wrangling with each other for years over labor issues and access rights to the aggregate resources.

The suit relates to alleged actions in separate incidents in July and October last year when OE3 members allegedly blocked trucks and threatened drivers entering and leaving the company's operation off Hammonton-Smartsville Road.

The eight-page complaint alleges, among other things, that picketers managed to vandalize a truck and yank a lever that dumped a load of aggregate over the roadway blocking up to 25 trucks and resulting in business disruptions, the suit claims.