But while Hyde has not issued a statement in response to the lawsuit, he did respond to comments made by PBL's CEO, Andy Lane. In a letter to PBL's customers, Lane claimed that CWU was constantly moving the goalposts and basically extorting them. He also called them, quote, "a crazed union hell-bent on causing chaos." The CWU has spoken out about this narrative that they believe is trying to vilify them and today, when we asked the president if he feels Lane's comments could be considered union busting, he said he prefers to keep the name-calling out of it. He just wants fair treatment for the union's members:
Evan "Mose" Hyde - President, CWU
"At least I can speak for at the union, we've resisted getting into any vilifying. Man, we wish the receivership and its backers and owners richness into eternity. We hope that when they go to heaven, they can transfer all their wealth and assets up there and continue to be rich all the way into eternity because we wish them the best and we hope it works out for them. All we are advocating for and maintain that our workers have rights and at the end of the day if they feel they have not responded respectfully in standing up and advocating for those rights then they are left with very few options. But to sacrifice of themselves to take a stand that is, you know, some people are not very impressed with or supportive of with a lot of implications, with all the pressure that comes with it, people that are not even connected to your… you know, it's like one of those few industrial situation where what you do has implications all around, not just your employer and you. You have so many stakeholders who are completely invested in the stability in this particular place so there's a lot of pressure when you have to stand up and then we are doing this in light of a miscalculated, ill-advised, deformed adventure called the privatization with the port and this is like we have been in a circle going around and around and around just encountering the same fundamental deformities and paying a price for it every time. Nobody wants to be doing that, we are striving that this time that if we are to be real that if there's to be genuine reconciliation that we have to ensure that whatever potential that would block to causing instability in the future that we have to take them on now because we can't keep coming back and make it appears that we are some of the most 'erratic' people. What we have is a fundamentally erratic, unstable, grounds on which we have to have this relationship. So, nah, man, we won't push any kind of personal attacks on the people there at the port."
