NEW LONDON, Conn. (WTNH) — About a hundred longshoremen gathered on Wednesday outside the gates of the state pier in New London to protest an offshore wind company’s practices.

The International Longshoremen’s Association’s protests targeted the practice it claimed the offshore wind company Ørsted and Gateway — which runs the pier — are using for delivering the wind turbine parts in the South Fork wind project.

“The company had trained and brought in non-union people,” said Jesse Gates, with the International Longshoremen’s Association. “We are trying to stop that. We want our people here to be trained so it don’t manifest nowhere else.”

A spokesperson for Ørsted said police were called to help workers safely enter the pier on Wednesday morning. The company said that it did not have other union members or non-union workers perform the longshoremen’s jobs at the pier.