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Ports’ clerical union, steamship lines, terminal operators talk past strike deadline

LOS ANGELES – 07/17/07 – A strike that could shut down terminal activity at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach remains a strong possibility as negotiators from some of the world’s largest shipping lines and terminal operators that serve both ports and the union representing the marine clerks that work at the ports have failed to reach a contract agreement.

The 12:01 Monday deadline has passed with John Fageaux Jr., president of the office clerical unit of Local 63, a division of the 15,000-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), said the clerks would strike if talks with employers at the nation’s two busiest container ports broke down.

"We're in the process of presenting our last, best and final offer," he said, quickly adding that, "We anticipate an agreement…We've done just about all we can do to get an agreement reached."

Wages, he said, were not a key issue, adding the main sticking points have been job security and a package proposed by employers that would limit health plan choices for new hires and temporary employees.

The 15,000-member ILWU has said that that the longshoremen who work ships at the ports’ 14 terminals would honor the marine clerks’ picket lines if a strike is called.

Marine clerks, about 750 of whom work at both ports, handle the documentation for container shipments and other transport paperwork.

Under their most recent contract, full-time, port clerical workers earned about $37.50 an hour, or $78,000 a year. They also receive a pension, health care benefits free of premiums, and 20 paid holidays a year.

According to sources close to the negotiations, the employers' latest offer, made last week, included raises that over the life of a three-year contract would bump the employees' hourly pay to $39.20; the ILWU is seeking increases that would equal $53 per hour by the last year of the contract.

A strike would, in effect, shut down loading and unloading operations at both ports, which, combined, handle a full 40% of all the containerized cargo traffic coming into the US and together handle cargo valued at $1 billion to $2 billion every day.

A port shutdown would also create ripple effects throughout many industries that depend on timely movement of cargo and come as the adjacent ports enter their busy pre-holiday season, when retailers depend on the facilities to handle increased volumes of imports.

There are some reports that some carriers that serve both ports As a precaution, ocean carriers were reportedly diverting some cargo to other ports such as Oakland, Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle.

The last strike affecting both ports took place in when longshoremen at ports from Seattle to San Diego were locked out for 10 days over a contract dispute.

That shutdown cost the nation's economy an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion a day and ended only when President George Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act to send the ILWU back to work.

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