Strike! Ports of LA and Long Beach face possible shutdown as clerical workers picket terminals

LA Daily News ^ | 11/28/2012 01:48:18 PM PST | By Brian Sumers Staff Writer

[DeaconBenjamin]

Clerical workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are walking off the job at all terminals and setting up picket lines outside at least some of them, a move that could effectively shut down most port activity, sources have told the Daily Breeze.

Other longshore workers at the nation's busiest port complex are not expected to cross the picket lines this afternoon, and business is expected to shut down at many of the terminals, a source said.

The major job action comes one day after members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit struck APM Terminals at Pier 400 at the Port of Los Angeles. They were joined by other bargaining units of the longshore workers who refused to cross the picket line, curbing operations at what port officials call the busiest terminal in San Pedro. Port of Long Beach

On Tuesday night, an arbitrator ordered the dockworkers at Pier 400 back to work, but this morning they refused.

About 800 workers belonging to the ILWU Local 63's Office Clerical Unit have been working without contracts since June 30, 2010. Union officials say they want new contracts to protect workers against outsourcing jobs abroad. Management officials say they have no intention of outsourcing jobs to other countries.

With the strike now affecting most terminals, both sides are expected to continue their legal maneuvering today, and it is possible that the Pacific Maritime Association, a consortium of all port operators on the West Coast, will go to federal court to seek a temporary restraining order that requires the longshore workers to return to work, sources said.

[Bernard Marx]

wait.. how do you outsource a port?? Ensenada is about 60-odd miles south of the border.

Yes, but those goods have to reach U.S. stores somehow, usually by truck. It's unlikely Teamsters will haul the stuff when their Longshoremen "brothers" are on strike. Of course there are plenty of Mexican trucks and drivers willing to do the job...

[arthurus]

Strikes should become now a plague. the Unions think the Left has won and they can do what the left đoes when the old order falls or begins to fall. They try to get as much of the remains as they can and they think the New Leninist Regime will cheer them on. It precedes nationalization, real nationalization.

[RedMDer]

Support Free Republic
FReepathon Day 59

[VeniVidiVici]

Awww. Unions screwing over Americans at Christmas.

How cute!!

[RetiredTexasVet]

Probably something like the Hostess deal where drivers couldn’t drive a truck with both bread and confections on board which complimented the people who couldn’t load bread and confections. Probably something just as serious in the small minds of the union officials. Hell, get them all fired if necessary to uphold their principles, no matter how flawed.

[sarasmom]

Both UPS and FEDEX cargo planes routinely “move” finished products/palleted loads, without going through California’s shipping ports.
Major airports also have customs agents.
It’s often cheaper and more efficient for established manufacturers and their dealers/retailers network with finished products.
Let them all strike! Shut the California shipping ports down completely for several months!
The container ships will re-route deliveries to Canada or Mexico.
It may even eventually end up being more cost equalising for bulk container materials to go through customs twice before reaching a USA business warehouse.
OR
It will become more attractive to invest in manufacturing facilities inside the USA instead of China!

Strike on, California union shipyard clerical staff and dockworkers!
The jobs you overpriced, will open up better ones for non-union citizens in the rest of the USA, Mexico, and Canada!

I think we should all encourage them to keep on striking!
Steel and lumber mills might re-open in right to work states.
The “trade deficit” might be corrected.

The California union strikers will be unemployed, but who will really care?

[boop]

Oh, what WOULD we do if CLERICAL workers didn't show up to their so-called "Jobs"?

Maybe actually get something productive done?

The horror.

[rockinqsranch]

I haven’t been involved on the docks in a number of years, but 30-35 moves per hour is flat out flying for a single crane operator, and the crews on dock, and aboard ship per crane, per hold, in feeding the hook. The hook is the focus.

Perhaps a couple of cranes, and a couple of crews on, and off the vessel are involved with that 45 moves per hour figure.

There’s much involved in loading, and unloading a vessel, and somebody getting creative with their figures for whatever reason isn’t of benefit to the industry overall.

[Uncle Chip]

Clerical workers!!! Are they the ones who wear those white collars???

[packrat35]

You outsource a port by going on strike and have companies permanently move operations to Mexico.

[Last Dakotan]

Yes, but those goods have to reach U.S. stores somehow, usually by truck.

That's where you are wrong...

Mr. Buffet's Railroad.

[Bernard Marx]

I admit I overlooked the RR. Still, those goods have to get from central locations to the stores. Maybe there are enough non-union owner-operator truckers to do the job, maybe not.

[So Cal Rocket]

There’s already a line up of container ships anchored offshore - I can see them from Huntington Beach. There was a strike several years ago at the port and I remember seeing about 40-50 of them out there then.

There’s about 10 that I can see from the beach here.