Port talks come to a standstill

WEST COAST: Union leaders pull out, accusing shippers of bringing in guards to intimidate them.

Negotiators for union dockworkers walked out of talks Tuesday aimed at ending a lockout at ports from San Diego to Seattle, claiming the shippers association brought in “armed thugs” to intimidate them and hasten federal intervention.

Representatives of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union were supposed to meet with Pacific Maritime Association officials, who represent shipping firms at 29 West Coast ports.

When dockworker officials arrived at a federal mediator’s Oakland office they were met by an “oversized posse” of PMA negotiators and two armed security guards, said ILWU Local 13 President Ramon Ponce de Leon, speaking Tuesday afternoon to a hall full of union workers in Wilmington.

Ponce de Leon called the PMA’s actions outrageous, likening them to the July 5, 1934, clash between dockworkers and policemen known as “Bloody Thursday” where two men were killed during a strike in San Francisco. The incident became a rallying cry for unionism.

“The PMA is purposely using intimidation tactics to provoke the White House to intervene,” he said, reading a press release. “PMA knows that if there is federal intervention, it’s to their advantage, leaving union workers without a level playing field.”

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn told the crowd of cheering workers that she was outraged that the PMA would bring armed guards to the negotiations.

“This is an insult and this clearly shows they are not negotiating in good faith,” Hahn said. “Put your guns down, open up the gates and let our workers go back to work.”

The PMA defended its use of armed security guards, saying it decided several days ago to hire them for lead negotiator Joe Miniace, said Timothy Kennedy, area manager for the association.

“At that time there was good reason to believe that security was necessary,” said Kennedy, who added that he was not aware of any specific threats. “That position has not changed.”

Guards did not enter into the meeting room, Kennedy said. They remained on the same floor until union representatives objected, at which time they went to the next floor down.

Meanwhile, stalled negotiations and the ongoing lockout has resulted in an estimated loss of $1 billion a day throughout the state. At the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, 59 vessels awaited unloading and 31 more are anchored outside the breakwall.

The PMA blamed the port closure on the union and said ILWU can end the lockout by signing a contract extension and returning to the bargaining table.

Contract extensions were signed in July and August. With no contract in place, PMA has no avenue as an employer to address disputes, Kennedy said.

“Let me be very clear on this point: The PMA wants the ports opened,” he said.

The PMA will accept federal mediation, state mediation and Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn’s offer to facilitate discussions. It will open the ports if the union will extend the contract it has worked under for three years.

Union leaders said they are open and waiting to begin negotiations, but in the meantime they want workers to be able to return to work.

Meanwhile, the National Retail Federation, a trade group, urged President Bush to take “immediate action to reopen the ports.” It warned that the shutdown could lead to a shortage of toys, consumer electronics and other gifts for the holidays, the closure of retail stores and layoffs.

Bush urged the longshore workers to “get back to work,” adding “we’re worried about it.” But he gave no indication that he was ready to try to end the shutdown by declaring a national emergency and invoking the Taft-Hartley Act, which would send both sides back to the bargaining table.

“There’s a federal mediator on the ground. I urge both parties to utilize the mediator. But we’ll continue to pay attention to it,” Bush told reporters. “It’s a problem, something that we’re just going to have to get these parties to work through and get back to work, open these ports up. It’s important to our economy to do so.”

In a letter to Bush, National Retail Federation President Tracy Mullin underlined the economic concerns.

“We cannot overstate the gravity of the current situation. The West Coast ports handle a substantial portion of the nation’s trade, which accounts for one quarter of the U.S. gross domestic product. Their closure will deliver a serious blow to the U.S. economy,” Mullin wrote.

“With the retail industry and consumer spending largely propping up a weak economy, the inability to get goods off the ships will quickly result in idling of distribution centers, closure of stores and layoffs of workers. U.S. consumers will also quickly see an impact as goods become unavailable and prices rise,” Mullin added.

Peter J. Hurtgen of the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service, Western Region, said he is optimistic that talks will soon resume.

“I am pleased that the parties agreed to meet and that they came together this morning,” he said. “I remain hopeful that these negotiations can move forward, and I continue my offer of assistance and that of the FMCS. We all want to see the ports opened and functioning normally again.”

The shutdown began with a two-day lockout Friday after the PMA charged that dockworkers were engaged in a work slowdown, a claim the ILWU has emphatically denied. About 10,500 West Coast ILWU workers have been without a contract since July 1, but had been agreeing to short contract extensions until the Labor Day weekend, when the dispute came to a head. The PMA wants the contract extended again while the talks go on.

The main sticking points are over automation of the process for tracking standardized shipping containers and concerns over health benefits.

The PMA wants the union to start using scanners and remote sensors to help track cargo. It claims U.S. docks are a decade behind their European and Asian counterparts.

But the union fears automation will eliminate the jobs of as many as 300 ILWU clerks, who do the tracking manually. Clerks earn about $118,000 per year. The PMA agreed to guarantee those jobs until the workers retire, but Jim Spinosa, the union’s president and chief negotiator, last year decried the offer, calling it a tactic to eventually eliminate the union.

The ILWU also wants to maintain 100 percent health coverage benefits. The PMA initially sought to cut back benefits, saying costs had risen too quickly. It later agreed to maintain full coverage but tied the concessions to an agreement on technology.

In addition, the two sides are debating a new arbitration process for settling disagreements during the life of the contract.

The Associated Press, City News Service and Copley News Service correspondent Toby Eckert contributed to this article.

... the union fears automation will eliminate the jobs of as many as 300 ILWU clerks, who do the tracking manually. Clerks earn about $118,000 per year. The PMA agreed to guarantee those jobs until the workers retire, but Jim Spinosa, the union’s president and chief negotiator, last year decried the offer, calling it a tactic to eventually eliminate the union.

These $118,000 per year workers are CLERKS! Granted they're not just any old clerks but rather "maritime clerks" (whooopeee!), the fact is that the work they do can be done offsite (eg, in Kansas) by people whose wages are normal wages for clerks / data entry operators.

I have slight doubts that good old Jim Spinosa is really looking out for his members' best interests when he decries a guarantee that they will be paid their hugely bloated wages till they retire no matter what.

I used to be the first one to jump up to beat up on those darn unions. After reading too many stories about $100 million mansions, and $15,000 wastebaskets and $5,000 umbrella stands for CEO's I'm no longer inclined to beat up on them. If that union could get good wages for its members then more power to them. Too bad the CEO has to make do with a $10 trash can instead of a $15,000 trash can. Boo hoo hoo.

In fact, those clerks are making more per year than the average BSEE working in Silicon Valley. Maybe what those engineers need is their own union that can look out for them, and push back against unlimited free overtime, and H1-B hires, and the thousands of other ways that tech companies shaft their workers. Because I lived through all of it, and I'm at the point where I'm thinking that maybe unions aren't such a bad idea after all!

Followup:

$100,000 longshoreman: union wins the global game
Steven Greenhouse
New York Times

Published Oct 6, 2002

OAKLAND, CALIF. -- To American unions, globalization is a nefarious force that has wiped out the jobs of millions of well-paid blue-collar workers.

But the members of one union have played the global-trading system as well as any international investor: the longshoremen. They wield so much power that they have managed to obtain cradle-to-grave benefits and salaries to make many white-collar college graduates envious. For the longshoremen, globalization has been nothing but a blessing.

Full-time West Coast dockworkers who load and unload ships make on average nearly $100,000 a year, while clerks who keep track of cargo movements average $120,000. Not only does the medical coverage for active longshoremen require no out-of-pocket expenses, but the same holds true for retirees.

The benefits package, according to management, averages $42,000 a year, more than many Americans make in a year.

One other benefit: They get a paid day off to celebrate the birth of their Marxist founder, Harry Bridges.

There is a simple explanation why the longshoremen have benefited so much from globalization. They control the chokepoints that can halt the flow of imports and exports that American consumers and businesses depend on. In other words, the 10,500 longshoremen on the West Coast have the power to paralyze the $300 billion in cargo that flows through these ports every year.

In the past, management has often surrendered to the demands of dockworkers instead of enduring a strike or slowdown. This time, officials with the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents port operators and shipping lines, shut 29 ports last week and locked out the workers after complaining that the workers were engaged in a slowdown. The association wants the right to introduce new technology to speed cargo handling, while the International Longshore and Warehouse Union wants the remaining jobs to be under its jurisdiction.

Strategic location

The longshoremen hold an unusually strong hand. "They are one of the highest-paid blue-collar groups because of their strategic location in terms of controlling where goods funnel from ports to the nation's roads and railroads," said Howard Kimeldorf, a University of Michigan professor who wrote a book on dockworkers. "They have enormous bargaining clout because they have the power to stop all those goods."

Because of their handsome pay, the longshoremen can easily endure a prolonged work stoppage. Management is hard-put to use strikebreakers to replace them, not wanting to risk using inexperienced people to operate cranes that move containers half the size of railroad cars.

If workers at U.S. Steel or Caterpillar strike, it is easy for those companies' customers to buy steel or tractors from competitors. But if the longshoremen walk out, shipping lines cannot divert their cargo to other ports. Mexico's ports and roads cannot handle the cargo, Canadian longshoremen won't unload the diverted ships and East Coast ports are unavailable because the Panama Canal is too small to handle the huge Pacific ships.

In the past, retailers, farmers and manufacturers, who rely on trade, often pushed management to settle quickly by capitulating to the longshoremen. The just-in-time delivery system used by many factories and retailers leaves little margin for delay.

The longshoremen have also benefited from an unusual solidarity. New workers must takes courses about the union's history. And besides getting a day off for the union's founder, they also get to take Bloody Thursday, commemorating the day during a 1934 strike when two longshoremen were killed in San Francisco. The painted outlines of where the workers fell remain a longshoremen's shrine.

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