Strike Action Flares Again at 2 Harbors
Strike action at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports flared again Friday when more than 300 workers stayed off their jobs at a stevedoring company that held out in contract negotiations after 10 other companies and workers reached agreement earlier this week.
“We had it put to bed and here we go again,” said Terry Lane, regional manager for the Pacific Maritime Assn., an employers’ group.
The strike against Stevedoring Services of America (SSA) Inc. began at 5 p.m. Thursday when 14 office workers walked off their jobs at the Indies Terminal on Terminal Island at Los Angeles Harbor after failing to ratify a tentative agreement.
Strike Spreads
The strike spread Friday to three other terminals in the Long Beach port where SSA was working when about 300 members of International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU) Local 63 began honoring picket lines set up by the office workers.
Jerry Rich, assistant business agent for clerical workers of Local 63, said the affected terminals in Long Beach originally included Pacific Container Terminal, Berth 246; the steel dock, Berth 206, and the Maersk Container Line Terminal, Berth 229. Rich said that Maersk later decided to use another stevedoring company and the union called off its strikers.
A spokesman for SSA declined to discuss contract negotiations but said Friday that no date had been set for new negotiations.
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