Dockworkers Strike Ports on East Coast

About 30,000 longshoremen struck ports from Maine to Virginia today when their union contracts expired, backing up cargo ships in the first full-scale dock strikes to hit East Coast ports in 15 years.

The International Longshoremen’s Assn. failed to reach agreement on a new master contract in negotiations with the Council of North Atlantic Shipping Assns., which represents port employers in several ports. The union objects to a proposed $3-per-hour pay cut for handlers of certains kinds of cargo.

Talks between the shippers and the ILA collapsed nearly two weeks ago over the issue of wages, and both sides have refused to resume bargaining.

ILA President Thomas W. Gleason said that 11 ports were struck and that “nobody is crossing the line.” Pickets were reported early today in Newark, N.J., and New York City’s Brooklyn piers. No dockworkers were in sight in Boston.

Coal, Iron Ore Unaffected

The strike could freeze shipments of cars, steel, lumber and containerized cargo. Coal and iron ore, handled by non-union workers, would be unaffected.

Office and management personnel took on stevedores’ roles when the Stella Solaris and its 450 passengers arrived in New York this morning after an 11-day cruise in Canadian waters.

“A vice president was handling a crane to get the gangway down,” said Dick Rausch, vice president and general manager of ITO, the terminal operator.

The ILA has 65,000 members nationwide, Gleason said.

A three-year contract covering workers in 36 ports from Maine to Texas expired at midnight Tuesday. But locals in the South Atlantic and Gulf ports agreed not to strike immediately.

Great Lakes and West Coast ports also are not affected by today’s strike.

The last major ILA strike was in 1977 and was against containerized carriers only.