Farmers’ Protest Blocks Operations at Los Angeles Port

Operations at most of the Port of Los Angeles ground to a halt for five hours Monday as hundreds of longshoremen and marine clerks refused to cross picket lines set up by about 100 farmers protesting the importation of foreign farm products.

A spokeswoman for the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents the shipping companies in labor matters, said about two-thirds of the harbor’s shipping activity was affected by the protest by farmers from throughout the West.

In what one farmer said was the first of many “surprise attacks” on U.S. ports, operations were shut down at American President Lines, Evergreen Marine Corp. and Korean Shipping America Inc. terminals, among the largest at the port.

At least two other terminals--those operated by Matson Navigation Co. and Indies Terminal Co.--were also picketed, although longshoremen continued to work at those locations, said Carie Schwab, maritime association spokeswoman.

The farmers, several riding tractors, converged on the port Monday morning, at one time blocking trucks hauling goods from the American President Lines terminal in San Pedro, police said. The road barricade was removed after about half an hour, when police told the farmers that it was illegal, Lt. Tim Murphy said. There were no arrests and the protest ended about 4 p.m.

“If they don’t give us some fairness, we will tie up every port in the nation,” said Willoughby Houk, a farmer from Firebaugh, a small San Joaquin Valley town near Fresno, who has been active in several national efforts to help American farmers.

“They’re importing all of this stuff cheaper than we can produce it,” Houk said. “The farmers just aren’t going to stand for it anymore.”

Several members of the International Longshoremen’s & Warehousemen’s Union Local 13 who refused to cross the farmers’ picket lines would not answer questions. Union officials at the local’s headquarters in Wilmington also refused to comment.

According to Schwab, union members were ordered back to work Monday morning when an arbitrator ruled that the farmers’ picket was not legitimate under the union’s contract with the association because it was “informational,” rather than an actual job action.

The union returned later, however, arguing that some of the farmers had threatened union members and that it was unsafe for them to work. The arbitrator, George Love, agreed, ruling that union members could not be required to cross the picket lines as long as there was concern about safety, Schwab said.

Houk said the farmers chose the Port of Los Angeles for their first protest because of the harbor’s prominence in Far East and Latin American trade. They want federal legislation establishing nationwide price levels to ensure that American-grown crops can compete with imports, allowing “family farmers to earn a reasonable return” on their investment and labor, the farmers said.

Spokesmen for several shipping companies said they were somewhat puzzled by the protest because most of the imports at Los Angeles Harbor are non-agricultural. They said the port’s shipping lines export more agricultural products than they import.

The farmers said they intend to take their protest to ports on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico before going to Washington to lobby Congress.