Ship Pilots’ Strike Paralyzes L.A. Harbor : Transportation: Longshoremen support walkout of the men who guide big ships into port. The pilots’ union took advantage of heightened interest in safety after the Huntington Beach oil spill.

The Port of Los Angeles was paralyzed Saturday by an unexpected strike of the tiny, 11-member union of pilots who steer huge oil tankers, freighters and passenger vessels through the narrow channels of the nation’s second-busiest harbor.

Although management personnel were available to navigate the eight ships that arrived Saturday, the walkout halted port operations because longshoremen, who load and unload the massive vessels, refused to cross the pilots’ picket line.

Eznunial Burts, executive director of the Los Angeles Harbor Department, called the situation “very serious,” explaining: “We have a complete shutdown of our operation. We are looking at a large number of vessels calling at the port each day. . . . If they have to hold these vessels off and, in some cases, miss their rotation, needless to say it is a very serious situation.”

The strike prompted two hastily arranged sets of negotiations. The pilots, who are Los Angeles city employees, were engaged in renewed contract talks with Los Angeles Harbor Department officials. Representatives of the longshoremen, meanwhile, were negotiating with the terminal operators over whether the pilots’ picket line would continue to be honored.

Both negotiations broke off Saturday night without resolution; they were scheduled to resume today at 10:30 a.m.

The pilots have been working without a contract since June. Although mediation talks had been scheduled for Feb. 20, they struck Saturday in an atmosphere of heightened interest in ship safety created by a tanker accident off Huntington Beach and resultant oil spill.

The pilots maintain that the safety issue is central to their labor dispute. Harbor officials contend that the negotiations have stalled over salary increases sought by the pilots, who are paid a base salary of $55,000 a year.

The pilots board the huge ships--some of which weigh as much as 265,000 tons when fully loaded--outside the breakwater and steer them through the port’s narrow channels and turning basins. Their service is essential because each harbor has its own quirks and hidden dangers that make navigation extremely difficult for sea captains unfamiliar with the port.

With the union pilots picketing, the eight ships that arrived Saturday were steered by the port’s two non-union pilot supervisors. That created a backlog, forcing some ships to drop anchor outside the breakwater, where they waited for several hours until a pilot arrived.

Those ships that did make it to berths faced additional difficulties. At the Evergreen Terminal, the surprise walkout meant 800 cargo containers--each containing 20 tons of electronics, clothing and other consumer goods--could not be unloaded from the container ship Ever Gather, which had arrived from Tokyo.

“We can’t get to work,” an official of the Metropolitan Stevedore Co., which operates the terminal, complained.

The official, who asked not to be named, said two ships were expected at the terminal today, but these vessels will not be able to come into port if the Ever Gather has not been unloaded and moved out of the berth.

“Right now,” he said, “everything is up in the air. We don’t even know what is happening tomorrow, what is happening tomorrow night. Everything is out of sequence now. We’ll just have to worry when tomorrow comes.”

Officials of Local 13 of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union could not be reached for comment Saturday. Longshoremen interviewed at dockside, however, were adamant in their support for the pilots.

“You’re gonna make it, no sweat,” Paul Folz, a member of the union’s grievance committee, told one of the striking pilots. “We’re behind you 100%.”

Longshoremen greatly outnumbered the striking pilots on the picket lines. A lone pilot stood at each berth where a ship was scheduled to arrive, surrounded by as many as 100 milling longshoremen.

And at the port’s World Cruise Center, where the Viking Serenade arrived from Mexico, some longshoremen scuffled briefly with a crew member of the ship who had tried to unload luggage. Dozens of longshoremen rushed the crew member, warning him to keep “off our dock.”

The passengers eventually carried their own luggage off board.

Departure of the ship’s next cruise was delayed until crew members themselves loaded food and supplies, normally the job of longshoremen. The outbound passengers also toted their own luggage.

“It’s a pain for our passengers,” said Kjell Smitterberg, the ship’s captain. “These little old ladies, they are 70, 75 years old. Now they have to take their own luggage.”

The passengers, however, seemed to be in too jovial a mood to complain. “You just take it all in stride,” said Elaine Saunders, a 74-year-old grandmother from Salem, Ore., as she wrestled with her luggage. “It isn’t that bad.”

As of late Saturday, port executive director Burts said he was optimistic that the pilots and the Harbor Department would reach a settlement. But Wallace Knox, the lawyer for the union, said he was less confident.

Knox said pilots are especially concerned about what he called an excessive number of “call-backs,” in which pilots who have worked 12-hour shifts are asked to return for extra work. One pilot interviewed said he was called back to work 55 times last year

In addition, he contended that the port has permitted trainee pilots with little experience to steer huge tanker ships on their own--a deviation, he said, from standard practice.

Capt. Joseph Silva, president of Local 68 of the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots, said the pilots have complained for at least two years that they are understaffed and required to work too much overtime on too little sleep. He said the situation became especially acute in January, when three pilots left the port, decreasing the union ranks from 14 to 11.

“We’ve had two years of warnings and nine months of negotiations,” Silva said, “and it’s been zip-ville. . . . I see it in a very personal sense. For me, it’s the sheer terror of meeting a pilot who’s not qualified, coming down the channel and almost running into me. An oil spill is one thing. How about a ship collision, a sinking in the main channel? That scares the hell out of me.”

Pilots also complained that a continuing increase in port traffic had made their jobs more difficult. The Port of Los Angeles handled more than 2 million cargo containers in 1989, making it the second-busiest port in the nation, behind the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey.

Port officials, however, denied that harbor conditions are unsafe.

Burts contended the central issue was salary, saying the pilots sought a 50% pay increase. He said the major safety issues have been resolved through negotiations, adding that the port has made a commitment to increase the number of pilots from 14 to 16. The port also has indicated its willingness to pay for additional pilot training, he said.

“I’m really shocked that this has taken place,” Burts said. “The real issue that we are talking about here is the issue of economics.”

The port executive director accused the pilots, who held a press conference Saturday at the Huntington Beach Pier, of being calculating in their timing of the walkout: “I think if we haven’t had that oil spill in Huntington Beach we wouldn’t be facing this situation right now.”

Four ships were scheduled to arrive at the port today.