Dockworkers to Lose Day’s Pay for Wildcat Strike That Shut Ports : Labor: Union and shippers reach accord after a walkout this month triggered by an attempt to arrest a man for failure to pay child support.

More than 500 local longshoremen will lose one day’s pay for a wildcat walkout this month that began with the attempted arrest of one dockworker and led to the closure of Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors.

Under a settlement reached with waterfront employers, the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, Local 13, acknowledged that about 10% of its membership staged an illegal walkout Oct. 10 that closed the ports for 13 hours. The walkout, which idled about 30 ships carrying tens of millions of dollars in cargo, will cost the strikers about $200 each in wages.

At the same time, the Pacific Maritime Assn.--representing shippers, terminal operators and other waterfront employers--agreed that the union was justified under its contract in temporarily closing its dispatch hall when a melee erupted over the attempted arrest of one dockworker for failure to make court-ordered child support payments.

The walkout began when two investigators for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office entered the union hall in Wilmington about 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 10 to arrest Roy Neal, 49.

The investigators, armed with an arrest warrant, were in the hall for several minutes when they were ordered out by a union official, authorities said. Within minutes, authorities said, the investigators were surrounded by about 300 angry longshoremen and fled to an office inside the hall to call for help.

When Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and Los Angeles police officers arrived, the investigators were escorted from the hall, and officers arrested the union’s sergeant-at-arms, John Nappi, 65, of San Pedro, on suspicion of inciting a riot.

The confrontation and the arrest of Nappi so outraged dockworkers that day that union leaders within an hour ordered those longshoremen not to report to work and also told workers already on the job to go home. In all, one official said, 300 to 350 dockworkers on the swing shift and 200 on the graveyard shift participated in the walkout, which ended at 8 a.m. on Oct. 11.

Union officials did not return numerous calls about the walkout, but waterfront employers said the strike violated Local 13’s contract with the Pacific Maritime Assn. They said the association filed a labor grievance to have the action declared illegal.

The grievance prompted several meetings between union and association officials and led to a settlement that avoids the need for a hearing before a labor arbitrator, the employers said.

The settlement, according to Vince Lamaestra, assistant area manager for the association, acknowledges that the union was justified in temporarily closing the dispatch hall because events the night of Oct. 10 threatened the health and safety of workers.

“I would have shut down the hall myself for three or four hours because it was a volatile situation and it had to be calmed down,” said Lamaestra. “And if they had called us, there is a possibility we would have agreed to that.”

But the settlement says the union’s decision to strike was not justified under the terms of Local 13’s labor contract, Lamaestra said. The contract requires that the union must exhaust all appropriate grievance procedures before unilaterally ordering longshoremen to strike, he said.

Lamaestra said the settlement includes a written commitment by the union and association officials to hold talks to avert similar walkouts over events unrelated to working conditions or other contract issues.

Meanwhile, he added, both sides have agreed to support the defense of Nappi, whose arrest for allegedly triggering the union melee continues to anger local longshoremen.

“We and Local 13 have committed to take care of Nappi, to back him up,” Lamaestra said. “It is one move to improve our relationship.”

A district attorney’s spokesman said Neal, the man for whom investigators were looking when they went to the union hall Oct. 10, has still not been arrested.