Southern Pacific Orders 315 Workers Off Jobs

In anticipation of a threatened walkout next week, the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. ordered about 315 workers off their jobs Tuesday at the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility in Wilmington, company officials said.

The workers, members of the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen’s Union, were replaced by Southern Pacific employees, who will be represented by a rail labor union.

Southern Pacific officials had planned to switch to the new work force Sunday, but moved up the timetable because of the ILWU’s “repeated threats of illegal strike activity,” said Tom Matthews, company vice president.

An ILWU spokesman said Southern Pacific’s decision is another attempt to dislodge the union and hire workers at lower pay. “It is in keeping with their lack of regard for the work force they have,” said Danny Beagle of ILWU headquarters in San Francisco. Union leaders vowed to continue with the protest Sunday at the site--said to be the busiest intermodal rail facility in the nation--and stage one-day walkouts at other ports along the West Coast.