Order Issued to Block Longshoremen’s Walkout
A federal judge in Los Angeles late Friday issued a temporary restraining order against the 50,000-member International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union to block its threatened one-day walkout Monday at West Coast ports.
ILWU officials could not be reached for comment about the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Robert A. Takasugi.
Previously, the ILWU announced plans to stage a 24-hour walkout in protest of Southern Pacific’s layoffs of 350 longshoremen at a Wilmington rail yard. The threatened job action was described as the ILWU’s first coast-wide walkout since 1971, when a 134-day strike cost ports, shippers and others an estimated $2 billion.
Takasugi agreed with the National Labor Relations Board that the walkout could cause “substantial and irreparable” economic damage to the Pacific Maritime Assn. representing shippers. As such, Takasugi said, the walkout would unfairly affect companies that were no party to the labor dispute.
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