Work Stoppage at Ports Idles 15 Cargo Ships, Disrupts Schedules

Fifteen cargo ships were idled for hours Monday in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach when scores of longshoremen and clerks did not show up for work. Maritime officials blamed a wildcat strike, but labor representatives said the workers were attending a rally to protest plans to hire nonunion employees at the docks.

The idling of the ships not only delayed their unloading but disrupted other train and truck operations because of delivery schedules for shippers, said Carrie Clements, area manager for the Pacific Maritime Assn. of Southern California.

The disruption, she said, may have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in delays.

The maritime group and port officials said the walkout was declared an illegal strike by an industry arbitrator. But a spokesman for the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen’s Union, Local 13, denied that the unions organized a strike. Rather, the delays resulted when union workers exercised their option to take time from work to attend a lunchtime labor rally on Terminal Island, said Ralph Espino Jr., secretary-treasurer of Local 13.

For months, the unions have been protesting plans to hire nonunion dockworkers for the Port of Los Angeles’ planned $120-million coal terminal, scheduled to open late next year.