Judge Orders Port Pilots to Take Down Picket Lines

Knocking much of the wind from the sails of a four-day walkout at the nation’s second-busiest port, a Superior Court judge blocked striking ship pilots Tuesday from picketing at private container terminals in Los Angeles Harbor and at the city’s Harbor Department headquarters in San Pedro.

Commissioner Anita Rae Shapiro cited an “imminent threat to safety and health” posed by the cargo ships stacking up in the congested port before issuing a limited restraining order against the pilots’ tiny union, which has about a dozen active employees. The ruling stands until a July 24 hearing.

Although Shapiro’s ruling does not end the strike or resolve the underlying labor dispute between the city and the pilots--who want a 72% pay raise over two years to bring their salary up to the $195,000-a-year industry average--it effectively ends the costly shutdown at the port because without the picket lines, dockworkers have no reason to stay off the job.

The city has two pilot supervisors who can guide a limited number of the ships into port, but the refusal to cross picket lines by 1,500 fellow members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union was triggering daily losses of $437,000 to the city, plus $50,000 per ship to private companies.

“Today’s court action is a victory for Los Angeles and for our customers,” Mayor Richard Riordan said in a written statement. “We hope to see the longshoremen back at work as quickly as possible. The city desires to negotiate in good faith with the port pilots in an effort to reach a contract settlement that will ensure the continued flow of goods through our harbor.”

But Elizabeth Garfield, the pilots’ lawyer, said that although the economic impact of the strike will be reduced by Shapiro’s ruling, “it is not eliminated.”

“There is still tremendous pressure on the city. There’s going to be tremendous delay” bringing ships in and out of the harbor, Garfield added. “We will continue to have an effective strike.”

At the end of a day spent shuttling between state court in Long Beach and federal court in downtown Los Angeles--where a judge postponed ruling on whether the pickets are illegal because Shapiro’s order makes the point moot--both sides insisted that they are ready to continue negotiating, and are just waiting for their adversaries to give the nod.

“The whole idea is to get them back to the table,” said Deputy Mayor Bill Violante, who handles labor relations for Los Angeles. “The city has a process of mediation and fact-finding.”

Jim Larkins, president of the union, said: “All they have to do is call.”

“We hope the city will come back to the bargaining table and we can work out a deal,” added Garfield, the pilots’ attorney. “There’s no need to bring in a mediator. You bring in a mediator when the two parties can’t reach agreement. There are still issues on the table.”

At the harbor, Coast Guard officials said workers were expected to begin unloading cargo from the 11 ships docked in port, and the six awaiting in the harbor, starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Terry Lane, vice president of the Pacific Maritime Assn., a group of 100 vessel and terminal operators and stevedoring companies, said he was pleased with the court ruling, but that it would take time to catch up because of the strike’s backlog.

He said there would be a heavy demand for dockworkers in the coming days, and that repercussions of the strike would be felt throughout the transportation industry.

Ships idled since Saturday “will have difficulty making up their schedules . . . [and] probably won’t be able to make up for lost time,” Lane said. “They’ve obviously missed their rail connections, so costs in terms of dollars and delays have been very great.”

The pilots’ contract, including a yearly salary of $113,172, expired June 30. The city had offered a 17% raise over four years, to $133,000.

Underlying the large gap is in numbers is a broader concern over privatization.

Larkins and other pilots said they were alarmed when city negotiators proposed removing language from the contract that would protect the union members’ interests if the city decided to contract privately for pilots.

“I’m reading between the lines, but that tells me they want to get rid of me,” said Douglas Rill of Garden Grove, a city port pilot for 11 years. “I want to be a member of the ILWU and a pilot for the Port of Los Angeles. I don’t care who pays the paycheck. We don’t really want to privatize, but the only safeguard we have to remain a unit is that [job protection] clause.”

Los Angeles is the only major port in the nation where pilots still work for the government, not private contractors. A 1995 audit of the Harbor Department by Booz, Allen & Hamilton Inc., a consulting firm, suggested that the city hire a private firm to run the piloting operation as part of a plan to cut staff by 35%.

Larkins, who joined the city in 1989 after a lifetime at sea, said job security is even more important than salary.

“The implied threat was they’re going to throw you out in the cold,” he said. “We’re not telling them what to do or what not to do. We’re simply saying, if you do anything like that [privatize], we have a right to be part of the process, and we have a right to continue to be employed as port pilots.”

City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie said officials are “willing to discuss all those issues.”

“We never even got to terms,” he said. ‘It’s all centered on money.”

As Larkins followed his lawyer from courtroom to courtroom Tuesday, his fellow pilots were spread thin as they attempted to keep pickets strong in at least four separate dock areas around the clock.

They stood silently a few feet from the guard shacks at the entrances of each terminal, clad in jeans or shorts, T-shirts and sunglasses, occasionally lounging in folding chairs. Until the judge’s ruling, dockworkers from the ILWU’s Local 13 appeared at terminals alongside the pilots, carrying printed picket signs reading “ILWU on Strike.”

At the Yusen terminal, more than 150 workers honoring the picket line gathered in the heat sipping sodas under a snack truck awning or playing Hackey Sack. Wielding picket signs, they flagged down approaching trucks and explained the situation to the drivers, who made U-turns and left.

“It’s about sticking together,” said Jesse Lopez, 34, a longshoreman. “That’s the name of the game. If you don’t stick together, you’ll be nothing.”

Pilot Joseph Silva, 52, sat quietly in his lawn chair while the dockworkers razzed one another.

“I’ll tell you one thing: To be with these longies has been an education,” he said. “I mean, these guys will call each other brothers and mean it. It’s astounding, actually, in a dog-eat-dog world.”

At about 2:30 p.m., a union official came to brief the crowd on what had happened in court.

“The strike is still on,” announced Tom Warren of the marine clerks union, as sighs of relief surrounded him. “You’re still on the payroll. Everyone’s going to get paid a full day.”

But half an hour later, pilot union President Larkins called his men from a pay phone in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom to pass on the news about the restraining order.

At 2:56 p.m., pilot John Arndt’s cellular phone rang at the Matson terminal.

“Take ‘em down!” he shouted. Instantly, signs dropped and dockworkers began walking to their cars to return to their jobs.

“Thanks, folks,” pilot Michael Rubino called after them. “Keep those signs.”

Next, Arndt walked across the street to spread the word to strikers at Yusen.

“We have to remove the picket signs!” one shouted to the rest. “We [longshoremen] have to go to work. The signs are down.”

The crowd began filing into the gates with little commotion.

“I just feel bad for the pilots because I feel that they are underpaid,” Lopez said. “But the fight isn’t over.”

Without their “big brothers” in other unions, it may be a lonely strike for the pilots, whose ILWU Local 68 functions more like a friendly club than a traditional labor organization.

The city has 16 pilot jobs, but not all of them are filled. Earlier in the week, harbor officials said there were 11 striking pilots, then 12. But Larkins said Tuesday that his union actually has 15 current members, with two out because of illness--one long-term--and one who just returned from vacation.

Mostly men in their 50s who have spent a lifetime at sea, the pilots work 12-hour shifts, four days a week, in groups of four. They have no office or paid staff for the union; everyone serves either on the board of directors or one of the committees. Dues, Larkins said, are $45 a month.

Meetings are often held in members’ nearby homes, or at Ante’s, a San Pedro coffee shop frequented by longshoremen. The strike vote was taken in the Ports o’ Call parking lot outside Utro’s, a seafood-and-burger joint down the street from the port’s pilot house.

“For us, it’s more like a family decision, because we are such a small group,” Larkins said. “We don’t always agree on everything. But we’re a very tight-knit group.”

Sources said the union would meet again Tuesday night to consider the next step in light of the restraining order.

“I wish [city officials] had spent as much time trying to settle this thing as they have trying to fight and break us,” Larkins had said earlier in the day. “If they had done that, we would probably have had this settled and never gone on strike.”

Times staff writers Jeff Leeds and Douglas Shuit contributed to this story.

* STRIKE’S COST: The region could lose much if shippers go elsewhere, James Flanigan writes. D1