Striking Port Pilots Want Jobs Privatized

Convinced that they will be unable to win a 72% raise over two years to bring their annual salaries to $195,000--reportedly the industry average--Los Angeles’ striking port pilots have asked the city to pursue privatization, and they hope to use their employment contract to protect their jobs in the process.

Sources on both sides of the bargaining table said Monday that negotiations turned this weekend from discussion of salary issues and job security in case the city decided to privatize, to a union request that the city immediately launch a search for someone to operate the piloting service for the nation’s second-busiest commercial harbor.

“Our position earlier was we did not take a position yea or nay on privatization,” said Elizabeth Garfield, who represents Local 68, the pilots’ branch of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. “It has become clear to us in these negotiations that [city officials are] incapable of accommodating the needs of the pilots of being compensated with the benchmark average in the industry.

“The city has told us that they are unable to pay what other pilots are receiving throughout the country,” Garfield added. “We don’t believe that a private contractor will have a problem with paying these salaries, so we’re looking in that direction.”

Los Angeles has the only major port in the nation whose pilots are on the government payroll rather than working for a private contractor.

According to a 1996 study by Mercer Management Consulting, pilots at 16 major ports earn an average of $195,200 a year. Savannah, Ga., tops the scale at $270,000, while pilots in New York are the lowest paid at $134,000, the study says. Los Angeles’ pilots currently earn $113,172; the city’s last offer was for a series of raises totaling 17% over four years bringing salaries to $133,000.

When the pilots went on strike July 11, politicians described their salary demands as “outrageous” and “absurd.” The little-known cadre of maritime men is already at the top of the city’s pay scale; $195,000 is $35,000 more than the salary of the harbor’s executive director, twice what City Council members earn and just $5,000 shy of the paycheck for the president of the United States.

Several lawmakers agree that privatization could be the solution. In addition to skirting the political problem of such a huge increase, privatization could ultimately save the city money, according to a 1995 study by the consultants Booz, Allen & Hamilton.

“It’s not something you can close the door on,” council President John Ferraro said.

A source close to the city’s bargaining team said officials have approved the concept of privatization and are now just struggling with the union’s terms for protecting the pilots’ position during the process. City law requires that contracts be put out for bid and granted to the firm that can do the work at the lowest cost; the pilots want language written into the request for proposals that will enhance their ability to get hired by the contractor at a salary closer to their initial $195,000 demand.

The city has hired a private attorney expert in labor law to assist in studying the issue and drafting the language.

“It just takes a lot of detail to draft what the terms in the [request for proposals] will be so both parties will be protected,” said a source involved in the negotiations. “There are . . . dozens of issues that have to be worked out.”

In some ports, such as San Francisco’s, pilots act as independent contractors--they charge shipping companies fees per vessel for their services, return a percentage to the city for its operation of the port and split up what’s left as salaries. Elsewhere, including at Los Angeles’ sister port in Long Beach, the pilots work as salaried employees for a private firm.

Garfield said the Los Angeles pilots are not interested in going into business themselves and bidding on the contract. They want to keep their union intact and simply transfer from the city’s employ to that of a private company, she said.

The pilots and the union spent much of the weekend at the bargaining table, talking at the San Pedro Hilton Hotel until 2 a.m. Monday. They took a break from negotiations that day, as city lawyers pored over the charter in search of a way to accommodate the union’s demands, but expected to return to the table today.

Meanwhile, at the port, Coast Guard Cmdr. Mike Moore said three pilots--two supervisors and one man who broke the strike and returned to work Thursday--were handling ship traffic at a slower than normal pace. The pilots completed all 13 ship maneuvers scheduled between Sunday night and Monday evening, he said.

“They’re pushed,” Moore said. “Day after day after day. . . . You’re going to have to take time off sometime.”

Times staff writer Jeff Leeds contributed to this story.