City to Make ‘Final Offer’ to Striking Port Pilots

Frustrated with the apparent stalemate in talks with the city’s striking port pilots, the Los Angeles City Council voted in closed session Tuesday to make their “last, best and final” offer--a legal step that clears the way for an independent mediator to resolve the dispute.

The council decision, which comes 75 days into the strike, means that city negotiators will return to the bargaining table one more time to offer the pilots’ union a 17% pay increase over four years, to $133,000.

If the union rejects the city’s offer, the city may move to declare the talks to be at an impasse, and call for a mediator or fact finder. Typically, a fact finder hears testimony from both sides, then makes recommendations on how to reach a final contract.

Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. had developed a proposal that would have raised the pilots’ salaries to $171,224 by 2002. That figure went above the union’s latest offer, and the council voted it down.

The strike initially halted all vessel traffic at the port. But five pilots are moving ships, and the port has paid them $130,334 in bonuses.