Judge Stalls Dockworker Settlement

A proposed settlement to increase goals for hiring female dockworkers in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach stalled Friday when a federal judge allowed a group of longshoremen to raise allegations that the settlement might result in reverse discrimination.

In a three-page written ruling, District Judge Robert M. Takasugi postponed action on whether to require the powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union to increase the proportion of women in its ranks from 20% to 25% over the next six years.

Takasugi said a group of apprentice longshore workers who are men should be allowed to address in court their concerns that the proposed settlement would discriminate against them.

To gain entry into the longshore union, male and female dockworkers generally must serve apprenticeships as so-called casuals. Those compiling the most hours in that capacity are eligible for union registration when positions open up.

At a hearing last week to determine whether the settlement was fair, several male casuals complained to Takasugi that current hiring goals for women are discriminatory because men must work far more hours than women to get into the union. They cited examples of men with thousands of hours being passed up in favor of women with a few hundred hours.

“The court is giving us the opportunity to determine what is fair,” said Carmen Trutanich, a San Pedro attorney who represents 25 male casuals. “All my guys want is equality. We are not home yet, but we are humming along.”

The settlement in question is part of a civil contempt action against the dockworkers union and the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents more than 100 terminal operators, stevedore companies and shipping lines on the West Coast.

The maritime association, which negotiates and administers labor contracts for its members, is the counterpart of the longshore union.

Last year, a group of female dockworkers accused both institutions of failing to meet a 20% hiring goal for women established by a 1983 federal consent decree. The decree resulted from the settlement of a sexual discrimination case filed in 1980.

Since the lawsuit, the number of female union members has surged from seven in 1983 to more than 700 today. Longshore locals in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have about 5,400 members, who earn some of the best blue-collar salaries in the nation.

Michelle A. Reinglass, an Orange County attorney who brought the contempt action on behalf of a group of female dockworkers, contends that the rights of male dockworkers will not be denied by the proposed settlement.

Reinglass argues that three out of every four people registered into the union will be male. She also says that the gap in hours that male and female casuals must work before getting into the union is shrinking.

Pacific Maritime Assn. President Joseph N. Miniace said the association “will continue its commitment to developing a diverse work force” in West Coast ports.