Judge Lets Hiring Goals for Women Dockworkers Lapse

In a major setback for women aspiring to become dockworkers, a federal judge on Monday refused to increase or renew long-standing hiring goals for women in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

In a 19-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi denied a request to continue the so-called Golden Decree, a 16-year-old measure that has greatly increased the number of women longshore workers at the county’s harbors. It expired Monday.

Takasugi made the decision in a civil contempt action filed last year against the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Assn., the largest shipping organization on the West Coast.

The Pacific Maritime Assn. is the counterpart of the longshore union. It negotiates and administers labor contracts for more than 100 shipping lines, stevedore companies and operators of cargo terminals.

Both waterfront institutions were accused by a group of almost 500 women of failing to comply with hiring goals for females that were established in 1983 during the settlement of a federal sex discrimination case.

The Golden Decree required that the membership of the marine clerk and longshore locals be 20% female. Attorneys for the women claimed the union was at least 166 females short of the goal.

To settle the contempt action, the women, the longshore union and the maritime association asked Takasugi to extend the consent decree another six years and increase the hiring goal for women to 25%.

The proposal also would have required the longshore union to register 250 women over the next few months into Local 13, which represents longshore workers.

The pending settlement, however, was opposed by a group of 148 men who are apprentice longshore workers trying to gain entry into the union. They claimed in court that the hiring goals for women have resulted in reverse discrimination.

The men requested that they be allowed to intercede as plaintiffs in the case to challenge the proposed settlement.

Takasugi granted their request. He also ruled that the imbalance between men and women within the marine clerks local was not large enough to justify the use of gender in hiring.

“The Golden Decree as we know it is over,” said Carmen Trutanich of San Pedro, the attorney for the male dockworkers. “Our clients are gratified that they will be treated fairly and equally. That is all they were asking for to begin with.”

Trutanich argued that gaining union membership has traditionally been based on the number of hours someone has put in as a so-called “casual” dockworker. Casuals are not unionized and generally take the jobs union members don’t want.

Since the consent decree, he says, women have had to work far fewer hours as casuals than men to get into the union. In many cases, men have had to put in hundreds of hours more than women.

Trutanich’s clients also contended that because women need fewer hours to get into the union, many have refused to take the more arduous tasks, leaving them to the men.

Michelle A. Reinglass, an Orange County attorney who filed the contempt action for the women, said her clients were “extremely disappointed” by Takasugi’s ruling.

Since the Golden Decree took effect 16 years ago, the number of women in the longshore union has surged from seven in 1983 to between 800 and 1,000 today. There are about 5,000 registered members in the local harbors.

Reinglass said, however, the contempt action has not been dismissed and that her clients will evaluate whether they want to pursue back pay and seniority.

Attorneys for the women, the longshore union and the maritime association had contended that the proposed settlement for the contempt action was fair to all the parties.