Longshore Workers Claim Pacts Violated

Citing threats to harbor jobs and the safety of seafarers, dockworkers in the county’s ports are mounting a campaign to prevent foreign crews of cargo ships from performing allegedly illegal longshore tasks while at sea and in local waters.

Under federal law and many international labor contracts, dock work is, with some exceptions, off limits to merchant seafarers. But sources within the maritime industry say it is not uncommon for crews to do longshore work as their ships enter and leave West Coast ports, including Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The tasks at issue include the removal and installation of steel lashing bars and locking devices that keep stacks of large cargo containers from shifting or toppling over while a vessel is underway. Working with the hardware often requires crew members to climb as high as four or five stories above the deck, exposing themselves to potential falls.

Officials of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union say they are contacting federal and state officials in an attempt to halt the shipboard practices that jeopardize both union jobs and the safety of merchant sailors who are ordered to do longshore functions at sea.

“This is a huge threat to our jurisdiction and the well-being of seafarers forced to lash and unlash cargo while a ship is sailing,” said Mike E. Freese, president of ILWU Local 13, which represents about 4,000 members at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Representatives of the shipping industry, however, question the ILWU’s motives. They contend that the union simply wants to expand its jurisdiction and power by taking over others’ work.

“They are making a fuss because this is extra work they think they can get,” said Joseph N. Miniace, president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents more than 100 shipping-related firms. “Crews have been doing this for years coming and going from West Coast ports. There is no violation of the law.”

Union officials say they want their concerns addressed by the local Harbor Safety Committee, a state-required panel of representatives from all aspects of the maritime industry, including harbor pilots, terminal operators, shipping executives, U.S. Coast Guard officials and dock workers.

In addition, union officials say they will notify elected officials in California, including Democratic U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Long Beach).

The ILWU also has asked the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to enforce federal codes that preserve dock work for U.S. laborers. Although the laws are under INS jurisdiction, the ILWU contends that the agency has refused in the past to investigate crews suspected of performing improper work.

“We are trying to nip this problem before it gets out of control,” said Ray Familathe, a veteran longshoreman and a member of Local 13’s executive committee. “Let’s let the professionals do the job. Lashing cargo can be risky. Many times, these foreign crews don’t know what they are doing.”

The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations division that promulgates guidelines to improve ship safety around the world, considers the securing and unsecuring of cargo containers a dangerous undertaking that has led to the deaths and injuries of dockworkers and seafarers.

“We have grave reservations about crew members working five stories up while a ship is in motion,” said Stephen Cotton, an official of the International Transport Workers Federation in London, an alliance of more than 500 unions that has been trying to improve working conditions for seafarers around the world.

Dock work in the United States is protected under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, which restricts what foreign crew members can do within U.S. territorial waters, which extend three nautical miles from the coast.

There are some exceptions. Foreign seafarers can perform longshore tasks if dock work is not covered by collective bargaining agreements, if there is an emergency, or if it is the prevailing practice in a harbor.

Spelling Out When It Can Be Done

Seafarers are further prohibited from doing dock work under maritime labor contracts that contain so-called “dockers clauses.” Many of them are negotiated and enforced by the International Transport Workers Federation.

These laws and agreements conflict, however, with the dock workers’ labor contract that is in place on the West Coast. The agreement basically states that longshore tasks begin at the dock, berth, anchorage or mooring for all ships heading into port, thus leaving it open for crews to prepare cargo for unloading while inbound.

It is difficult to assess exactly how many times foreign crews perform longshore tasks because no statistics are available. But dockworkers, shipping officials and harbor pilots who bring ships into port indicate that it has been a regular occurrence.

Ships often come into port with their lashing bars already removed. Also, ship captains, who are eager to put to sea, allegedly sometimes kick unionized dockworkers off their vessels and order their crews to secure the containers.

Familathe estimates that in Los Angeles and Long Beach, dockworkers lose hundreds of eight-hour shifts a month because of crews performing dock work on incoming and departing freighters.

ILWU officials say shipping lines want their crews to do longshore tasks because it is far cheaper than using U.S. dockworkers, who typically make $60,000 to $100,000 a year on the West Coast.

On many cargo ships today, seafarers come from Third World countries, where workers earn a fraction of U.S. salaries. Pay can range from a few hundred dollars a month to almost $1,000 for an able-bodied seaman.

Union officials say the practices are generally confined to medium-size and small shipping lines based in Asia, Eastern Europe and Russia. But, they say, problems have been reported aboard vessels operated by China Ocean Shipping Co. or COSCO, a large line with operations in Long Beach.

In December, Rudy Vanderhider, an inspector for the transport workers federation, investigated whether the crew of a COSCO container ship, the Dainty Trader, was preparing to secure its cargo at sea after it departed from the Port of Long Beach. According to ITF documents, the container ship was covered by a labor contract containing a dockers clause.

Vanderhider said COSCO wanted to sail the ship with its containers unlashed, and threatened to have him removed from the terminal. According to an ITF report, Vanderhider called COSCO’s bluff, and the firm relented, agreeing not have crews do longshore work again.

“I go to the captain and tell him the ship cannot sail until it is lashed by a qualified work force,” Vanderhider said. “They wanted to call the police.”

Capt. Jinfu Wang, the operations manager for COSCO in Long Beach, disputed Vanderhider’s claims and said the company does not allow any crew members to do longshore work.

Immigration officials said they are aware of the dockworkers’ complaints, but the service has only a handful of agents in both ports to deal with a huge number of arriving and departing ships.

“We are reluctant to get drawn into a labor dispute,” said Virginia Kice, an INS spokeswoman. “But we are sensitive to their concerns. If they can provide us verifiable information, we will make inquiries.”