Port Talks Resume as Sides Take Potshots

Contract negotiations between West Coast dockworkers and shipping lines resumed Tuesday in San Francisco, with officials from both sides aiming potshots at each other over a union proposal for port security.

The bargaining session was only the second since late July, and both sides acknowledged that they made little headway on the thorniest issue: how to incorporate labor-saving technology and make the docks run more efficiently without gutting union jobs.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents 10,500 dockworkers at 29 West Coast ports, raised the issue of security, which has come under heightened scrutiny since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Accusing the shipping lines of carrying cargo for countries suspected of sponsoring terrorism, union President James Spinosa called on terminal operators to work with the union to make the ports more secure.

One of the ILWU’s proposals would require union members to visually inspect the seals placed across the doors of all loaded shipping containers for possible tampering and to verify that each container is accompanied by the proper paperwork.

“Most of the ships that come to our ports are foreign-owned, and we cannot control where they have been or who has handled the cargo,” Spinosa said in a statement. “In an era when shippers ... engage in a high volume of business with countries such as Iraq and Libya, which our government considers state sponsors of international terrorism, it is impossible to rely on overseas inspections.”

A spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents the shipping lines, called the union’s security proposal “disingenuous.” He noted that the ILWU has opposed a number of initiatives to tighten port security, including proposed federal legislation that would require dockworkers to undergo background checks.

Jack Suite, contract administrator for the PMA, said his organization has been working closely with the Customs Service, the Transportation Department, the Coast Guard and other federal agencies. He said shippers would abide with whatever requirements they come up with for securing the nation’s ports, something that can’t be settled in union bargaining.

“The real issues here are not security,” Suite said. “The real issues here are the economics of settling the contract.” The contract expired July 1, but work has continued as the union and shipping lines have repeatedly extended the old agreement.

Ports from San Diego to Seattle move more than $300 billion worth of goods a year, accounting for about 7% of the nation’s gross domestic product and supporting 1.4 million American jobs.