Dockworkers to Start Contract Talks

APL Ltd., Maersk Pacific Ltd. and other ocean carriers will begin contract talks with West Coast dockworkers today, seeking to avert a work slowdown like the one that occurred three years ago.

In 1999, longshoremen in Los Angeles and Long Beach, the two busiest U.S. ports, slowed operations when the sides failed to reach an agreement in time. A similar slowdown or strike at the West Coast ports could cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars, according to Martin Associates, a consulting firm.

The current contract expires July 1. The carriers and terminal operators, represented by the Pacific Maritime Assn. trade group, want to automate some of the work done by longshoremen, Joe Miniace, the group’s chief executive, said.

The union’s main concerns are maintaining benefit packages, getting better pensions, keeping jurisdiction over data-input jobs and increasing its control of trucking jobs, said Steve Stallone, a spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents about 10,000 workers at the ports.

Retailers and other shippers dependent on imports from Asia through the ports will be watching the labor talks closely, said Robin Lanier, executive director of the West Coast Waterfront Coalition, an industry group whose members include Best Buy Co., Gap Inc. and Nike Inc., among others.

West Coast ports handled about $310 billion in trade in 2000, mostly from imports, compared with $61 billion in 1980, according to U.S. census data. As importers’ reliance on West Coast ports has risen, they have grown concerned that the ports could become a weak link in their supply chains, Lanier said.