Shipping Lines, Union Agree on Key Port Issue
The longshore union and the shipping industry reached a tentative agreement on labor-saving technology -- the stickiest issue in their prolonged dispute -- Friday after all-night talks with three federal mediators and a top AFL-CIO official.
No details were released on the deal, which both sides saw as a breakthrough in the stalemate that has disrupted commercial trade at West Coast ports for more than a month.
Wages and pension benefits still must be hammered out, according to both the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents 10,500 dockworkers, and the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents nearly 80 shipping lines and terminal operators.
From the time talks began in mid-May, however, it was the introduction of labor-saving technology that has bitterly divided the parties.
Shipping lines have long complained the West Coast terminals are inefficient because of union resistance to technology. Among other things, the maritime companies want to introduce scanners that track the movement of containers, and computer systems that allow cargo lists to flow directly into terminals rather than being retyped by longshore clerks.
Throughout the negotiations, the ILWU said it would accept the new systems, which would mean the loss of hundreds of highly paid clerk jobs, only if the union represented all jobs created by the new technology. Labor leaders also wanted dozens of non-union planning jobs to be brought under ILWU jurisdiction, including those that involve the placement of containers on ships and at terminal yards. The PMA had balked at expanding union jurisdiction.
Sources said the deal, reached just before dawn, allows for the free flow of cargo information into terminals while guaranteeing jobs for life to all registered union clerks. A compromise reportedly was reached on union jurisdiction with regard to planning jobs.
Negotiations resumed Friday afternoon at a San Francisco hotel with three federal mediators and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka. An industry source said he hoped a final agreement could be reached by early next week, but union spokesman Steve Stallone said “that’s a rather optimistic view.”
In a statement released Friday, Peter J. Hurtgen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, said he would “continue negotiations today and day by day until there is a full and complete agreement.”
Sources on the industry side said the new technology agreement is similar to a deal they announced in late September, which was rejected by union leaders the following day.
At that time, ILWU President James Spinosa angrily said he would remove technology from the talks. He then told members to “work safely” and strictly follow all government regulations. Days later, the PMA closed all commercial ports from San Diego to Seattle, complaining that union slowdowns had made running the terminals unprofitable. The union insisted that the reduced productivity was due to unusually high cargo volumes.
On Oct. 8, President Bush invoked the rarely used Taft-Hartley Act to obtain a federal court injunction, and the ports were reopened.
Hurtgen called both sides back to the bargaining table two weeks ago.
