Mediator Calls for Pause in Port Talks
A federal mediator called for a one-week break in contract negotiations covering West Coast dockworkers Tuesday, after the shipping industry and longshore union failed to reach agreement on a pension package.
The adjournment was a sign of frustration in the San Francisco hotel where talks have been held for nearly two weeks, despite a breakthrough deal on labor-saving technology announced Friday.
In a brief written statement, Peter J. Hurtgen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, indicated that the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents 79 shipping lines and terminal operators, needed time to review the union’s demands for an enhanced pension package.
Spokesmen for the association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union declined to comment, citing the mediator’s request for a news blackout during negotiations. But sources close to the talks said earlier that hopes for a quick mediated settlement had faded over the weekend as tempers flared over pension proposals.
Last month, the maritime association offered an increase of nearly 25% in the pension plan, bringing the retirement pay for a fully vested longshore worker to about $50,000 a year.
But the union said it expected a larger increase than that, now that it has accepted new computer systems and other technological advances that would cause the loss of hundreds of high-paid clerk jobs.
“While the ILWU is prepared to continue with the negotiations, and our talks have proceeded in good faith,” mediator Hurtgen said, “management has requested additional time to evaluate anticipated technology-based operational savings and pension funding costs into future years.”
Talks are set to resume Nov. 13.
Hurtgen was given authority over the negotiations by an Oct. 8 federal court order that reopened West Coast ports after a 10-day employer lockout. Shipping lines said the lockout was in response to disruptive union slowdowns.
The parties, which handle about $300 billion in cargo moving through the ports each year, have been in negotiations since mid-May.
