Port Tensions Worry Retailers, Growers

Continuing labor tensions at West Coast ports have retailers and citrus growers nervous about the prospects for the holiday season and beyond.

As union and shipping officials pointed fingers at one another over the nagging backlog of container ships that need to be unloaded, retailers moaned that Christmas presents were lying dormant in crates as the holiday season was set to start.

“There are an awful lot of Christmas presents sitting out on those docks,” said J. Craig Shearman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation. “For us, it doesn’t matter what the reason. The fact remains the goods aren’t coming into the stores as quickly as we need them.”

Meanwhile, citrus growers are worried that their navel orange shipments to Asia for Chinese New Year could be disrupted because the exporting season starts at the end of December -- about the same time as the court-ordered cooling-off period ends.

“If a strike happens then, it would be very disruptive,” said Russ Hanlin, vice president of International Sales at Sunkist Growers, a marketing cooperative.

The Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents shipping companies and terminal operators, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are in the midst of a contract impasse that has been going on since April. The negotiations broke off in September, with a 10-day lockout that ended Oct. 9, when a judge ordered the ports to reopen for 80 days.

Since then, however, shipping lines have accused longshore workers of deliberately slowing work, while labor has said management isn’t doing enough to secure dockworker’s safety.

“The union is moving much more slowly than we had hoped,” said Steve Sugerman, spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Assn. “There is no question that companies all over America are waiting for their goods, and it’s still unclear how some companies are going to fare for Christmas.”

Union spokesman Steve Stallone acknowledged that unloading containers from ships is progressing slowly, but he cited management as the cause.

“Employers are not doing a thing to solve the logistic problems out there,” Stallone said. “They would just as soon have work move slowly so that they can blame the union.”

If dockworkers and their employers don’t reach agreement on a new contract before the cooling-off period ends, another lockout or a strike could occur.