Stage Set for More Port Labor Strife

West Coast ports were set to resume cargo operations today after a 36-hour lockout by employers. But with no progress made in the contract dispute that led to the closure, the stage was set for more labor strife and congestion.

Terminal operators closed the ports Friday night, saying they wanted to have a “cooling-off” period in response to work slowdowns staged by the union to gain leverage in contract negotiations, which are now in their fifth month.

The union denied that it had orchestrated slowdowns, saying it merely urged members to refuse overtime and to strictly follow safety rules. At a rally Saturday near the Port of Los Angeles, dockworkers and supporters from the community angrily claimed that the shipping lines created the crisis to discredit the union, and said the lockout was unwarranted and unfair.

As the ports stood eerily silent Saturday afternoon, a spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union said members would return to the docks this morning as requested. But in a telephone interview, spokesman Steve Stallone said members would continue to work under the same safety guidelines.

In addition, he said, so-called “steady” clerks who normally report to the same job site every day would instead report to dispatch halls for job orders--leading to the possibility of clerks being assigned to unfamiliar workplaces and slowing cargo operations.

The Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents shipping lines and terminal operators at the 29 major West Coast cargo ports, said that if the steady clerks fail to report for work, and if further slowdowns are detected, it would consider the union’s response a strike.

“We just talked to the union’s international officers and asked them not to do those things,” association President Joseph Miniace said Saturday afternoon. “So we will just see. If they do not give us labor, then that’s a strike. And if there’s a strike, the gates would be locked. I’d be bitterly disappointed if this turns into a mess tomorrow.”

The West Coast ports move an estimated $300 billion in imports and exports annually--about 60% through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach--and economists said a protracted shutdown would be economically devastating.

Miniace met with ILWU President James Spinosa and other top union executives over lunch Saturday, but neither side reported progress on the core issues separating them. Negotiations have bogged down over the control of information flowing through the ports, which has changed rapidly with the use of scanners, sensors and other new technology. The union also wants to expand its jurisdiction to nonunion computer operators, which employers have resisted.

No negotiations are currently scheduled.

Peter Hurtgen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, traveled to San Francisco on Friday in an attempt to help break the tension. But a spokesman for Hurtgen said Saturday that neither the union nor the maritime association had contacted him.

Association spokesman Steve Sugerman said the employers group was willing to use mediation. ILWU spokesman Stallone said he was not aware of any contact between the union and mediators.

Stallone said the association’s concerns about steady clerks were overblown, and that any clerks dispatched from the hiring hall could perform the work.

“There will be enough people at the hall waiting to fill as many orders as there are to give,” he said.

On Friday, traffic snarled at the gates of ports from San Diego to Seattle as the association reported productivity drops of 30% to 90%. Crane operators who normally move 25 to 30 containers off ships in an hour were moving only three an hour, Sugerman said.

One shipping line president estimated the cost of each idled ship at $30,000 a day. Miniace said the association is tracking the cost of the combined slowdowns and lockout, but said an estimate was not available. “Each day they work slower, the growth of problems is exponential,” he said. “Containers stack up on the terminal, truckers don’t have room to drop off their loads. Pretty soon you’ve got an intermodal disaster.”

On Saturday, several heavily laden cargo ships made their way toward the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, but their crews were forced to anchor far from the docks. Eight ships had arrived since the beginning of the lockout, four each anchored outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Another seven were scheduled to arrive from Saturday afternoon through this morning.

A spokesman for the Marine Exchange said there had been no problems and, with 59 anchorages inside and outside of the port breakwaters, there was plenty of room for more.

The quiet port was a strange contrast to the normal bustle at the waterfront. Huge cranes that would have been unloading as many as three dozen ships were idle, a sight strange enough to draw one crane operator back to the massive new Pier 400 at the Port of Los Angeles on his birthday.

“It’s nice down here today. Quiet, and you can breathe for a change without the fumes,” said the operator, who asked that his name not be used. “This would all be very busy right now. This is very strange.”

In Wilmington, a group called Friends of Labor held a rally that drew about 250 dockworkers and community supporters. They handed out fliers targeting merchants that belong to the West Coast Waterfront Coalition. The union has accused the group of being closely aligned with the association.

Activists volunteered to leaflet the merchants, including Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot, starting today and to ask shoppers not to buy while the labor dispute continued.

Leading the Wilmington rally was Diane Middleton, 59, a community activist and attorney who represents injured dockworkers.

She questioned the association’s characterization of a slowdown, and said workers have been putting in more time than usual lately because of heavy cargo loads. “It looks more like a speed-up to me,” she said.

Other port community residents, ranging from a chiropractor to a boys’ club manager, joined in the pro-union rally, saying their jobs depend on the union wages earned by longshore members.

“These are the people who keep our community strong,” Middleton said of the longshore workers, who earn $80,000 to $150,000 annually with overtime. “It’s strong because of longshore wages.”

Many of the shipping lines and terminal operators that comprise the maritime association have been hurting financially because of an excess of shipping capacity that has forced them to cut rates.