Technology issues settled on docks
By Justin Pritchard
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — The West Coast longshore workers and shipping companies reached a tentative agreement yesterday on computer technology that would make hundreds of union jobs obsolete, the major sticking point in their bitter contract talks.
Both sides hailed the deal to track waterfront cargo more efficiently as the first tangible progress since a 10-day lockout of dockworkers last month shut down 29 major Pacific ports.
"The parties have worked long and hard," said federal mediator Peter Hurtgen. His statement said only that the deal concerned "the key issues of new technology and retention of union's jurisdiction for marine clerk work."
The shipping companies are seeking to modernize ports to use computerized records of what cargo is stacked where on each vessel and in each yard. Often that information is already in electronic form when the cargo is loaded at another Pacific Rim port, but clerks now retype the data — slowing the movement of cargo but preserving union positions.
The dockworkers' union and the association representing shipping lines were compelled to restart talks after a federal judge granted President Bush's request for an 80-day "cooling-off" period.
The technology agreement, which was reached before dawn yesterday after all-night talks, clearly entailed compromise on both sides.
The 10,500-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union had insisted it would agree to cuts only in the number of marine clerks, whose jobs will be obsolete with a freer flow of electronic information, if the Pacific Maritime Association agreed that new jobs created by the technology be under the union's jurisdiction.
Though the short-term job loss numbers weren't clear yesterday, both sides have said about 400 clerk positions would be eliminated under various technology proposals that have been floated since talks began in the spring.
"We had our bottom line on jurisdiction on what we could do, what we could accept, and they met our bottom line," union spokesman Steve Stallone said. "So we consider this a real victory and the first real progress we've had in these negotiations."
Like Hurtgen, Stallone emphasized that the deal on technology hasn't been the only issue separating the two sides — and if talks break up over issues such as pensions and arbitration of disputes, the technology deal could be moot. Talks were continuing on these issues.
A Pacific Maritime Association spokesman acknowledged that the deal could prove to be an important breakthrough, but had no further comment, citing Hurtgen's request for a media blackout on negotiations.
The ports handle more than $300 billion in trade each year. Some economists estimated that the U.S. economy lost $1 billion each day as cargo piled up at the docks and ships waited at anchor offshore. Some factories shut down for lack of supplies.
Sparring continues over who's to blame for slow progress in clearing the massive backlog of cargo since the lockout ended Oct. 9.
The shipping association complained to the Justice Department that dockworkers intentionally slowed work, cutting productivity by 30 percent in some cases. The union countered that mismanagement by shipping lines and terminal operators has led to dangerous congestion and disarray.
As Hurtgen was preparing to issue his statement yesterday, the union released a letter asking the Justice Department to investigate whether the Bush administration inappropriately collaborated with business groups to undermine union bargaining power during the lockout. The Justice Department had no immediate comment.
