Shippers unhappy with pace of work
By Justin Pritchard and Paul Chavez
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — The pace of longshoremen's work at West Coast ports was down around 25 percent yesterday because not enough dockworkers showed up and those who did arrived late, the association representing shipping lines said.
The criticism came two days after longshoremen returned to work at 29 major ports under a court-ordered end to a lockout by the Pacific Maritime Association.
The lower rates varied by port and by terminal within each port, association spokesman John Pachtner said.
"So far, production levels are not meeting our hope or our expectation," he said. "We are concerned that, at least so far, we are not moving toward normal levels of production."
Officials with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union said it was only a matter of time before their employers accused them of slowing down work. The union has said the docks are congested because of the 10-day lockout, which ended Wednesday evening on orders from a federal judge in San Francisco.
"You've got a logistical nightmare out here caused by their lockout," said union spokesman Steve Stallone. "They've created all the problems themselves and they're searching and searching for a way to say it's the union's fault."
He said the union has asked the association to train more workers than the current 10,500 members, but that it has balked. Union members also said they will adhere to safety rules.
The PMA has the option of complaining to a federal court judge and asking for relief from a possible slowdown. But there are no immediate plans to do so, Pachtner said. He said association members would continue to monitor production levels and discuss the situation with union leaders.
The 10-day lockout, which started after the PMA accused dockworkers of a work slowdown, ended Wednesday night after U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the ports reopened at the request of the Bush administration. The lockout cost the U.S. economy up to $2 billion per day by some estimates.
The return-to-work order was set to expire Wednesday, but union and government lawyers have agreed to extend it for 80 days without returning to court.
Federal mediator Peter Hurtgen has scheduled talks with both sides on Wednesday to address scheduling the next round of contract negotiations.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney sent a letter yesterday to U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and the governors of California, Oregon and Washington, urging them to place health and safety inspectors on West Coast docks.
The inspectors can help defuse any controversy by helping to determine if workers are adhering to safety regulations or violating the court order that called for work to resume at a normal pace.
The workers returned to find docks cluttered with a mountainous backlog of cargo. In some places, containers had been misplaced and equipment was not readily available to quickly move goods onto trucks and trains.
