Shipping firms seek action to speed work
By Justin Pritchard
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — The labor dispute at West Coast docks appears set to escalate, with shipping companies planning to give federal prosecutors data yesterday that they say show an orchestrated slowdown by longshore workers in the week since a federal judge reopened the ports.
Associated Press
The Pacific Maritime Association, which has been monitoring dockside productivity since the 10-day lockout ended, hopes that Justice Department lawyers will use the documentation to ask the judge to force the workers to pick up the pace — or to penalize them.
Food banks in Los Angeles and as far away as New York have received a windfall from the West Coast port shutdown: Perishable goods that never made it to market, such as these bananas from Ecuador, can still be used to feed the needy.
Yesterday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup formally approved the 80-day "cooling off" period mandated under the Taft-Hartley Act. Last week, President Bush invoked that law, which allows the government to intervene in a strike or lockout that threatens to "imperil the national safety or health."
Alsup also prohibited the union from striking during the 80 days. Union officials have not said that they had any such plans.
Also yesterday, Pacific Maritime Association president Joseph Miniace said shipping lines and terminal operators have documented a "totally intolerable" 22 percent drop in productivity since dockworkers returned to work Oct. 9.
"We believe we have accumulated enough information to present a factual case to the Justice Department (by today)," Miniace said. "At this rate, we're not going to be able to dig out from where we are."
Longshore crews have said they are working as fast as they can, given a rush of cargo that creates dangerous working conditions at 29 major Pacific ports.
"What's causing the productivity problems on the docks are things that the PMA has created for themselves," said Steve Stallone, spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. "It's their lockout that created this incredible backlog."
Stallone said truckers are finding themselves idling far too long because of chaos on the docks that he attributed to the lockout. In some cases, he said, shipping lines that finally got a berth were unloading all their containers — even if they were in Los Angeles and the cargo was destined for San Francisco.
"How does that become our fault?" Stallone said.
Yesterday, an official at the Los Angeles/Long Beach harbor, the largest port complex in the nation, said the backlog hasn't dwindled over the past week as dockworkers clear some ships but others steam in from the Pacific Rim.
The total number of vessels in port has fluctuated between 114 and 120, "so at this point in time we're not really 'gaining' on the ship congestion," wrote Capt. Manny Aschemeyer, executive director of the harbor's marine exchange.
The chronic backlog now on the docks has rankled truckers, who suffered losses during the lockout and now complain that shipping lines are charging them rental fees for equipment they couldn't return on time.
The fees can run $44 each day for a container or truck chassis owned by the shipping lines, according to Stephanie Williams, vice president for legislative affairs with the California Trucking Association.
"That's like Blockbuster Video taping up their video drop box and then saying, 'You owe us money,' " she said.
