West Coast dockworkers strike looks more likely

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Dozens of ports along the West Coast are bracing for possible closure after union slowdowns were reported at two locations and major shipping lines warned they were prepared to lock out all workers.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union denied it had orchestrated work stoppages at the Long Beach and Oakland, Calif., ports. The union said the shipping lines, which have been in difficult contract negotiations for four months, are exaggerating staffing problems to set up a confrontation.

The president of the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents 87 shipping and stevedore companies, said the association's board yesterday unanimously authorized him to "take defensive action" if the slowdowns continue.

The San Francisco-based group is set to meet this morning to consider its next step.

"Clearly a lockout is an option, and there are various variations on that theme," PMA President Joseph Miniace said yesterday.

The escalating conflict between dockworkers and shipping lines is the most significant in the weeks since talks resumed, and comes during the peak holiday shipping season, when transpacific lines are running at full capacity and retailers are eager to stock their shelves.

The 29 West Coast ports handle $300 billion in imports and exports annually, which represents about 7 percent of the gross national product.

Any job action that disrupts the flow of cargo also would have a significant effect in Hawai'i, which gets most of its goods shipped from the Mainland. Many businesses and consumers have been stocking up for weeks as the threat of a strike has loomed.

Representatives for Matson Navigation Co., the biggest shipping company for the Islands, could not be reached for comment yesterday. An official with the Islands' other major shipping company, CSX, said spokesmen could not be reached because they were in negotiations with the union.

Eusebio Lapenia, president of ILWU Local 142, was unavailable for comment because of meetings with shipping companies that extended late into the day, an official said.

Pacific Maritime Association spokesman Steve Sugerman said yesterday that a CSX cargo ship headed from Oakland to Hawai'i was among the first boats affected yesterday. The boat missed its scheduled 6 p.m. departure from Oakland after about 20 truck drivers at the terminal reported ill and went home after lunch, Sugerman said.

The boat faced a delay of about eight hours, he said.

Yesterday, ILWU spokesman Steve Stallone denied any of the problems were attributable to an organized work slowdown by the union, which represents about 10,500 port workers.

"There is so much work that there aren't enough people for the jobs," Stallone said of the union's failure to provide full work crews at the Long Beach terminal of Stevedoring Services of America yesterday morning.

Stallone said the problem was the result of excess cargo and too few trained crane operators.

Later yesterday, 19 union members failed to return to work after lunch at an Oakland terminal operated by Maersk Sealand. Stallone said the workers were protesting a scheduling change that prevented them from attending a union rally.

A slowdown also was reported Monday at the SSA terminal in Long Beach, grounding all rail operations.

The ILWU said problems were limited to one ship in one terminal at one port.

"The national economy is in no jeopardy," Stallone said. "If the PMA wants to put the national economy in jeopardy themselves by closing the West Coast ports, let them do it and take responsibility for it themselves," he said.

The Pacific Maritime Association warned the union before contract talks began May 13 that it would not tolerate work slowdowns, which it said the union had staged at critical times during contract talks in the 1990s.

Yesterday's tension came as the union and association appeared to be building a case to blame the other in the event of port closures. When asked at what point he would call for a lockout, Miniace said, "When we're satisfied that they understand the consequences of their actions and they blatantly continue. It's going to be known that it's the union provoking us."

The action in Long Beach stranded a China Ocean Shipping Co. ship holding 3,000 containers destined for customers throughout the West.

"Millions of dollars in merchandise is impacted," said Andy McLauchlan, a vice president at Seattle-based SSA, which operates the terminal. The delay could disrupt the shipping giant's schedule for weeks, he said.

SSA has been the target of demonstrations this week by the union, which claims the company has taken a hard line during negotiations and is holding up an agreement. The SSA and several other association members denied any split and said all members are insisting on greater productivity and efficiency at the ports.

The ILWU's port workers have been working without a contract since Sept. 1. Their labor agreement expired July 1, but both sides agreed to 24-hour extensions until talks temporarily derailed this month.

Major sticking points remain on the issue of how to introduce new technology on the docks and plans for a new arbitration process.

The maritime association says the ports must be modernized to handle the rapid growth in goods from Asia. The union says it's not averse to new technology, but wants to ensure that any new positions created from the advances remain union jobs.

The U.S. Department of Labor said it was monitoring developments and did not plan to take any action at this time.

"The administration continues to remain neutral in this, while strongly urging both parties to negotiate," said spokeswoman Kathleen Harrington.

In the event of a strike, the Bush administration has indicated it likely would declare a national emergency and invoke the Taft-Hartley Act, which would delay a strike for 80 days.

Bloomberg News Service, The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times contributed to this report, as did Advertiser staff writers John Duchemin and Katherine Nichols.

Correction: Steve Sugerman is spokesman of the Pacific Maritime Association. His name was misspelled in a previous version of this story.