Ships
still tied up outside ports
By Tina Page
On-line Forty-Niner
West
Coast ports have been up and running since
6 p.m. Wednesday when President Bush invoked
the rarely used Taft-Hartley Act to send
10,500 dockworkers back to work — a move
anticipated by the International Longshore
Warehouse Union and its management company,
the Pacific Maritime Association.
“We have a figure of more than 200 ships
up and down the coast with the bulk of them
concentrated at the Long Beach and Los Angeles
harbors,” a 40-year union member and representative
said.
Ships carrying perishables are getting priority
over other goods when being unloaded, said
a business agent for the ILWU Local 13 chapter
in Wilmington.
It will take about six weeks for the backlog
at the ports to be cleared, president and
CEO of the PMA, Joseph Miniace, said on
its Web site.
West Coast dockworkers had been locked out
of the ports since Sept. 29, causing a complete
halt of all seaborne trade up and down the
entire West Coast. The U.S. economy is estimated
to have lost between $1 billion and $2 billion
dollars a day, said Bill Davidson, economic
research executive at Mesa Inc. in Redondo
Beach.
The ILWU and the PMA have been engaged in
a contract dispute since July when the PMA
accused the ILWU of staging work slowdowns
and locked out the workers. Bush stepped
in on Oct. 8 to end the port lockout because
of the impact it was having on the economy.
“I think the workers are both resentful
and relieved at the same time,” the union
representative said. “On one hand they would
rather not have had government intervention,
and on the other, they really wanted to
just get back to work.”
ILWU members said they believe that the
PMA was looking for any excuse to close
down the ports and involve the federal government,
the union representative added.
Robin Lanier, head of the West Coast Waterfront
Coalition that represents retailers that
use the ports, told members last spring
that they should prepare for a two-week
lockout, according to the Friends of Labor
Web site.
“It was made known that the employers were
going to seek and get the Taft-Hartley so
they didn’t have much incentive to negotiate,”
one union member said. “The employers have
not been negotiating in good faith.”
The PMA stated on its Web site that its
has made numerous attempts at bargaining,
but has been unsuccessful in getting the
consent of the ILWU.
The Taft-Hartley Act has reopened the ports,
but negotiations have still not resumed
between the ILWU and the PMA. If the president
can prove on Thursday that that the closure
of the ports put the nation’s health and
safety at risk, then U.S. District Judge
William Alsup will grant an 80-day cooling
off period when contract negotiations must
resume at some point. Once negotiations
resume, the PMA will give its final offer
for a contract and the ILWU will vote on
whether to accept it, the union representative
said.
Local ports were reopened on Oct. 9 with
a rally at the Wilmington Dispatch Hall.
More than 1,000 longshore workers attended
and the Rev. Jesse Jackson made an appearance,
one union worker said.
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