Steve Quayle News Alerts

October 7, 2002

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Talks broke off late Sunday -- with no plans to resume negotiations -- between West Coast dockworkers and the Pacific Maritime Association when the longshoremen's union rejected the latest contract offer from the PMA.

The dispute has closed 28 ports in the Western United States since September 27.

"The PMA presented a comprehensive proposal to the longshore union, which would have made their members the highest blue-collar workers in America," PMA spokesman Steve Sugerman said.

According to Sugerman, the latest PMA offer would:

* Increase the average annual pay of longshoremen from $106,833 to $114,000.

* Increase the average annual pay of marine clerks from $128,421 to $137,000.

* Provide a health care program entirely paid for by PMA with no premiums or deductibles for employees.

* Make a $1 billion contribution to the union pension plan, increasing the average annual retirement benefit from $40,000 to $50,000.

* Guarantee "not one worker would lose their job" because of the introduction new technology.

"We tried our best to reopen these ports," Sugerman said. "Amazingly [the union] said no."

Representatives of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union were not immediately available for comment.

Sources close to the White House said President Bush was considering whether to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act, a move that could send the dockworkers back to work under an 80-day injunction.

The act, passed in 1947 over President Truman's veto, gives the president the authority to appoint a board of inquiry. It would prepare a report -- with no recommendations -- on the issues involved in the negotiations and the economic costs of the ports' shutdown.

If the president determines a continued lockout would "imperil the national health or safety," he could order the attorney general to seek the injunction in federal court.

For now, the White House's official position was articulated by press secretary Ari Fleischer with this message from Bush to both sides: "You're hurting the economy, you are hurting your fellow workers and unions in other parts of the country whose jobs depend on the products you ship."

"The president's message to labor and management is, 'Go back to work and resolve the problems,'" Fleischer said Saturday.

At the heart of the dispute is who will control new jobs evolving out of improvements in technology used on the waterfront.

The ILWU wants its shipping clerks trained to use new computerized equipment to track the flow of containers being loaded onto and off ships. The shipping companies, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association, want to remove the clerical positions from union control.

On Friday, dockworkers loaded a ship at the Port of Tacoma, Washington, with essential supplies under an agreement designed to ease shortages in Alaska, the PMA said.

The agreement came in response to a request from Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles, who cited the short supply of food and other essential products in his state. The ship left port late Friday night.

The two sides were considering a similar agreement for Hawaii, which faces a similar situation.

As part of the agreement, the ILWU promised the union would not engage in slowdowns.

It was accusations of slowdowns by dockworkers that prompted the PMA to lock 10,500 ILWU workers out of the 28 West Coast ports September 27.

The PMA reopened the ports briefly Sunday, then locked out the union again Sunday evening, saying the ports would not reopen unless the union agreed to work by terms of an expired contract and not participate in slowdowns. The union has continued to deny it engaged in slowdowns.

As the lockout continued, the PMA was running out of space to anchor ships entering ports. At the Port of Long Beach, 93 ships were stuck at port or at anchorages farther out to sea.

Officials said it would take a least a month to clear the backlog caused by the port shutdown, even if the ports were to reopen Sunday or Monday.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/West/10/07/labor.port/index.html