LOS ANGELES - Two coal-carrying vessels are idled at a Los Angeles bulk terminal as members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union remain off their jobs in a contract dispute with the terminal.
The picketing is localized and is not expected to spread to container terminals in the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex.
About 40 members of ILWU Local 13 Allied Division walked off their jobs this week in a contract dispute with Savage Pacific Services, the operator of Los Angeles Export Terminal. The workers are employed in the terminal’s backland area, where they unload coal from rail cars and trucks.
ILWU Local 13 organized the backland workers in January 2000. The union began contract negotiations with Savage Pacific Services last April and still does not have a contract. The ILWU also represents workers who load the coal from the terminal onto vessels.
The workers on the waterside of the operation fall under the coastwide contract negotiated by the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association. They are refusing to load ships while the contract dispute involving the backland workers continues. Savage Pacific Services is not a PMA member, however, so the contract for the backland workers will be separate from the coastwide agreement.
Chuck Wallace, the PMA’s area director for Southern California, said there is no indication that the picketing will spread to the 14 container terminals in Los Angeles-Long Beach.
He noted that Local 13 went through the accepted grievance procedure by filing a complaint with an arbitrator appointed jointly by the PMA and the ILWU. The arbitrator ruled that the job action is a bona-fide picket line.
The union also filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board charging unfair labor practices. The ILWU charged that during contract negotiations, Savage Pacific Services attempted to deal directly with individual workers. The accepted procedure on the waterfront is to conduct contract negotiations through collective bargaining, said Ray Familathe, a Local 13 executive board member.
“When managers go directly to individuals, they undermine this process,” he said.
The union also says the employer engaged in discrimination against union members. A union member who had been serving as temporary crew leader was bypassed for that position, and the company favored a worker who was not sympathetic with the union, the ILWU charged in its complaint.
The LAXT terminal has been a source of controversy since development began in the mid-1990s. Initially, the ILWU charged that Savage Pacific Services intended to operate the entire facility without union labor. The union at the time sponsored a series of walkouts that disrupted cargo operations at all terminals, including container facilities, in Los Angeles-Long Beach.
By the time the terminal opened, though, the ILWU won representation of workers on the water side of the operation.
