Activity at the West Coast's biggest ports, including Oakland and San Francisco, could grind to a halt Monday because of a day-long work stoppage planned by longshoremen in support of unionized dock workers in Liverpool, England.
Members of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union plan to halt work for the day at the biggest West Coast ports -- Seattle, Portland, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to labor and shipping industry sources.
ILWU officials would not confirm their specific plans for Monday. But they said they intend to join in an international show of support for about 300 Liverpool dock workers who have been locked out of work in a bitter 15-month-long struggle with their employer. "The Liverpool fight is part of a worldwide trend of (port) privatization, that has also happened in Mexico and New Zealand," said George Romero, president of ILWU Local 10, which represents more than 850 Bay Area longshoremen. "We think the Liverpool workers are getting very bad treatment, and we are going to do everything we can to support them." Shipping industry officials said the work stoppage could delay the loading and unloading of as many as 50 ships up and down the West Coast.
Officials at the Port of Oakland, which handles an average of five ships a day, estimated that it could cost ship owners an extra $3,000 or $4,000 in docking and crew costs for each hour their vessels sit idle.
"Our members will have to employ additional longshoremen to work extra shifts (on Tuesday) to complete the loading as planned. Plus we anticipate some delays in shipping because of this," said Terry Lane, vice president of the Pacific Maritime Association, a group of 100 shipping firms that hire longshoremen to load and unload their goods.
Lane said that shippers in the Los Angeles area have asked an arbitrator to rule on the legality of the planned work stoppage.
"This type of coordinated effort up and down the coast is very unusual," Lane said. "The last time was 1985, when the issue was the discipline of some longshoremen in Seattle. This is the first one I can recall that seems to come out of an international issue."
The longshoremen are protesting the treatment of their colleagues in Liverpool, which was the last British port to remain unionized after the government privatized the ports and loosened the rules governing dock work in 1989.
The dispute began in September 1995 when the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, which owns the Liverpool port, fired 329 longtime dock workers who refused to cross a picket line put up by workers at a stevedoring company.
The workers say the firings were an effort to bust their union and return to the days of "casual" labor, when workers were chosen each day at the manager's whim, without seniority or job security. Officials with Mersey Docks counter that the dispute is due to workers trying to retain special privileges from a bygone era. "The reason Liverpool has struck a chord with longshoreman around the world is that we are all facing the same threat," said Jack Heyman, steward for Local 10. "They're trying to privatize the docks, casualize the workforce, and break the unions."
Labor sources said support actions are planned in other countries including Australia and Denmark.
In the Bay Area, the proposed work stoppage could affect imports such as auto parts, electronic items, and clothing, as well as exports such as California produce.
"Oakland is a big agricultural gateway," said Port of Oakland spokesman Bob Middleton. "This doesn't mean anything will spoil, but it will slow things down."
