TACOMA, Wash.--Jan. 16--Longshoremen plan to shut down West Coast docks, including those at the ports of Tacoma and Seattle, on Monday.
The nationwide day-shift shutdown is intended to demonstrate support for dock workers at the British port of Liverpool, not as a protest against the union's latest contract, according to union officials.
"The ILWU (International Longshoremen and Warehouseman's Union) has always stood in solidarity with other workers," said Steven Stallone, assistant communications director at ILWU headquarters in San Francisco.
The shutdown is not expected to have much impact at Seattle or Tacoma, where only a few ships will be loading or unloading. But it could cause serious problems at the Southern California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where delays could cost shippers and shipping lines tens of thousands of dollars.
"Monday is one of the busiest days of the week at LA-Long Beach," said Terry Lane, vice president of the Pacific Maritime Association, the organization of steamship lines and stevedoring companies which hires longshoremen.
Lane said as many as 50 ships might be affected.
"The employers are going to be required to hire extra (longshore) gangs or work extra shifts to catch up," he said.
Around half of the nation's foreign trade crosses West Coast docks.
The last coast-wide shutdown occurred in August 1995, although slowdowns were common during contract negotiations last summer.
About 8,500 longshoremen would be affected at the West Coast's major container ports: Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Portland, Tacoma and Seattle.
Tacoma has about 550 longshore workers; Seattle about 700.
Under the union's latest contract, ratified last fall, most longshore workers are paid about $200 for an eight-hour day. They can receive a day's pay for a recognized holiday, which Monday is for the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. If they work a holiday, they're paid time-and-a-half on top of the holiday bonus.
The Liverpool labor dispute "exemplifies capital's systematic and relentless global offensive to increase profits at the expense of working people," the ILWU said in a memo obtained by The Associated Press.
The memo talks of the need to apply pressure on the negotiations between Liverpool shop stewards, who are on strike, and the Merseyside Dock & Harbor Co. The dispute centers on replacing striking dockworkers with non-union workers.
"This is a worldwide effort and we are part of it," the ILWU said in its memo. "We are confident that ILWU locals up and down the coast will fully participate."
One Tacoma shipping executive said he believed the work stoppage also is related to union unrest over the terms of its most recent contract.
"I think they're trying to make the point in the guise of something global," said the executive, who declined to be named for fear of union reprisal.
"I think they're trying to make the point that they're unhappy."
Los Angeles and Long Beach ports already have been affected by work slowdowns.
Some crane operators and clerks there were bitterly opposed to the new contract, which was finally approved by the union rank and file last October -- but only after a second vote.
In protest, they have staged periodic slowdowns that intensified during the holidays. Lane said the volume of work fell by up to 20 percent, forcing shippers to pay for extra hours and sometimes suffer losses from moving ships extra fast to make up for lost time.
The disruptions also have worried Southern California economic officials, who fear their ports' status as No. 1 in the country could be jeopardized.
But the union's Stallone denied that Monday's stop-work action was related to terms of the new contract.
"We've sent support (to Liverpool), we've sent money, we've sent people over there," Stallone said. "We're serious about this stuff."
Pacific Maritime Association's Lane said the employer association was considering legal action to force longshoremen to work on Monday. A shutdown, he said, would violate the union's contract.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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(c) 1997, Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune
