LOS ANGELES — Productivity at West Coast ports began to pick up within hours of an announcement Thursday evening by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and waterfront employers that a tentative contract had been reached.
The Port of Long Beach reported that some terminals received labor for the night shift Thursday. This morning, most terminals that for the past two weeks had been unable to secure labor for early morning ’flex’ gates had no trouble getting labor.
“We had people turn up at 7 a.m.,” said Ray Keene, chief operating officer at Mitsui O.S.K. Lines America.
Productivity, as measured in container moves per hour, per crane, was reportedly picking up along the coast. “We experienced normal productivity beginning last night,” Port of Seattle spokesman Bill Anschuetz said today. “It’s continuing,” he added.
However, given the backlog of containers at many terminals, and the strong cargo volumes expected this weekend, West Coast ports will probably not be back to normal until sometime next week, port and terminal operators reported.
“We hope by early next week to be back to normal,” said Dan Westerlin, manager of strategic marketing at the Port of Oakland.
Next week will be a pivotal time in the fate of the tentative contract that was reached on Thursday. The ILWU will hold a coastwide caucus in San Francisco. The caucus will study the details of the agreement, and if the delegates find the contract to be acceptable, they will recommend that the rank and file approve it.
The union will then prepare for a coastwide vote, a process that will take weeks. The union intends to announce the results of the balloting on Aug. 26, an ILWU spokesman said.
Neither the union nor the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents terminal operators and shipping lines, will discuss the details of the tentative contract until they have been shared with their respective members.
The contract is said to include increases in ILWU wages, pensions and medical benefits. The issue of jurisdiction was also addressed. Employers reportedly gained concessions in the area of cargo-handling productivity, such as changes in the dispatch system. A mechanism is reportedly being worked out for joint PMA-ILWU introduction of new technology.
Union and employer negotiators hope to avoid the scenario that developed in 1996. When that three-year contract was announced, the ILWU caucus turned it down and instructed union negotiators to come up with an agreement that closed the spread between the highest and lowest-paid dockworkers.
When the revised agreement was announced, the largest ILWU locals in Northern and Southern California voted against it, in effect vetoing the agreement. A second vote was needed, and even though the largest locals turned the contract down again, 62% of the coastwide membership voted ‘yes,’ so the contract was ratified.
However, the 1996 contract was never very popular with the rank and file, and it resulted in sporadic job actions for almost two years.
Informal comments from employer and union sources indicate the new contract will generate better support from the ILWU membership.
