LOS ANGELES – Cargo handling at West Coast ports was generally back to normal last week, but there were some slowdowns due to pockets of opposition by union members to a tentative contract.
International Longshore and Warehouse Union officials and waterfront employers remain confident that the ILWU membership will ratify the three-year contract later this month. Results of the rank-and-file vote will be announced Aug. 26.
The ILWU and waterfront employers, who are represented by the Pacific Maritime Association, reached tentative agreement on a contract with a 7.8% wage increase over three years, an improved pension plan for past and future retirees and expanded medical benefits.
When ILWU and PMA negotiators last month went past the July 1 deadline, West Coast ports were hit by work slowdowns. The slowdowns escalated until an agreement was announced July 15.
Productivity quickly returned to normal, but after details of the contract were published on the ILWU Web site (www.ilwu.org) last week, sporadic problems surfaced.
In Southern California, for example, terminals could not secure enough experienced marine clerks to handle their workload.
The PMA reported last Wednesday that 64% of the clerks dispatched that day were casual workers – unregistered longshoremen called when employers can’t get enough registered dockworkers for a shift.
Marine clerk positions are among the highest paid on the waterfront and are usually easy to fill. Normally, employers in Southern California get most of the clerks they need from the clerks local. Any additional openings are filled from the general longshore local.
Richard Scott, vice president of International Transportation Services, the terminal operator for “K” Line America Inc., said more than an hour was lost as the dispatch process worked its way from the clerks local through the general longshore local and finally to the casual hall.
Other terminals also reported that their clerks arrived 60 to 90 minutes late.
Some employers believe the clerks were “hard-timing” the terminals because they do not like the tentative contract. Union negotiators have stated publicly that their intention this year was to bring the earning potential of the lowest-paid longshoremen closer to the salaries of the highest-paid workers.
In the case of marine clerks in Los Angeles-Long Beach, the top positions, known as “key clerks,” made it through the contentious 1996 contract without losing benefits such as side agreements guaranteeing them 12 hours of pay for eight hours of work.
The proposed new contract focuses on lower-paid workers, such as the “basic” clerks.
While some employers view the shortage of experienced clerks in Southern California last week as a concerted action by disgruntled clerks, PMA officials say the shortage is due to vacations.
July and August are traditionally big vacation months for longshoremen, and there is a clerk shortage every year at this time, said Phil Resch, director of operations at the PMA headquarters in San Francisco.
The Port of Oakland also experienced labor shortages last week. Employers there believe the problem had to do with an issue that was raised during the negotiations in early July.
The ILWU local in Northern California shut the port for two days when employers refused to assign an extra position to each crane.
For two days last week, terminals could not get enough labor to work late shifts. Things improved on Wednesday, and by Thursday, productivity in Oakland was back to normal, said Dan Westerlin, the port’s manager of strategic marketing.
This type of posturing is common in the period between the signing of a tentative agreement and ratification of the contract by the union membership.
“In every contract, there are always some issues hanging out there,” said Doug Tilden, president of Marine Terminals Corp. in San Francisco.
Waterfront employers expect a period of calm until the ratification vote later this month. Then they are bracing for another challenging period as union locals turn their attention to side agreements.
Under the tentative contract, side agreements, or bonuses, can be negotiated between ILWU locals and employers in the various ports. In busy Los Angeles-Long Beach, where there is a perpetual shortage of skilled workers, side agreements are common.
Most side agreements were outlawed under the 1996 contract, but the new agreement will bring them back. The local agreements must be approved at the coast level.
Employers generally favor side agreements as an effective way to increase productivity.
