LOS ANGELES – West Coast ports returned to normal late Tuesday after being shut down earlier in the day by longshoremen who walked off their jobs in solidarity with the labor demonstrators at the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle.
The job actions by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union lasted eight hours, or the normal day shift, in Seattle, Tacoma and Oakland. The work stoppages lasted for three hours in most other West Coast ports.
Although the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping lines and terminal operators, had indicated earlier in the week that it would make use of the grievance machinery established by the contract and call in arbitrators to rule on the legality of the job actions, arbitrators were not called.
Sources said ILWU officials told the PMA in advance that the union felt strongly about making a public statement about WTO policies, but dockworkers would return to their jobs and clear up the backlog of cargo as soon as the job actions ended if employers looked the other way.
In addition to the job actions, some ILWU members participated in the demonstrations that took place in Seattle. The union said it opposes the type of free trade championed by the WTO. The ILWU charged that free trade results in a flow of capital to nations where concepts such as minimum wages and child labor laws are not priorities.
