Union Dockers Become the
Good Guys
As Shippers Continue Port Shutdown
By Harry Kelber
LaborTalk for October 9, 2002:
In
a complete reversal of roles, the Pacific Maritime Assn., representing
87 shipping lines and terminal operators, shut down 29 West Coast ports
on Sept. 30, while locked-out members of the International Longshore and
Warehouse Union continued to load and unload cargo for non-PMA companies
and under special employer exemptions.
The
PMA initiated the lockout in reaction to what it called an ILWU
slowdown. The union responded that it was complying with the safety
rules under the expired contract and that five of its members had died
on the job this year because of hazardous working conditions.
“The
military cargo and the vital shipments to Alaska and Hawaii should never
have been the collateral damage of PMA’s senseless assault on the
national economy,” said ILWU International President James Spinosa.
“These are cargoes the ILWU has always worked even when we were on
strike. We applaud the fact that PMA has finally relented and let these
ships go. We are now asking them to do the same for the ships bound for
the Pacific island American territory of Guam, which faces the same
shortages as Hawaii.”
The
union is also calling on the PMA to allow its members to move perishable
products, including the grain of American farmers, now left sitting on
the docks or on scores of ships idling outside the ports. Until now,
PMA’s CEO, Joseph Miniace, has refused the union request. The union
charges that last January the PMA took out a $200 million line of credit
from banks for the express purpose of being able to last through an
extended lockout. It says that early this year, Robin Lanier, head of
the West Coast Waterfront Coalition, which represents hundreds of
companies, including Wal-Mart, Target, Toyota, Nike and Panasonic, told
them to prepare for a two-week lockout.
As
the lockout continues, there are growing fears that it could have a
crippling effect on the fragile economies of Asia and lead to layoffs at
U.S. companies that depend on just-in-time shipments from overseas’
suppliers. An assembly plant in the San Francisco Bay area, run jointly
by General Motors and Toyota, had to shut down for lack of parts from
Japan and laid off 5,100 workers.
Employer
groups, representing, retailers, farmers, truckers and manufacturers,
have made strong appeals to President Bush to end the lockout by
ordering an 80-day cooling off period under the 1947 Taft Hartley Act,
but thus far, he has resisted. Early this year, when it appeared that
the ILWU might order a walkout of its 10,500 members, Bush’s aides
talked about using federal troops to crush a work stoppage. The AFL-CIO
is strongly opposed to government intervention in the dock dispute,
especially the use of the anti-labor Taft-Hartley law, which erodes
collective bargaining in favor of employers.
Both
sides agree that the issue is how the new technology that speeds cargo
handling will be introduced into the ports and its impact on the workers
and their union. The PMA wants complete control of the new jobs that
will be required, including its right to outsource work to non-union
companies. The ILWU is willing to accept the new technology in exchange
for which it wants jurisdiction “over any new jobs that the technology
creates, the terminal control and pre-gate supervisors jobs, and the
work of planning ships, rails and container yards.” The dispute
involves about 400 mostly clerical jobs.
In
1960, both East Coast and West Coast longshore unions signed a historic
agreement accepting the new container technology, in return for which
they received significant concessions from the shipping and stevedore
companies, including jurisdictional control of the port jobs. This
understanding has existed for 40 years until now, when the PMA is intent
on downgrading union power. The last major strike at West Coast ports
was in 1971. It lasted 134 days.
It
is not clear what the PMA hopes to accomplish by its lockout, which is
costing shippers and companies affected by the shutdown about $1 billion
a day and is becoming an increasing threat to the national economy as it
continues. ILWU members are ready and willing to go back to work at full
strength, but they want a fair contract. There¹s no point in extending
the lockout further, and when it ends, the PMA will be back to square
one. The wiser course is to come to terms with the union and go ahead
with modernizing the ports. The sooner, the better.
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