California Apparel News

Longshore workers protesting the war in Iraq shuttered 29 West Coast ports when they didn’t show up for work on May 1.

The stop-work action by 10,000 workers resulted in port operations grinding to an abrupt halt up and down the coast, from San Diego to Vancouver, Wash.

The 400-foot cranes at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were idle as security guards turned truckers away from the terminals’ front gates, where drivers usually pass to pick up cargo containers.

“Earlier in the day, the drivers came down trying to figure out what was happening. There were dozens of truckers who were looking for work,” said Port of Long Beach spokesperson Art Wong. He noted there were no protesters or dock workers marching outside the port’s gates or carrying protest signs.

The Port of Los Angeles was equally quiet. “I think the protest was just the notion of not showing up to work. We don’t have any organized activity at all,” Port of Los Angeles spokesperson Arley Baker said. “It could have been worse.”

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, whose 25,000 members work at the 29 West Coast ports, decided at their February caucus in San Francisco to stage a one-day work stoppage to voice their opposition to the Iraq war.

The Pacific Maritime Association, the San Francisco group that represents the terminal operators and shipping lines at the ports, had opposed the day-long boycott, requesting that dock workers show up to their jobs. The two sides met with an independent arbitrator who mandated the longshore employees to stay on the job. But ILWU members decided to stage their one-day boycott anyway, which comes at a delicate time. The longshore workers and the shippers currently are negotiating a new contract to replace the one that expires July 1.

“Shutting down the ports in defiance of the contract and the arbitrator’s order in no way benefits an already fragile U.S. economy,” PMA spokesperson Steve Getzug said in a statement.

But the ILWU had a different opinion. “The members of the locals have taken May Day as a day to protest the war in Iraq and what they see as a moral and strategic failure by this administration,” ILWU spokesperson John Showalter said from the union’s offices in San Francisco. “And more importantly, they are taking this action to protest the $3 trillion sunk into this war that can certainly be better spent on such things as making our schools better, developing alternative fuel sources and caring for our veterans.”

The work action was for only one shift, beginning at 8 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m. The second shift was expected to report to the docks by 6 p.m.

Fifteen ships were scheduled to arrive at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex on May 1. By 12:45 p.m., about nine of them had arrived, said Dick McKenna, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, which tracks the comings and goings of ships at the local ports.

“It doesn’t seem to have had much impact here,” McKenna said. “Any impact there has been will be quickly caught up and recovered.”

A National Retail Federation spokesperson said retailers had planned for the day and didn’t expect any disruption despite the fact the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the busiest ports in the United States. They handle about 43 percent of all container cargo that arrives at U.S. ports. —Deborah Belgum