California Apparel News

For seven months, longshore workers have been head to head at the negotiating table to hammer out a new six-year labor agreement with their port bosses.

But the two sides are so far apart that the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the terminal operators and shipping lines that employ the nearly 20,000 workers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union at 29 West Coast ports, asked on Dec. 22 that the White House step in and help nudge both sides closer together. The longshore workers’ contract expired July 1.

“After seven months of negotiations, we remain far apart on many issues,” said PMA spokesman Wade Gates. “At the same time, the union continues its slowdowns, walk-offs and other actions that are having impacts on shippers, truck drivers and other local workers—with no end in sight. It is clear that the parties need outside assistance to bridge the substantial gap between us.”

In addition, the National Association of Manufacturers and 165 other organizations and associations sent a letter to President Obama urging the administration to work with both parties involved in the dispute and to appoint a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in conclude the negotiations as quickly as possible.

The PMA and the ILWU last met on Dec. 22, but there were no more meetings scheduled until after Christmas, Gates said. He would not specify which issues were causing delays in a new contract. Both sides have to agree to have a federal mediator at the negotiation table.

ILWU representatives said they would review various proposals and respond later.

Apparel importers and retailers have been losing millions of dollars as merchandise has been stranded on the docks, waiting weeks instead of days for containers to be picked up by truck drivers and delivered to their destinations.

Part of the slowdown is due to the lack of a new contract, but a chassis shortage and larger cargo-container vessels sailing the Trans-Pacific route have added to the problem.

The PMA said ILWU slowdown tactics have reduced productivity at Pacific Northwest ports for more than a month and a half, with drop-offs of 30 percent to 40 percent now the norm, according to various PMA analyses of terminal operations.

Intermittent walk-offs have also occurred in Oakland, the PMA said. At the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which make up the largest and busiest port complex in the United States, the ILWU has restricted dispatching skilled crane operators to operate yard cranes, the PMA maintained.

Shipping lines and terminal operators believe that the lack of a contract could permanently hurt business at West Coast ports. Already, many shippers have said they will divert their cargo to other U.S. ports next year on the Gulf Coast and the East Coast. Some have stated that this diversion could be permanent for them.

Last year, federal mediators were called in to resolve contract negotiations between longshore workers organized by the International Longshoremen’s Association and their East Coast and Gulf Coast port employers.

Negotiations between the two parties on the West Coast haven't been this tense since 2002, when the PMA locked out the labor union and shut down every container operation on the West Coast for 10 days in late September and early October, during the crucial holiday shipping period.

A federal judge in San Francisco granted the George W. Bush administration’s request for a temporary injunction lifting the lockout and sending West Coast longshoremen back to work. The court order was a prelude to the declaration of an 80-day “cooling-off” period under the provisions of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act.