LA-LB dock clerks back at work, but situation remains volatile

STRIKING Los Angeles and Long Beach dock clerks have returned to work, ending their two-week strike, but leaving a volatile situation that might yet erupt into a total shutdown of North America's biggest port complex.

While the clerical strike had little impact on cargo movement, because management personnel took over employee functions, an arbitrator's ruling may yet bring the two ports to standstill.

At issue is whether the strike that just ended was legal. If an arbitrator rules that it was - after another recently declared that it was not - then fellow dockers in the same International Longshore and Warehouse Union would respect picket lines of striking clerks and bring cargo movement to a halt.

At the end of last week, the clerks briefly succeeded in drawing the main dockers union into the dispute, reported London's Containerisation International. But the dockers were immediately ordered to cross picket lines by an arbitrator as it had previously ruled that the clerical strike was illegal and in "bad faith".

But that point is not settled. All now await further adjudication by another arbitrator on the validity of the strike. If union and management do not settle before the ruling, and the clerical strike is considered bone fide, then ILWU dockers would likely refuse to cross the clerks' picket lines and halt cargo operations at the two ports should clerks strike again.

Management and union negotiators are far apart over what management calls "unacceptable featherbedding", after offers of job security, work guarantees and pay and benefits increases were made, reported American Shipper.

The clerks' current wage is US$96,900 a year. The union continues to press for 32 per cent pay and benefits increases, as well as pursuing contract provisions that would reverse technology gains, employers said.

Organised by the ILWU, the Office Clerical Unit (OCU) have resumed contract negotiations with the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor Employers Association.

Said management: "Pickets and the ongoing strike since July 1 have generated concern within a harbour community fearful that actions have set back a nascent recovery on the waterfront and put tens of thousands of other jobs at risk."

Terminals picketed have included the Yusen Terminal, West Basin Container Terminal and Seaside Transportation Service Terminal in Los Angeles and Total Terminals International and Pacific Container Terminal in Long Beach.

A stoppage on this scale at the port complex which accounts for 40 per cent of US maritime trade would severely disrupt American and Asian supply chains and have far reaching implications for the future of southern California's ports, noted CI.
(Source:www.schednet.com)