PMA Bosses Are "Crazy" Says ILWU When Agreement Is "close"?

PMA Bosses Are "Crazy" Says ILWU When Agreement Is "close"?
Employers at ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles suspend weekend shifts as contract stalemate continues
“Increasing congestion by closing the ports seems like a crazy way to solve problems that should be resolved at the table,” Merrilees said, adding that both parties are close to a contract resolution.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/20150206/employers-at-ports-of-long-...

Trucks move around the stacks of cargo piled up at the China Shipping yard in San Pedro.Scott Varley — Staff Photographer
By Karen Robes Meeks, The Daily Breeze
POSTED: 02/06/15, 1:51 PM PST | UPDATED: 36 SECS AGO6 COMMENTS
The association representing employers at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles announced Friday that it will suspend weekend shifts for longshore workers due to congestion in the yards.

The Pacific Maritime Association said that “in light of ongoing union slowdowns up and down the coast which have brought the ports almost to a standstill,” member companies have concluded they will no longer pay workers for “diminished productivity.”

“After three months of union slowdowns, it makes no sense to pay extra for less work,” said PMA spokesman Wade Gates, “especially if there is no end in sight to the union’s actions which needlessly brought West Coast ports to the brink of gridlock.”

Work at the ports will resume Monday.

Craig Merrilees, spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union representing 20,000 West Coast dockworkers, fired back at the announcement.

“Increasing congestion by closing the ports seems like a crazy way to solve problems that should be resolved at the table,” Merrilees said, adding that both parties are close to a contract resolution.

This is the latest in a labor drama that’s been unfolding over the last nine months. Despite securing tentative agreements on health benefits and jurisdiction over the fixing and maintaining chassis, the trailers needed to tow cargo, talks grew contentious last fall when both sides began accusing each other of creating slowdowns at the ports.

PMA said that ILWU is not dispatching enough skilled crane operators needed to move containers, forcing them to cut ship unloading night shifts to clear out congested yards.

ILWU blames the slowdowns on employers who they say refuse to hire and properly train workers for those jobs and added that employers are suspending shifts to put pressure on the union in talks.

The growing acrimony has compounded ports already bombarded with bottlenecks that stem in part from the arrival of bigger ships carrying more cargo, the uneven distribution of chassis and a shortage of rail cars.

This has resulted in truck lines at terminals, and more than a dozen ships regularly stranded at sea waiting to be unloaded. Shipment delays have stretched for weeks, with customers forced to shift their goods to other ports or ship them by air.

Jonathan Gold, vice president of the National Retail Federation, said suspending vessel operations is another example of both sides “shooting themselves in the collective bargaining foot.”

“The continuing slowdowns and increasing congestion at West Coast ports are bringing the fears of a port shutdown closer to a reality,” he said. “The entire the supply chain — from agriculture to manufacturing and retail to transportation — have been dealing with the lack of a West Coast port contract for the last nine months. Enough is enough. The escalating rhetoric, the threats, the dueling press releases and the inability to find common ground between the two sides are simply driving up the cost of products, jeopardizing American jobs and threatening the long term viability of businesses large and small.”

Rep. Janice Hahn, D-San Pedro, criticized PMA’s decision Friday, calling it “deeply upsetting.”

“PMA’s decision ... will undoubtedly hurt local ILWU workers and their families in our communities with decreased work opportunities and obvious paycheck reductions. Businesses across the country who depend on cargo deliveries will experience further delays and financial loss,” she said. “Suspending weekend work is not due to a lack of space for unloaded cargo and in fact will make congestion problems even worse come Monday morning.

“I condemn this weekend lockout and urge PMA to reconsider actions that interfere with good faith negotiations.”

Contact Karen Robes Meeks at 562-714-2088.