San Francisco Chronicle - September 25, 2007 [1]

Workers at the Port of Oakland stayed off the job Tuesday after a longshoreman was crushed to death by a shipping container, bringing the loading and unloading of ships at one of the nation's busiest ports to a halt, officials said.

The 15-ton container was being locked onto the top of another container on the deck of a cargo ship when it slipped and fell on the worker Monday afternoon, said John Showalter, spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

The Alameda County Coroner's office identified the victim as Reginald Ross, 39, of San Francisco.

The nearly 1,500 members of ILWU Longshore Local 10, which represents dockside workers at the port, did not come to work Tuesday as investigators probed the cause of the accident.

Trucks stuck outside closed shipping terminals were unable to unload containers bound for ships stranded by the workers' absence, bringing maritime operations to a standstill. Seven ships in all were unable to load or unload cargo Tuesday, Port of Oakland spokeswoman Marilyn Sandifur said.

Cargo that had been unloaded before the accident continued to be moved out of the shipping yards by truck and train, Showalter said.

An autopsy conducted Tuesday determined the cause of Ross' death was "blunt trauma," according to the coroner's office. Union officials said he died of internal bleeding after suffering a crushed pelvis and broken ribs.

The man was coherent during the hour or so rescuers spent trying to free him, but he died hours later at a nearby hospital, Showalter said.

Much of the operation at the country's fourth-largest port would remain shut down until at least Wednesday morning, Sandifur said. Even if workers do return Wednesday, port officials said it would be at least five days before the port can overcome the cargo backlog and return to normal operations.

"Certainly there will be some kind of ripple effect," Sandifur said.

Workers would return to the job pending the outcome of a safety review currently under way per the union's contract, Showalter said. The worker killed Monday was not a registered member of the union but had been working dockside for several years, he said.

But a spokesman for the group that represents shipping companies at the port said the walkoff was not authorized.

While workers have historically taken the next shift off from a shipping terminal where a fatality occurred, stopping work port-wide violated the terms of the contract with employers, said Steve Getzug, spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Association.