Strike idles Port of L.A.'s biggest pier

Strike idles Port of L.A.'s biggest pier

Associated Press

Updated 10:25 p.m., Wednesday, November 28, 2012

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Strike-idles-Port-of-L-A-s-biggest-pi...

• Protesters walk the picket line during day two of a union walkout at the Port of Los Angeles. Photo: Nick Ut, Associated Press / SF

• Los Angeles --

 
Striking workers shut down the largest terminal at the Port of Los Angeles for a second day Wednesday, ignoring an arbitrator's order to return to work and raising the possibility of a larger job action that could paralyze the nation's busiest port complex.
About 70 clerical workers struck the APM Terminals operations on Pier 400 on Tuesday, raising the ante in a 2 1/2-year contract battle over union claims that management has been outsourcing well-paid jobs out of state and overseas.
Only a handful of workers were picketing early Wednesday, but dockworkers were honoring the walkout and the terminal remained closed, although only two cargo ships were affected, port spokesman Phillip Sanfield said.
"It's not crippling the port by any means. We've got eight other container terminals up and running," he said.
The port is not operating at its peak because shipment of Christmas goods ended several weeks ago.
"The holiday goods are either already in the stores or in warehouses," Sanfield said.
Los Angeles and Long Beach together have the nation's busiest port complex. The twin harbors handled $273 billion worth of cargo last year.
The strikers are from the Office Clerical Unit of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union's Local 63. Their contracts with 14 companies that operate most of the terminals at the twin ports expired in June 2010.
Years of contract renewal negotiations ended with talks breaking off Monday, leading to the walkout.
An arbitrator ruled Tuesday night that the union was negotiating in bad faith with shippers and the strike was invalid. However, the order was ignored pending a planned Wednesday meeting between the union and shippers. A second arbitrator also was expected to rule within two days on whether to uphold that order.
Clerical workers held brief strikes in 2010 and 2011 that also ended after arbitrators ruled them improper.
For now, however, "they're on strike and picket lines are being respected," said Craig Merrilees, an ILWU spokesman in San Francisco.
The union risks a "dangerous escalation" if it continues to ignore the order, said Stephen Berry, lead negotiator for the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Association, which represented the 14 terminal operators in contract talks.
"It could lead to a spread of the job actions beyond just one terminal" and that, in turn, could prompt shippers to lock out employees, Berry said.
Still, it was unlikely that either side would want a repeat of a bitter, 10-day lockout at a number of West Coast ports in 2002 that caused an estimated $15 billion in losses.

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