SAN FRANCISCO >> West Coast union dock workers have postponed high-stakes contract talks until Aug. 13 and granted their negotiating committee authority to call a strike vote, union officials and port employers said yesterday. West Coast port
contract talks put off
for 3 weeksThe dock workers union
has authorized a strike voteStaff and wire reports
The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents port employers, urged the union to return to the bargaining table immediately to craft a new contract for workers on docks that handle half of all U.S. trade.
"We are disappointed and dismayed with the union's twin actions, suspending talks and delegating strike authority," the association's president Joseph Miniace said in a statement. "The delegation of authority to call a strike is a threat to an already fragile economy."
The talks between the port employers and the International Longshore & Warehouse Union - one of the most powerful and well-paid in the nation - have been slow-going since July 1, when the longshoremen's last contract expired.
A West Coast dock strike could have disastrous implications for Hawaii, which gets most of its goods by sea from the mainland. So could a work stoppage or slowdown on the Hawaii docks
A new contract also is being negotiated for about 480 dockworkers in Hawaii. But the ILWU in Hawaii traditionally waits out the West Coast negotiations before getting serious about a local contract.
Hawaii's ILWU and the shippers' management group, the Hawaii Employers Council, have had some meetings but reached no conclusions. Their officials were not immediately available for comment but so far there has been no slowdown.
A spokesman for the union on the West Coast, which has been working on day-to-day contracts to keep open the ports running, said the three-week delay was needed to give its negotiators a break to see their families and to check in with rank and file members.
The ILWU's Steve Stallone added the decision to give permission for a strike vote did not mean that a shutdown of the docks that handle $260 billion in goods each year was imminent.
"Talks are not going well but this is not a reaction to anything that is going on in the talks," said union spokesman Steve Stallone. "People are burned out and they need a little time off."
Negotiations have stalled mainly over how to implement new technology, something dockworkers fear will lead to outsourcing of jobs to nonunion workers, but a step employers say will increase the profitability and competitiveness of the ports.
Despite proposals from both sides, no offer has broken the impasse. Union delegates this week voted unanimously against the association's latest offer, which port employers said would have boosted overall compensation by 17 percent over five years.
The union, which had earlier offered employers the ability to computerize the docks in exchange for union control of all remaining jobs as well as future ones created through technology, said the latest package included health care cuts as well as negligible wage and pension increases.
While both sides say neither a strike nor lockout is on the horizon, any shutdown of the West Coast docks could threaten a fragile U.S. economy. The last time union workers struck was in 1971 when longshoremen walked off the job for four months.
But economists warn that even short closures of ports serving Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle and other cities could cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars and roil international financial markets.