Union blames
1 company for
dock pact delay

A Seattle stevedoring firm is
the roadblock, longshore union says

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By Simon Avery
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES >> The union representing West Coast port workers yesterday singled out one company as the "primary roadblock" to reaching a labor agreement after months of difficult negotiations.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said that Seattle-based Stevedoring Services of America is hampering progress with its "anti-union" stance, and said union members will march today on SSA facilities in Seattle and in California at Oakland and Long Beach.

"While most employers want to work with us to implement new technologies, SSA is undermining negotiations because their primary interest is breaking the union," ILWU President James Spinosa said in a news release.

About 10,500 full-time union members have been working without any form of contract since Sept. 1, when the sides stopped agreeing to 24-hour contract extensions. Any labor stoppage would be felt nationally, with more than $300 billion worth of imports and exports flowing through the 29 West Coast ports covered by the ILWU contract.

The ILWU also said that SSA, the largest terminal operator in the country, is unfairly using its weight to dominate and control the Pacific Maritime Association, which is negotiating the contract on behalf of the 87 shipping and stevedore companies it represents.

Ed DeNike, senior vice president of SSA, did not return calls yesterday, but the PMA issued a response to the union's claim, saying the association remains united in its approach to negotiations.

"Any attack on any company builds the board's resolve to reach its core objectives," said PMA spokesman Steve Sugerman.

A key issue in the talks since they began in May is how to modernize the waterfront so information flows more freely.

The two sides exchanged technology proposals last week, but yesterday, the PMA said the ILWU had not placed any realistic technology proposals on the table.

The ILWU says it's not against new technology, but it wants guarantees that positions created by technological advances are union covered.

"SSA wants to use the technology as a way to outsource the work that we do," said Steve Stallone, spokesman for the ILWU.

The union charges that SSA has already moved hundreds of jobs into new companies to avoid union contracts.

In one example, the ILWU said SSA moved marine clerk planning jobs to Salt Lake City several years ago to prevent the clerks from joining the union.

The union also said the PMA was not paying enough attention to rising injury and death rates at the ports. Five ILWU members have been killed this year at West Coast ports, compared with none last year, one in 2000 and four in both 1999 and 1998.

"We are getting tired of their callous attitude that is more concerned with the bottom line than the safety of workers," said Stallone.

Accidents are on the rise because there is too much congestion on the docks and workers can't see what's going on, he said.

Sugerman said the PMA is concerned about the safety of workers and said adopting newer technology would reduce congestion and hazards at the ports.