ASSOCIATED PRESS The Republican capture of the U.S. Senate may put more pressure on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to settle its contract dispute with shipping companies.

Port talk dynamics
shift with election

---

By Justin Pritchard
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO >> Though contract talks between West Coast longshoremen and shipping companies appear to be progressing, the dynamics behind their clash shifted when Republicans retook the U.S. Senate.

The dispute that led to last month's 10-day shutdown of major Pacific ports has been politicized since bargaining began in May -- the dockworker's union being aligned with Democrats, the association representing shipping lines with Republicans.

"There's no question that the election of a Republican Senate on Tuesday has got to figure into the strategic thinking of both parties," said Peter Olney, a former ILWU organizer now with the University of California, Berkeley's Institute for Labor and Employment. "It's an extremely perilous moment for the union."

When President Bush ordered the ports reopened last month, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union said it was political meddling -- and promptly marshaled Democratic lawmakers to help press its case. When the union's Democratic protectors lost their tenuous hold on the Senate, what changed?

In the short term, the Pacific Maritime Association has more bargaining power, Olney said, because for the first contract talks in a decade, the White House is Republican -- and now there's no Democratic control in Congress.

But shipping lines may not need that backup: both sides have projected optimism since a breakthrough in talks last week. Federal mediator Peter Hurtgen has until Dec. 26 to secure an agreement, though on Tuesday he recessed talks until Nov. 13.

Yesterday, spokesmen for both dockworkers and shipping companies downplayed the election results and said all they wanted was a fair contract.

Progress at the bargaining table has proven a good tonic. After initially chastising the union, Justice Department prosecutors have apparently done little about shipping company claims that the 10,500-member union has illegally slowed the pace of work.

Though it was the association that locked out longshoremen, the union has attracted the attention of GOP lawmakers who may submit legislation challenging its control over every major West Coast port -- the main source of its bargaining prowess.